Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2015

January 2015 marked the third annual Florabundance Inspirational Design Days here in Santa Barbara, California. We were thrilled to invite floral designers from across America, Canada and Australia to the conference this year!
This year we started off the conference with a welcome breakfast which took place at our headquarters in Carpinteria. The designers were treated to a preview of all the flowers which they’ll be designing with in the coming days + a demonstration by Shannon of Flourish on how to enhance the colors on flowers using Design Master Paints.

After the welcome breakfast everyone climbs onboard buses to be transported to the beautiful gardens of Lotusland, located in Montecito, California. The next 2 1/2 days will be spent on the amazing, lush grounds of Lotusland – where the designers will learn design techniques from Amy Merrick, Amy Osaba, Sarah Winward, Holly Chapple, Francoise Weeks, and Tricia Saroya. Plus, Alicia Schwede of Flirty Fleurs will give a talk about the latest in Social Media. We were thrilled to have Kim Wiseley of Flutter Magazine present to plan and coordinate all photoshoots.

The first design session of the conference was taught by Holly Chapple, she shared how to design loosely styled floral bouquets.

Tuesday morning started with two design sessions which were taught by Amy Merrick and Sarah Winward. The designers got to try their hands at two versions of the compote floral design.

Here are the designs by Amy Merrick –

Sarah Winward shares her thoughts on loose floral designing –

Tuesday afternoon we switched gears away from loose compotes and were treated to a fantastic demonstration by Francoise Weeks. Francoise instructed students on how to create woodland inspired centerpieces –

Wednesday morning the designers reconvened at Lotusland and started the day off with a design session led by Amy Osaba. Amy shared with us how to create one of her loose and lush bridal bouquets –

The afternoon session saw a Bold and Bright color palette, and a session on creating tablescapes which was lead by Tricia Saroya –

Since so many of the designers attending Florabundance Inspirational Design Days fly in from other states, and other countries, they are unable to take all the lovely flowers home with them. Of course, we want these flowers to be enjoyed by people for days to come so we share them with The Dream Foundation. The Dream Foundation will go on to redistribute all these flowers to hospitals and nursing care homes in the Santa Barbara area –

Alas, another Florabundance Inspirational Design Days Event comes to an end. We close out the three days of floral design fun with a joyful farewell party –

Would you like to join in on the fun next time?
Stay tuned, the details for Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2016 will be released soon!!

We would like to thank the following photographers for the lovely images displayed in this post:
KT Merry
Lacie Hansen Photography
Mary Jane Photography
Megan Sorel Photography
David Kessler AIFD

Thank to our suppliers and sponsors for Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2015-
Alexandra Farms
David Austin Roses
Smithers Oasis
Fedex
Classic Party Rentals, Santa Barbara
Rincon Events Catering
Syndicate Sales
Design Master
Holex, Holland
Agrinag
Choice Farms
Eufloria
Green Valley
Myriad Roses
Ocean View Flowers
Pyramid Flowers
Qualisa
Resendez Brothers
Wafex