The Rising Tide: Day 1

“A rising tide lifts all the boats.” The New England Council

For those of you that don’t know (like all my friends who think I just go to all these fun get-togethers), The Rising Tide Society is an educational community for creative entrepreneurs, focusing on community over competition. I am part of the West Michigan chapter and have met some seriously talented and kindred individuals.

Below is a picture from our most recent meeting (our philanthropy month) where we collected nonperishable items for HQ and colored lunch bags for kids food basket. Yes, I drew raindrops on the bag I am holding. Yes, the other bags I colored were just as simple/pathetic. I panicked and drew shapes.

Tuesdays Together

Well, tonight was the first evening of The Rising Tide Society Summit Series. We listened to three wonderful speakers and learned some powerful things about branding, building and blogging your business.

Jeff Goins (writer/author) challenged us to own what you do. He asked, “When does a writer become a writer? When he tells people he is one.”

Oh. Well, ok then. That was a lot easier than I thought. Go figure.

I am a: wedding planner + floral designer.

Ok, I’m also a fashion designer. Have you tried juggling two businesses? It’s hard work. Sometimes my head spins at the idea of having two blogs, two separate social media accounts, and I loose track of which business I’m working on or talking about.

One of the exercises for today was also introducing ourselves with 5 fun facts. I did this for both businesses. See? There goes my head spinning off…

Here are my fun facts + picture (for this business). If you want to read my fun facts for my fashion business, here’s that post.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner - Saugatuck wedding style shoot

1. I am a wedding planner + floral designer.
2. I also share my time with designing fashion for my clothing company.
3. I love to travel but there is really no place like home. When I find time to travel, often it’s to visit my family, who all live out West or in Asia.
4. I am an introvert + shy and I tend to be extremely private.
5. I have a deep love of flowers. When I need a break from life, I head outside and garden.

This image is from a style shoot I put together from this spring. I like it because it shows I can let loose and have fun while working. I think I let my serious side show most of the time, so people forget that I do laugh. The male model is also one of my friends. He, like the rest of my friends, family, and team, somehow put up with me. And my businesses.

DIY Holiday Porch Urn

“City sidewalks, busy sidewalks. Dressed in holiday style.”

The holidays really are my favorite time of the year. On any given day, from late November through Christmas, I can be seen dancing (and loudly singing) to Christmas music, drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate, and watching every holiday movie I can get my hands on. I happily hang every ornament, decorate the dining room table to the nines, and wrap presents for hours on end. I am one of those people who wander the streets of Grand Rapids, in search for the prettiest decorations. Yes, the holidays and I are the best of friends. Being a florist means that I’m even more eager to decorate the house with garlands of evergreens, wreaths on every door, and flowers on every surface. So with that said, let’s start with a little outside decorating.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Tools

What you’ll need:
• Cutters
• Urn or planter
• Dirt
• Red berries (2 branches)
• Feathery Grasses (5 long stems)
• Blue Spruce (1 medium branch)
• Ponderosa Pine (4 short branches)
• Balsam Fir (3 medium branches)
• Douglas Fir (4 long branches)
• Scotch Pine (2 short branches)
• Juniper (2 medium branches)
• Hemlock (4 long branches, 4 medium branches)

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Tools

A few notes:
Honestly, you can use any evergreen branches your heart desires. I like having different textures, colors, and lengths, but use what you like and what is available.

I tend to pick branches that are somewhat straight. If this was a floral arrangement, I would pick a handful of flower stems that were more whimsical, but straight evergreen branches tend to bend and go where they please. When I tried using a few branches that were whimsical, it made the whole arrangement look messy and like it had a seriously bad hair day. But that’s just my opinion.

Lastly, as you place the branches, you may find that a branch may need to be trimmed in order to not be the exact height as branches next to it. The key is to never have any branch be the exact same height as another branch.

Instructions:
1. Remove any foliage (needles or berries) from the bottom 2 inches of all the branches. Having these few inches of clean branch makes placing them in the dirt a lot easier.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 1

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 1

2. Fill your planter with dirt. I didn’t fill the planter all the way to the top because leaving a few inches allows the branches to lean against the planter and have some support.

You also don’t need to use a black plastic insert inside your planter. I use one when I want the cleanup to be super easy or when I need to switch out arrangements quickly.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 2

3. Take 1 – 2 of the douglas fir and place them in the dirt to the back right of your planter.

Take 1 long hemlock branch and place it with the douglas firs.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 3

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 3

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 3

4. Take 2 branches of your ponderosa pine and place them across from the douglas fir at the front left of the planter, hanging over the edge.

These two clusters (step 3 ) will help guide you in placing the other branches.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 4

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 4

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 4

5. Take 1 – 2 branches of the scotch pine and juniper and place in the empty spaces around the outer edge of the planter, hanging over the edge.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 5

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 5

6. Fill in the planter with any remaining evergreen branches (balsam fir, blue spruce, douglas fir, hemlock, etc). Keep in mind the asymmetry and the flow of the tall branches on the right to the shorter branches on the left. Always walk around your planter and look at it from all angles. Try not to create a “flat” arrangement” but instead a “round” one.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 6

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 6

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 6

7. Once you have placed all of your evergreen branches, take a few of the longest feathery grasses and place them near your first cluster of douglas fir (step 3). Then take the remaining few grasses, cut to any desired length, and place them throughout the arrangement

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 7

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 6

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 7

8. Take your berry branches and nestle them in amongst the evergreens.

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 8

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 8

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn - Step 8

9. Stand back and admire your work!

Grand Rapids Wedding Planner and Floral Designer - DIY Holiday Planter - Christmas evergreen and berry planter or urn