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Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2017

Florabundance Design Days 2017 - Welcome Sign

 
The fifth annual Florabundance Inspirational Design Days took place January 8-11, 2017 at the beautiful LotusLand Gardens in Montecito, California.

Attendees were treated to three full days of floral design classes and an amazing assortment of flowers with which to create their flower arrangements. Five world-renowned floral designers gave demonstrations; Ariella Chezar, Hitomi Gilliam AIFD, Francoise Weeks, Holly Chapple, and Amy Osaba.

In addition to the headlining floral designers who taught hands-on design sessions we also had a variety of other speakers. Jodi Duncan AIFD shared how to work with Design Master, Emily Carter shared her event floral planning program Lobiloo, Gayle Smith shared how to use Chrysal in the care & handling of flowers, David & Leanne Kessler shared how to use Facebook Live, and I, Alicia Schwede of Flirty Fleurs, gave a talk about what’s new in Instagram.

All the photographs in this blog post were taken by Lerina Winter of Winter Creative Co. and Sarah Colliers of Taken By Sarah Photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2017 - Jodi Duncan AIFD
Jodi Duncan AIFD demonstrates how to use Design Master paints.
Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2017 - Gayle Smith of Chrysal
Gayle Smith talks about how to use Chrysal products in the care and handling of fresh flowers.

 

Amy Osaba was the first floral designer to present at FDD this year and she demonstrated how to create a bridal bouquet-

 

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - Amy Osaba leads a design session featuring a bridal bouquet
Amy demonstrating how to create a bridal bouquet
Florabundance Inspirational Design Days -  bridal bouquet designed by Amy Osaba
Bouquet designed by Amy Osaba
Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - a selection of flowers available from Florabundance
A snippet of the beautiful flowers that the attendees got select from to create their bridal bouquets
Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - attendees select from a plethora of flowers to create their bouquets
Ladies selecting from a plethora of flowers to create their bridal bouquets

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days -  ladies designing bouquets

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days -  ladies designing bouquets

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days -  ladies designing bouquets
Shawn and Alex share a laugh as they create bridal bouquets
Florabundance Inspirational Design Days -  bridal bouquet designed by  Lorelle Boak of Banff Flower Girl
Bouquet designed by Lorelle Boak of Banff Flower Girl

 

Holly Chapple started off Tuesday morning jumping right into creating a large tablescape where all the designers were able to contribute their own touches. It was a fast paced morning and was fun to watch all the attendees participate in creating this design!

 

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - Design Session with Holly Chapple where attendees created a lush tablescape
The completed tablescape

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - Design Session with Holly Chapple where attendees created a lush tablescape

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - Design Session with Holly Chapple where attendees created a lush tablescape

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days - Design Session with Holly Chapple where attendees created a lush tablescape
Holly Chapple

 

After Holly’s morning design session and before our lunch break we were given a tour of Lotusland Gardens. There are so many words to describe these gardens – magical, one of a kind, unique, amazing .. just to name a few! The attendees were broken into small groups and headed out with docents to tour the 37 acres. Here are a few shots of what we saw-

 

Lotusland Gardens in Montecito, California. Photograph by Lerina Winter

Cactus Gardens at Lotusland Gardens, Montecito, California. Photo by Taken by Sarah

Cactus Gardens at Lotusland Gardens, Montecito, California. Photo by Taken by Sarah

 

After our lunch break we entered the afternoon design session with Ariella Chezar. Oh, I should mention that each breakfast and lunch was catered by Rincon Events, and they do an absolutely wonderful presentation.

 

Florabundance Design Days 2017 - Ariella Chezar - Floral Design Workshop

 

On our third morning of conference we moved over to the Rincon Beach Club. This last inspiring day began with a demonstration by Francoise Weeks. Francoise worked with attendees on creating bridal bouquets which featured the most detailed tid-bits.

 

Florabundance Design Days - Francoise Weeks

 

After an enjoyable lunch we headed back into the tent where Hitomi Gilliam finished off the three day event with a fantastic demonstration packed with clever mechanical information! You can see in the photos below that Joost got in on the action, I’m not exactly sure what they are working on but I know it involved a drill & yarn!

 

Florabundance Design Days - Hitomi Gilliam

 

Here’s the whole crew at Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2017, at Lotusland Gardens in Montecito, California –

Florabundance Inspirational Design Days 2017

 

This blog post is brought to you by Alicia Schwede of Flirty Fleurs Flower Blog. OH, I should mention that I did give a presentation on using Instagram for building up your online presence. I am happy to say that this was my 5th Florabundance Design Days and each year it is a fantastic event. The perfect way to celebrate the beginning of a new year! I do hope you mark your calendar to attend this awesome event next year — January 14-17, 2018 to join in on the fun!!

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Registration for the 2018 Florabundance Design Days will open soon. Our designevent will be January 15-17 2018 in Santa Barbara Ca. Confirmed presenters & designers are: Hitomi Gilliam AIFD, Alicia & Adam of Bows & Arrows, Kiana Underwood of Tulipina Design, Holly Heider Chapple Brian Watson of Myrtie Blue, Alicia Schwede & Sarah Collier of Taken By Sarah and Lerina Winters.

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