Olla Urban Flower Project

It was a wet January day that I visited Olla Flowers to learn more about  this new florist on the edge of Gastown.  I was well rewarded for my visit and discovered much about the Flower Project that has very strong ties to the community around it.

The store sits in a very beautiful building at 235 Cambie Street with large windows and brick walls.  Everything I saw was for sale and the unique arrangements came in modern and vintage planters. From gorgeous terrariums to fair trade roses and flowers sourced locally,  Olla was alive with colour.

Megan Branson and Dionne Finch are set on urbanizing flower production and working with social enterprises through work with DTES community gardens, local flower lovers and even backyard growers.  They came to this new enterprise through their love of design and landscaping. One of their goals is to ‘bring the outside in’.

Their work within the community includes working with mature gardens for flower cultivation, working with individuals with land available to host a garden and share the crop, hiring locally and purchasing flowers grown in community gardens and then sharing the bounty from corporate events, such as work with Amnesty International with non-profits in the DTES.

For weddings they have everything an engaged couple would need.  Olla Flower Project promotes living wedding favours and centrepieces.  The creative skills of Megan and Dionne can create stunning bouquets and floral displays.  Their living arrangements can be purchased or rented for the big day.

Manifesto for Horticultural Wedding Design

“We are convinced that the bounding vibrancy and evolved design of living plants be at the center of wedding decor. We offer a pair of flowering viburnum bodnantense with an underplanting of snow drops to frame your winter vows, flowering lilac trees in spring, mixed perennial grasses with wild flowers in summer, and berry shrubs heavy with fruit for autumnal nuptials. These living containers will act as metaphors for the sustained love being celebrated. 

 

We support a wedding design movement that celebrates humans’ relationship to the plant world and gifts its clients with beautiful plants that will continue to grow and thrive long after the last dance draws to an end.”
 Olla Urban Flower Project

 

I was very grateful for the opportunity to spend an afternoon wandering the store and learning so much about this unique new florist hub.  This spring will find the shop blooming with new ideas and work in the community.  Megan and Dionne have (no pun intended)  their roots well planted in this neighbourhood and as they expand so will the gardening community around them.

Olla Flowers will be an exhibitor at The Grassroots Wedding Fair on February 12 at Heritage Hall.

Shona Dion

photography by sweet earth photographics

Vintage Bride or Groom

Picking out that perfect wedding outfit can be an exciting experience or an overwhelming one.  Today engaged couples have many options.  If walking into a bridal gallery is not in the cards then perhaps look to the most greenest option of all.

Vintage stores abound in the Lower Mainland, but some stand out from the others.  Woo Vintage at 4333 Main Street, is a vintage store that is unique in its mission to bring back amazing finds.  Not only can you find such goodies, all items are very well taken care of, cleaned, mended and even reworked.  The store is a treasure trove of vintage clothing from the 1920′s on. 

What is most impressive though, is the store’s owner, Natalie.  Her knowledge of clothing styles, accessories, details from every era, and her passion for finding such treasures is remarkable.  I spent some time with her in her store and came out with a greater understanding of fashion from the last 80 years.

Woo Vintage has an extensive wedding attire collection.  For the women the dresses come in almost any decade, although those from the 1950′s on are the more popular.  It does not stop at dresses though.  Gloves, stoles, shoes, opera coats, gorgeous hats and birdcage veils, and whimsies galore can also be found.

1953 Wedding Dress

For the men there are many options.  Natalie has suits and what I found even more exciting is that she is also has a collection of tux dress shirts rescued from decades ago and in perfect condition.  Natalie also has many cumberbunds, collars, studs, ties of all shapes and sizes and pocket squares.

Same sex couples can also find treasures here as men’s suit from earlier eras tend to fit smaller.  Why rent a tuxedo from a men’s rental store when you can own an original? 

1930′s button up suit

Natalie keeps track of the trends.  Brides come in looking for vintage jewelry to make unique handmade bouquets. Using grandma’s old jewelry and  a few extra pieces found at Woo they can create stunning and very modern  wedding accessories.

A trip to Woo is well worth it.  Let Natalie lead you through her lovely store and share her knowledge with you.   Her staff are well versed in alterations so come down for a fitting and add some flare to your wedding.

 

Shona Dion, photos by sweet earth photographics

Eco Friendly Bridal Jewelry by ecocessories

ecocessories is an eco-friendly jewelry design company, and your source for one-of-a-kind sterling silver & recycled bead bridal jewelry. If you are looking for gifts for your bridal party, mother of the bride, or mother of the groom, together we can custom design a set of jewelry that will reflect your eco-chic style on your wedding day!

 My name is Jessica, and I am the designer behind all of my sterling silver & recycled bead designs. All of my recycled beads are sourced from my jewelry recycling service . I take in old, broken, or unwanted jewelry and disassemble the pieces to salvage the recycled beads and vintage components. All the recycled beads are cleaned and then sorted by colour in my Gastown, Vancouver, B.C. studio space to serve as inspiration for my new designs.

 Maybe you would like to set up an appointment to choose recycled beads that will match your bridal colours? Perhaps you have a cherished necklace from your mother, or some funky beads that you have pre-selected and want made into your bridesmaids’ jewelry? You may even have grandma’s old vintage clip-on earrings that you’d like reinvented into a stylish, eco-glamorous pendant for your wedding day. Whatever the case, I’d love to work with you to outfit the ladies in your wedding with eco-friendly jewelry for your special day.

 On January 30, 2010 ecocessories will have a table at the Grassroots Wedding Fair with a sampling of eco-friendly bridal bracelet sets, necklace sets, and other one-of-a-kind designs. Stop by to arrange an appointment for your custom eco-friendly bridal jewelry!

Eco Chic Local Wedding

I chatted to Carrie Wheeler of Eco Chic Media Group this weekend at The Green Christmas Market.  We talked about the upcoming wedding fair and the need for green weddings to expand.  She gave me permission to reprint an article she wrote for the Eco Chic International website. 

Thank you Carrie for sharing your story!

“When my fiance and I decided to get married, my mind wandered off to the wedding of every little girl’s dreams! However, since we didn’t have access to a castle in Europe, (not yet, anyway), we decided to be a bit more practical and actually put our Eco Chicness to the test. It was way easier than even I thought possible to reduce the impact of our I Do’s on the earth.

Engagement notices went out via email instead of the traditional snail mail, saving paper, transportation (and $$), yet still getting out the message that we were going to get hitched. The ceremony and reception invitations that we did send out not only proclaimed our love, but were also hand-made with love from rose-pressed paper, printed locally and mailed in post-consumer recycled envelopes. Replacing RSVP cards was an email address.

We scoured the city looking for vintage, estate wedding bands that individually “spoke to us”, reducing (if even just a little bit) the impact of the mining industry on our earth and animal habitat. I now proudly show off my unique French filigree 14k gold wedding band found at the Shaunessy Antique Gallery on South Granville to everyone, whether they ask to see it or not.

The flower arrangements and boutonnieres were purchased from Divine Vines, a boutique floral design store supporting local, organic growers. It was important for us to keep decorations, rentals (and transportation of said rentals) to a bare minimum, so we opted to have both our ceremony and reception in ready-made venues. We chose the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s T.K. Gallery for our ceremony, with natural sun-light, beautiful artwork and old-world maps adorning the walls. Being that the museum is set in Vanier Park and on the edge of Kitsilano Beach, we needed only take a few steps for our formal wedding photos.

Our favourite restaurant and wine room, Umberto’s Il Giardino, with its natural, yet elegant decor leaving us nothing for want, hosted both our a la carte dinner and champagne reception, (no food wasted from a buffet or unwanted items left on your plate). As in any good Italian home, Il Giardino prides itself on meals always made from the freshest of ingredients. “If it is harvested today, it is eaten today” is their motto. At the end of the evening, our guests left with our personalized, printed in Vancouver, share and blossom plantable favour, a modern, eco-friendly favour that grows wildflowers, providing our honoured guests with a blooming memento of our special day. “

~ Carrie Wheeler