Black Lotus Design

Exquisite Weddings Cover

Sara — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 21:25:24 +0000

Thanks to all who voted for my August couple, Conni & Clint, for the cover of Exquisite Weddings Magazine! THEY WON!!! This gorgeous shot from Photographs by Anjuli is the winner for the first ever Exquisite Cover Contest. Friends and fans alike voted for their favorite cover. See other lovely entries here! The issue will be on newsstands on April 7, 2012, so you can check out my stylish bride & groom & my vibrant orange bouquet on the cover! Congrats to everyone involved!

Style Me Pretty!!!

Sara — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:21:15 +0000

I am so very honored to have my work featured today on Style Me Pretty, one of the top wedding websites. If you’re not already, get familiar! It is so full of inspiration, talent and beauty and I am so tickled to be a part of it! This is another huge & thrilling accomplishment in my floral design career! An immense amount of gratitude goes out to all the ridiculously talented people I had the pleasure of working with. Thank you muchly, Joey Bertocchini of Half Full Photography, for all of the smokin’ hot images! And, muchisimas gracias Lana & Ian of Arc de Belle, Regina Osgood of Meant2Be Events, and Lynn & Jen at Hotel Palomar. Last, but certainly not least, my delightful cohort, Levi Mousaw, who provided me with his talent, humor, support and most importantly, cheese and powdered donuts for lunch. A big thanks & congrats to the other vendors involved too (see the SMP feature for a complete list)! Click HERE to see the feature!

The Great Living Wall

Sara — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:28:55 +0000

After 4 months from concept to completion, over 200 hours of planting, over 4000 succulent plants and a lot of my blood, sweat and tears, my controversial, 15ft mural of Mao Zedong (Tse-tung) is INSTALLED!!! He was quite a challenge, but he now resides at his new home at Underbelly in Little Italy. Go enjoy a ramen and step back to admire my Chairman Mao or give him the finger, either way, it’s pretty frickin’ cool. Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me throughout this project! Your kind words, anticipation and excitement were excellent motivation!

From thrillist.com:

From Garrett Eaton Photography:

Some photos from the process:

Even got a mention in an article in the Sign On San Diego/Union Trib (thank you, Karim!): http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/18/underbelly-japanese-ramen-bar-opens-little-italy/

More photos to come!

Conni & Clint 8.6.11

Sara — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:12:30 +0000

Time for me to give Conni & Clint’s lovely wedding the attention it deserves! This post is a bit late, but I had to get it up here!!! Conni wanted a unique wedding with tons of funky details. Right up my alley! She chose to have her ceremony & reception at The New Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego. Not your typical wedding venue, but that’s what made for such a standout event! The museum holds a special place in Conni’s heart. She is a school teacher and worked for the museum in the past, so she decided to share this important, but lighthearted and fun aspect of her life with all of her guests! Conni had some incredible table runners made for the 18 banquet style tables, in her colors; orange, blue & green. Entering the museum to see her tables was a visually striking experience for all of her guests. Their ceremony was out on the “playground” where Michele Woodcock of Before I do Events and I set up her amazing canopy! Her father-in-law made the birch frame a few weeks before the wedding & Michele and I draped it in fabric. I dangled orange and white feathers, which provided the perfect background for their nuptials. I also had the feathers draped on both sides of the aisle. Such a fun detail! Conni & Clint had the Museum’s chalk artists come in and create tons of fun “chalkings” throughout the venue. My personal favorite chalk art were the blue & orange geometric bubbles at the ceremony site on either side of the canopy. Just gave that area the pop it needed! Enjoy the Photographs By Anjuli!

Shanelle & Joel: Wedded Bliss 7.16.11

Sara — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:26:49 +0000

I was hoping to have some ‘day of’ shots from this wedding, but I am lucky enough to have my Husbandy’s profesh shots. He is my hero. Shanelle was a super-rad bride. I brought one of my Euro design books with me to our consultation, just for fun. To my delight, she saw the “entwined hearts” bouquet and asked if she could carry ‘that’ down the aisle!!! Are you kidding?!? I was thrilled to have a bride with the confidence and edge to carry something so unique down the aisle! It was very labor intensive, but Diane and I enjoyed every minute of the 4 hours it took to make! It was made up of several different gauges of floral wire, decorative aluminum wire, sisal fiber, mokara orchids, mini calla lilies, lavender spray roses, and horsetail. Love it!

Cake for Baby Penelope

Sara — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:00:19 +0000

You may remember my awesome friends, Carina & Jason, from my post ‘My Friends, The Lees!’ in May and from Garrett’s ‘…And Penelope Makes Three! {Expecting}’ photo shoot with them a month ago. Well, they have a beautiful baby girl slated to make her debut in August, so last weekend, Garrett and I threw them a baby shower at our house. I decided I had to make a cake:

Pistachio cake with almond buttercream frosting. Ridic! Not bad for my first time using a piping tip. Thanks to Garrett Eaton Photography for the delicious images!

The thing was so damn big we had half of it left over, so I took it with me, along with some of Jason’s famous (and scrumptious!) stuffed mushrooms & my cucumber water to the women’s shelter where I volunteer and the ladies said it was the most gourmet meal they had ever eaten!!! It was an amazing day filled with lots of love & happiness!

P.S. Can’t wait to meet baby Penelope!!! <3

Here’s the lovely lady (& her pretty cakes) that inspired my cake design:

Nikole Herriott

Tower 23 ~ Andrea & Gabe

Sara — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:18:22 +0000

Back on May 15th I had the distinct pleasure of doing a stunning wedding @ Tower 23 in PB. It was an intimate wedding with under 20 guests and it was magical!!! This was the ultimate wedding for me…I’m not even exaggerating…I loved it so much & I will always remember this wedding and all the wonderful people involved! My bride, Andrea, was ultra hip without even trying and unbelievably gorgeous. Seriously…how is this woman not a model or actress?!?! Breathtaking! Her style was right in line with mine, so we had a blast planning her flowers! She trusted me completely with the details & let me be creative. That is one of the greatest gifts a floral designer can be given. We didn’t meet in person until the day of the wedding, but as soon as we saw each other, we hugged and it seemed like we’d been friends forever! She was an absolute delight to work with and so was her Mom, Molly (the most bad-ass fly fishing tour guide on the planet)! These people are just innately cool & genuinely kind & so, so lovely and I wish they lived closer so I could take them out for coffee sometime! <3 I’d like to gush some more, but I’ll just let the flawless photos speak for themselves.

Here are a couple of images from Andrea & Gabe’s rehearsal dinner @ The Grande Colonial in La Jolla & and the rest of the incredible images are from their wedding @ Tower 23 in PB via Bauman Photographers:

Vendor Lovin’:

Photography: Bronson Pate of Bauman Photographers

(Follow the link above to view what Bronson wrote about our beautiful couple on his blog!)

Rad Chuppah: Arc de Belle

Coordinator: Carol Berardino of Elite Events

Cool Lounge Furniture @ Ceremony: Concepts Event Design

Wedding Venue: Tower 23

Rehearsal Venue: The Grande Colonial

Mother’s Day @ BLD!

Sara — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:56:13 +0000

My friends, the Lees!

Sara — Fri, 06 May 2011 06:09:03 +0000

My good friends Carina & Jason called me up at the beginning of March and told me they spontaneously decided they were going to have an intimate beach wedding at sunset on March 19th. I was honored to be chosen as their florist as I adore them both and they are both flower people. Lucky me! Carina is a floral designer turned RN and Jason is a flower buyer turned teacher. I met Carina @ Bloomers in La Jolla when I first moved to San Diego 9 & 1/2 years ago. Then, when I got hired at Adelaide’s, I was thrilled when she joined me shortly thereafter where she met and fell in love with Jason. They have been together ever since!

I had the privilege of dress shopping with Carina and she came flower shopping with me! I loved every minute of it! They both have awesome taste & style so it was fun to see all the details coming together and to be a part of it! I’m thrilled for them! Congrats to my friends, the Lees! Love you guys!

Neighborhood Installation

Sara — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:53:35 +0000

Yesterday we completed a huge installation @ Neighborhood restaurant downtown. The owner had Woolly Pockets installed and wanted to replace his live plants with permanent botanicals (a.k.a. silk or artificial flowers). I know most people scoff at the idea of silk flowers but that is because they have only seen the terrible 80′s style arrangements in their grandma’s bathroom (not my grams!) or the decor at Country Waffles (no offense). If that was my only frame of reference, I would hate artificial flowers too! Fortunately, silk flower vendors are offering better, more realistic product more & more now and I had the opportunity to select some very cool silks for this gig. The Woolly Pockets were installed horizontally on the upper walls of the restaurant. They are up very high (12ft? I dunno–I had to borrow their GIANT ladder!) and the maintenance for live plants was not practical. Black Lotus to the rescue!!! Diane & I installed a silk arrangement into each one of the 18 pockets and they all flow beautifully and the colors and plants pop! We even did a little tribute to beer over the bar by dangling balls of hops!

Neighborhood is a hip, urban restaurant in East Village. They have yummy lunch & dinner menus and a massive selection of craft beers on tap! And, how can I not love a place that has a framed painting of Jesus eating a burger and a jackalope mounted on the wall!!! I have not eaten there yet, but I have eaten at their sister restaurant Craft & Commerce in Little Italy and I was blown away not only by the crazy-delicious food, but by the amazing service too! Go to these awesome eateries! Eat, drink & be merry…and check out our permanent botanicals in the rafters @ Neighborhood!!!

P.S. I need my husband, the professional photographer, to go back and photograph these when the lights are on and the bar is illuminated with its beautiful coppery/orange lights!