Bohemian Bridal Brunch

Teaming up with 'Cause We Can Events and Dish Wish again for what is one of our favorite shoots yet!

This week's theme was an inspired Bohemian bridal brunch, with lots of color, feathers, cute candle decor, and of course fabulous dishes. What I love about these dishes is you can rent them for whatever occasion you have, and you don't have to buy and store all these sets of china, someone else does it for you! That way you can entertain with so many different styles and be super creative, mixing and matching whichever pleases you.

For the flowers, I used bright colors of orange and bright pinks (pin cushion, orchids, blooming seeded eucalyptus, and a beautiful garden rose that had yellow centers lined with red fringe), contrasted with deep purple carnations and brown feathers, and it really helped the table pop.
More photos on my website Brie's Honeybees & Flowers.

For the vase, I repurposed a metalic lined candle holder--an eco-chic feature we always like to include in our designs in some way. And with a few extra blooms, I made a head piece for the bride--because who doesn't love wearing beautiful flowers.

The beautiful photos were taken by Alissa Noelle Photography.

Winter Whites For The Holidays

My favorite way to decorate for the holidays is playing up the all white theme. I'm always looking for new ways to decorate my home with anything white for the holidays be it on my mantle, my Christmas tree, candles, and table spreads. There is something so clean, crisp, but mostly modern and chic about it that some how could easily come off as stark if done poorly, but extremely warm and inviting if done well.

With the collaboration of Stylist, Gabby Norton of 'Cause We Can Events, photographer Jeannie Mutrais, dishes from Dish Wish Events, and myself with flowers from Brie's Honeybees & Flowers, we put together some ideas for the holidays coming up that are white, chic, and a bit modern, but I think very inviting.

Boudior Photo Shoot, "Springtime in Paris"

Brides often want to plan a gift for their husbands-to-be, and trending right now is the boudoir photo shoot. In a private shoot, you can take some sexy photos, or even just some really beautiful shots of your shoes, ring, and special pieces before the hustle and bustle of your big day. It's a day to get pampered with hair and make up done for you, and dress up in this shoot. And when it is French themed you get to eat wonderful French foods as well.

I was happy to able to provide flowers for this shoot, so am just posting some of those in this blog post. We chose the color scheme to be peaches, pinks, and whites. If you are interested in booking yours, this package is available through Chloe Moore Photography.

 Here are a few shots taken at the Boudior shoot, themed, "Spring Time in Paris."

If you are throwing an event and interested in this style of flowers or otherwise, please contact me directly: briewalter [at] icloud [dot] com

You can visit my website to see more floral work at brieshoneybeesandflowers.com

 Make up done by: Nicol Artistry
Design by: Gabby Norton, of 'Cause We Can Events
Photos by Chloe Moore Photography

A Few Pretties For a Dinner Party...

Some work I did recently for a dinner party.

Flowers & Bees Just Go Together

We moved our beehive recently. They now live on a 30 acre lot, hosted by a family who graciously offered their home to us when we were needing a space to keep them with our recent move.

They sit amongst beautiful flowers and trees, and have a lake to drink from. It's the most bee friendly space I've seen, and I thought we were pretty great to them in our yard. If they weren't spoiled before, they should definitely feel the love now.

The study of bees is an incredible journey. It's so wonderful to be part of something so massively larger than us and to be doing our part to help save the bee populations, and as a by product saving our food source.

It seems like pretty old news that there is a problem with bees vanishing due to pesticides that screw up their gps to make their way back to the hive after foraging, and brings about illnesses for them, as any poisons would for an individual. I think it's also pretty well known by now that about 1/3 of what we eat is a direct result of these pollinators, so if they were to disappear completely, our cycle of food and diets would immensely be changed. In fact, I'll take it a step further and say that if you follow Michael Pollan's guide in his book, "In Defense of Food," where he highly encourages most of one's diet to be fruits and veggies, I'd estimate more than 1/3 of your diet is impressed upon directly due to these little pollinators.

But I'm always in awe when I encounter knowledge of more experienced beeks (as we often call beekeepers in this little community). I had no idea how democratic the hive can be, but learned recently that when a hive is about to swarm, or move locations, they send out a few bees to check on options. Those bees then come back to the hive and share their findings, and then the bees VOTE on where they would like to move. Yes, someone has studied these little bees and their waggle dance to learn down the minute where they are in their voting process and can tell you by their body language and little dances how many minutes until the hive will be relocating and in which direction they will fly off to get there. It's incredible.

We have to save the bees!

Even if you can't have a hive, you can do research on planting some of the bees favorite foraging flowers. Just having a bit of water out and some pollen friendly flowers is a small way you can help this cause. And please, don't use pesticides. 

P.S. Borage is a bee favorite.

Below is a photo of our hive in their new home.

The string of bees to the left is them festooning, which means they are in the process of making comb by stringing wax together.

Our friend Larry helped, and is learning beekeeping by helping observe our hive.

The thing about bees, is making sure they have plenty to forage, and this time of year there are so many beautiful blooms in bounty that I made some flower arrangements for our host family since they are moving into their new house soon. All of these beautiful flowers were hand picked from their garden. Look at those dahlias!

Beeswax Candles!

Did you know that beeswax candles clean the air when burned?

Beeswax candles are unique to other types of waxes in that when burned they actually emit negative ions that help clean the air. Their mild, sweet, honey smell make for a nice natural aroma, so other scents aren't a necessary addition. And they have a nice, natural golden color, which can vary per batch due to the natural state of extraction, which I think gives it charm.

How do they clean they air exactly? Well, the negative ions emitted from the candles neutralize the positive ions in the air, suck them into the flame and drop the particles to the ground. This is why it is often good for allergies, hay fever and asthma.

Another benefit, is that hand rolled beeswax doesn't drip! So, you don't have to worry about it getting messy while they burn.

Paraffin candles are a by product of petroleum, which are believed to release toxins into the air, and soy is often a gmo product that was sprayed with chemicals, which is then in the product of candles made of soy. When burning beeswax candles that are known to be pesticide free, you can know that you are not only helping clean the air you breath, but you are being more earth friendly, while still enjoying candle light.

Up in the Etsy store you can buy some varieties of beeswax candles from us. They are great wedding or shower favors, home decor, or housewarming gifts!

Here are some photos of a sampling of what you will find and more!

Photos by Justin Lucarelli http://lucarelliphotography.com

Collecting Pollen

Well, we moved our hive to our own backyard, and it is just feed outside of our bedroom. The bees are a bit stirred up from the move as they reorient themselves and reset their internal GPS systems.

As you can see from this video, the forager bees are bringing in a lot of pollen--you can see the orange dots (they look yellow in this video) on the back of their hind legs. This is a really good sign! It means we still have our queen bee and she is laying brood, so they are bringing in pollen to make food to feed the babes.

After a week goes by and gives them some time to acclimate, we will open the hive to take a look at the brood, and we will be moving their hive frames into a new box. We want them to be less agitated when we open up their home, which is why we are waiting a week to do so. Hopefully I will be able to take photos and post the job on here for you to see. But in the mean time, you can see lots of activity in this short clip.