Swish Loves This!

The Made with Love Project by Mimosa Flower Studio

Filed Under» Swish Loves This!, Wedding Cinematography, Wedding Flowers

We’re excited to share the latest short film project by Mimosa Flower Studio ... they’re calling it The *Made with Love* Project!

From Mimosa Flower Studio ... “While we were dreaming this all up, we became focused on some specific words and phrases such as ... ‘local’, ‘heirloom’, ‘hand-made’, ‘authentic’, ‘community’, ‘nature’, ‘living in the moment’ ... we followed our heart and really let these words become our mantra to guide us through this project.”

“On most creative projects like this one, many, many hours are spent crafting a space to perfection so as to be pristinely captured for publication and then, quicker than it went up, it’s all torn down and packed away and everyone runs back to their busy lives! There’s something that just feels wrong about that ... so, this time around, we felt it was really important that those involved get to enjoy the fruits of our labour and share the joy of the moment! So, at the end of day with all of our hard work behind us, we invited a few friends to join us as we sat down for dinner + drinks!”

If you like this short film, you’ll LOVE the photos .. check ‘em out here!

Tags: Niagara on the Lake Wedding Flowers, Niagara Wedding Cinematographer, Niagara Wedding Flowers, Niagara Wedding and Event Décor, Mimosa Flower Studio

Featured Vendor Profiles

Mimosa Flower Studio ... Inspirational Short FIlm

Filed Under» Featured Vendor Profiles, Swish Loves This!, Wedding Flowers

We’re loving this inspirational short film produced by the uber talented Niagara wedding florist team at Mimosa Flower Studio ... one of our recommended Swish List wedding vendors.

Shot on location around Niagara’s prolific and stunning wine region, the crew at Mimosa Flower Studio spent three days producing a suite of five different 'scenes' to inspire and excite you about all the dreamy possibilities for your wedding ... we're over the moon to be able to share them with you!

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Concept & Production: Jennifer Elliotson of Mimosa Flower Studio.
Floral Design & Installation: Jennifer Elliotson, Heidi Taylor, Helen Bang of Mimosa Flower Studio.

Photography & Models: Nataschia Wielink Photo + Cinema / Bride’s Wardrobe: Anthropologie, About a Bride
Groom’s Attire: RW & Co. / Hair & Makeup: ALLURE Hair and Makeup
Linens & Chiavari Chairs: Simply Beautiful Decor / Location: Stone Mill Inn
Cinematography: Enns Visuals / Print Design: Mark Elliotson
Macarons: Bobbette & Belle Artisanal Pastries

Tags: Niagara Winery Wedding, Niagara Wine Country Wedding, Niagara Wedding, Niagara Wedding Florist, Niagara Wedding Flowers

Wedding Flowers

Niagara Winery Wedding

Filed Under» Wedding Flowers, Wedding Photography, Real Weddings

A vineyard wedding in Niagara is without question always a stunning affair and this Niagara winery wedding is exactly one of those beautiful celebrations that we can dream about all day long!

Featuring three of our Swish List recommended vendors, this was an especially exceptional wedding day. With photography by Nataschia Wielink Photo + Cinema, fabulous wedding flowers by Mimosa Flower Studio and hosted at the absolutely amazing Vineland Estates Winery … it’s filled to the brim with tantalizing touches.

Gorgeous green and blush palette, amazing winery setting, a seriously sweet couple … what’s not to love?!?!

Wedding Venue: Vineland Estates Winery
Wedding Flowers: Mimosa Flower Studio
Wedding Photography: Nataschia Wielink Photo + Cinema

Tags: Niagara Winery Wedding, Niagara wedding venues, Niagara Wedding Photographer, Vineland Estates Winery, Niagara vineyard weddings, Niagara Wedding Florist, Nataschia Wielink Photo + Cinema, Mimosa Flower Studio

Featured Vendor Profiles

Mimosa Flower Studio - Niagara Wedding Florist

Filed Under» Featured Vendor Profiles, Wedding Flowers

The Swish List recently visited with the lovely and über talented Jennifer Elliotson, owner of Mimosa Flower Studio, Niagara’s award-winning boutique floral design studio specializing exclusively in flowers for weddings and events.

Where do you go for inspiration?
Fashion, social trends … my own imagination!

Give us three words that best describe your work/design style.
Evolving. Organic. Fresh.

Tell us more about your design ethos.
I feel a deep sense of respect for nature’s beauty and intelligent creation. That’s why we always handle our flowers with respect and integrity – allowing their inherent natural beauty to shine through in our designs! We will never use any artificial, unnatural or dyed product in our work. It’s our guiding principle to keep things as authentic as possible in terms of look, product selection and design style.

What is your specialty?
Aside from the design end of things, we are very good at getting to the heart of the client’s vision… to decipher the best way to express their personality through the flowers. We are artists who take pride in creating specifically for our clients ... to produce just exactly what it is that makes them gasp and say, “That’s it! That’s us!”.

What makes your work stand out from the crowd?
I’m extremely proud of that fact that our work is instantly recognizable and that we’re continually putting out designs that connect so deeply with our clients and their guests! We’ve been told that our finished pieces look almost as if we’d just plucked them out of some magical garden ... fully assembled and ready to go! I love that!!!

I believe it’s our combination of unique ingredients, a commitment to using only natural products, the visual artistry of our designers and attention to detail that really sets us apart.

What is the consultation/creative process with your clients?
I absolutely love bringing ideas to life! Typically, we start with a fabric swatch or maybe some pictures. Frequently clients will reference images from our blog or website. Once we’ve defined a ‘vision’ for the day, our clients generally give us creative freedom … that is when we do our best work!

What advice would you give to clients investigating your services?
If you’ve seen our work and really connect with what we do and what we’re about, then trust us to walk you through the process … don’t stress it! This should be fun! As a rule, we creative types do our best work when our clients trust us enough to let us do what we do best!

What scenario brings out the best in your work?
My favourite events are the ones that have a clear vision for design with a focus on the season. I love to source local flowers and products – that’s one of the great benefits of being located in such a rich agricultural territory like Niagara!

Have you been ‘Going Green’? How?
I like to think that we’ve always been ‘green’! We regularly compost plant material, recycle all paper and plastic, as well as re-use and/or return packaging materials to our suppliers. We source local product whenever possible to help cut down on transportation, shipping and packaging. We even source seasonal flowers and foliage from our own organic cutting gardens!

What are you most passionate about in life?
Beauty. I see beauty in nature. The centre of an orchid, the twist of a branch, the way a garden rose opens. So much natural, organic beauty surrounds us daily, but there’s so much ‘noise’ in the world we just don’t take enough notice of the details anymore!

Talk about trends for the season
I love to see people putting more emphasis and effort into the more thoughtful aspects of their wedding … rethinking tradition and coming up with their own ideas and interpretations. It’s also been nice to see the individual focus of recent years turning into a more generous outlook on the quality and atmosphere of the party as a gift to their guests for joining in the celebration!

What do you think is drawing increasing numbers of weddings to Niagara?
I think that people are drawn to Niagara because it feels like you’re in a different world and yet you haven’t traveled all that far from the city. It’s refreshing and soothing. I think that people really need a place like Niagara … a respite from the daily grind where you can savour the food and wine from the local farm and enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds you. It’s a bit of an escape, really. Easy to get to, but hard to leave!

Tags: Swish List Member, Jennifer Elliotson, Niagara Wedding Flowers, Mimosa Flower Studio

Wedding Flowers

5 Ways to ‘Greener’ Niagara Wedding Flowers

Filed Under» Wedding Flowers

Rent where possible
Most florists offer a choice to rent or buy your centrepiece containers. Depending on the design of the piece and it’s intended use, rental is often an acceptable option. Not only will you save some cash (which you can put toward more fabulous floral pieces!), but you are not going to be stuck trashing 20 containers in the venue dumpster after your wedding! Plus, the florist won’t have to purchase new containers for each wedding, thereby reducing their carbon footprint on things like shipping and manufacturing.

Composting
It doesn’t hurt to ask your florist if their leftover plant material goes to compost. Or what about your reception venue? Do they compost any leftover flowers your guests haven’t taken? You might even arrange to have the venue re-use any unclaimed flowers and display them throughout the venue!

If your florist doesn’t do so already, urge them to consider recycling their packaging and composting their excess materials.

Choose in season blooms
Truthfully, you can get just about any bloom at any time of the year ... but first consider the cost to the environment! Choosing ‘in season’ or ‘locally grown’ flowers and foliages helps to reduce the global impact on climate change by reducing shipping distances. Locally grown plant materials are usually much less expensive and, naturally, fresher and more vibrant than those that travel great distances!

You might love Amaryllis for your August wedding, but they are not growing anywhere near Niagara that time of year! Importing flowers from across North America still causes much less damage than imports from Europe, South America or New Zealand.

Double-Duty
Plan to re-use as many pieces as possible from your ceremony to your reception. Things like altar arrangements, unity candle arrangements, pew decor, etc. can usually be engineered by your florist to be ‘multi-purpose’. Any full-service vendor will have no problems transporting these pieces between the church and venue!!

Offset the carbon footprint of your wedding
Educate yourself on carbon offset credits and estimate your wedding’s carbon footprint, then purchase enough offset credits to to cover the carbon footprint of your wedding! A great way to give back to the earth.

P.S.>> Check out the Flowers for Food Composting Program in Vancouver ... an innovative idea!

Tags: Green Wedding, Wedding Flowers

Wedding Flowers

Kathy and Dave

Filed Under» Wedding Flowers, Real Weddings

Nothing brightens up a November Niagara wedding quite like these pink bridal bouquets created by the uber talented Jennifer at Mimosa Flower Studio. We love the dramatic colour palette of this wedding!

Kathy and Dave were married in the afternoon and invited their guests to a dinner reception at a local golf course and winery. In between the “I do” and dinner, pictures were taken in downtown St. Catharines and at Decew Falls.

Things we love about their wedding - the classic black bridesmaids dresses bought off the rack at RW&Co. (great find!), the feather in Kathy’s hair and the twirling little flower girl, Kate. So cute!