The boutique is taking up a good amount of my time these days.  But that's not a bad thing, mostly because I've been trying my hardest to create and find event more vintage and recycled goodness that fills the heart and shares my design sense with customers and onlookers. I have been producing a few items for Valentine's Day that I will share with you shortly, but first, I'd like to show you a few of my latest Tillandsia Gardens in recycled glass bottles. I love Tillandsia, because I can tuck it in nifty places and wire it to things, and it adds such a natural flavor and great lines.  These little bottled guys are available in my shop and cost between 19 and 35 dollars, depending on the bottle and amount of plants.  These plants were grown not far from Fresno, although they are native to Central and South America.

They are really cute.  Because they are in a bottle, they need special care, but I can give you the shpeel when you come in or (soon) when you order them off the website. In Green and Health, G&G

Guest Blogging for The Knot's Green Wedding Blog

Here's an excerpt from my first post on that blog and some great pics: The Knot's Green Wedding Blog From the looks of things, Kelly and Mark's wedding was super elegant, but not without a lot of green and sustainable influence. I asked Kelly to tell us about the green decisions she made: The Gown "My dress was a sample gown from encorebridal.com. Instead of purchasing a brand new gown (and probably made of synthetic fibers in my price range), I was able to attain a somewhat used gown that had outlived its use for the showroom, but was great for me! I would highly recommend this to any bride looking for a designer gown on a budget. I really didn't care that it was used. In fact, I preferred it used because I was one less bride demanding the production of another gown. I will wear the gown only once, anyway. Floral and Event Design And finally, we had absolutely beautiful flowers and decorations! :) Finding sustainable flowers for the wedding was extremely important to me. As I began looking into floral designs, I started to wonder about these flowers that seemed so easy to obtain, though I knew that a lot of them were out of season. That snowballed into research on flower growing, labor involvement in other countries (South America particularly), pesticide use, the amount of fuel required to transport out of season flowers from a country in South America to a wedding in San Francisco. None of this made sense to me. To use so much fuel transporting flowers, chemical pesticides (that are not regulated in other countries) that put the environment and people at risk, just for my wedding, didn't sit well. I really hoped that the 'green movement' had already extended to florists, but it really hasn't yet, though its starting to, which is awesome. I was so happy to find Pilar online. I had talked to other florists who were willing to find organic and local flowers for me, but I really wanted to work with someone who was absolutely committed to the idea, not just a bride's wish. For eco-friendly flower design we use vases made of recycled glass for the centerpieces and large arrangements, locally grown flowers and greens, biodegradable ribbons made of cotton and hemp, we totally avoided floral foam, composted all leftovers, recycled and used rented and reusable vases and hurricanes.

Thanks again to Kelly for her great background about her wedding and to Lucie XYZ Photography for the great pics. Check out the whole blog for more of the story. In green and Health, G&G

Reusing Vintage Vases in Weddings and Events

I've started collecting vases for Gorgeous and Green customers interested in renting vintage collections of vases for their wedding or event.  It takes some time and dedication, but so far I have almost two collections ready to go and a couple in progress. Here is my current collection of white milk glass vases:

There are some really cool designs.  So far my favorite is the bubbled vase that actually doubles as a candle holder.

And my vintage green glass collection:

This collection is actually two-toned, a slightly brighter kelly green and a darker grass green.

My favorite is the long stemmed dish on the right, so delicate.

I have a huge collection of clear glass vases that I've been gathering from the last weddings I've done.  Although they aren't vintage, they will lower the price for customers and act as a truly sustainable way to add decor to their events.   I also just recently purchased some large vases that are made from recycled glass, which I plan to rent to customers.  Talk about a sustainable practice! Besides buying recycled and reused, I always go biodegradable.  Glass, rubber, wood or metal.  Never plastic.  It makes it a lot more difficult to find cool and updated styles on a budget.  But I hope by creating these vase collections, I can reduce the price for my customers by allowing them to rent. I've started a vintage red collection and a blue collection, but I'm finding it harder to get the really cool vase shapes in those colors.  Still looking... I hope to show you some pics when they're more complete. In green and reusability, G&G