• Sugar Bunch •

FLOWERS ~ PHOTO ~ DESIGN ~ LIFESTYLE | www.sugarbunchfloral.com

[sugar-bunch]

More pics from our Frou Frou LA - Sugar Bunch Floral photo shoot! 

This post has been a long time coming. I have shared some pics here and there but here is a feast for your floral fawning eyes.

A good friend of mine works with her sister designing the most fabulous frocks in the name of Frou Frou LA. I personally have been a fan of these clothes for years and have many “vintage” Frou Frou pieces in my closet to prove it. We decided to team up and pair some of these amazing looks with custom Sugar Bunch Floral designs for a fun shoot. I had a great time hamming it up in front of the camera. Typically I’m more comfortable behind the camera myself but because we are close and I know I was in the hands of a pro, I let her capture my good side :) 

The best part about these clothes is that most of them are one size fits most, which makes it easy. Their designs are super comfortable, forgiving but so flattering. It’s so hard for me to find comfortable clothes that don’t make me look like a frumpy frumpster, and I would bet I’m not alone. All of their pieces are unique, particularly the pattern/fabrics. Frou Frou hand selects super elegant and fun rolls of fabric for their line and once it’s done that’s it! Each item feels special and you don’t have to worry about showing up to a party and having a Bitch Stole My Look moment. Take my word for it but also check out the site to see all the new looks available now on www.froufroula.com

The Dahlia headband felt like the perfect pairing with that vibrant floral pattern. In the black outfits I have matching floral pieces consisting of black calla lilies, dyed solidago, red spray roses and greens. In the bouquet I added 2 cat tails to add interest (they aren’t called cat tails but they look like our cat Bella’s tail and I don’t remember the actual name). I fashioned a partial side crown and a matching wrap around corsage with the same flowers. 

Looking forward to doing more colab shoots with Frou Frou! Because I secretly want to be a model and I not so secretly want to wear all their clothes. 

all my love,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

Aloha! Summer is coming to an end soon but since we are still trying to beat the heat, at least in LA, lets reminisce with these tropical darlings. 

My Grammie, the fox pictured above wanted to have a luau in honor of some family in town. For the festive occasion I adorned her hosting head in a fun flower crown made of purple Trachelium and a yellow lily. Trachelium is plentiful in the summer and looked sort of like a sea anemone to me. With all of the flower selection I pretty much channeled the little mermaid. I could hear Sebastian signing “...such wonderful things around you, what more is you lookin’ for!” so I knew I was on the right track.

I had never seen those baby pineapples before seeing them a few times at Boulevard Florist this summer. I had my fingers crossed when I went out for this haul and got super lucky they were in stock. Those along with the funky bells of Ireland, Trachelium, protea and lilies created a plant paradise fit for any luau table. I added some yellow coxcomb which reminded me of coral (also reminds me of a little brain). 

It was a lot of fun making these. I don’t typically tend to go for all tropical looking selections when arranging because they can look so specific but it was a nice change of pace. I think I really nailed the theme without nailing dat girl’s fins to da floor. Okay gonna go watch The Little Mermaid now bye. 

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

Napa Valley Air BNB pics! 

A couple of weeks ago my other half and I headed up to Napa Valley to meet a long lost friend. She’s not lost, I know right where she is. The trouble is she’s in Michigan so we don’t get to see each other often. We got to spend one glorious day romantically sipping wine together before she and her husband headed back home. Naturally, Adam and I stayed another night to take in the majesty of this valley.

We were incredibly lucky to find this amazing place to stay on Air BnB. A little bungalow by the pool on farm. Pictured above are the long term residents at the house, some chicks and two duck buddies. Fortunately, the rooster liked to sleep in cause we were not trying to wake up early on a vacation. One of my favorite things about the place was how many flowers they had on the property. So many hydrangea and rose bushes, they put some fresh flowers from the yard in our room. 

I’ve never been a gardener per say but with my flower interest, this has definitely inspired me to want to grow my own flowers. One day. When I have a yard. Gonna pass on the chickens though. The cats would murder them.

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

Peony Headbands and flower crowns! 

I’ve been meaning to post these for awhile now. I did indeed enjoy a very fruitful and harmonious peony season. Yes, the harvest was a good one. (I didn’t do any farming I just play with the bounty) 

A while back I got to spend some time with some of my favorite ladies for brunch. The one thing that makes brunch better is flowers! Actually after mimosas. After mimosas, you need flowers. You also need the brunch part. I can’t flower on an empty stomach. Ok so you got mimosas, you got foods and you got flowers = Brunch bliss. And when you have pretty girls just laying around at brunch, you put flowers on their heads. obvs. 

Miss Riley had the honor of the flower crown topped on her adorable head. I had some dusty miller from a previous project and you know Trader Joe’s got me a again with a peony sale. I grabbed some small white roses to pair with the white and blush peony beauties. 

For the of age sugar babes I tinseled their tops with peony fascinators. I think they are becoming a specialty of mine. 

So let this be a lesson to all of my friends. We are gonna hang out. And I’m gonna dress you florals. That is happening. If I haven’t gotten you yet, get ready for gettin’. Imagine that less creepy sounding.

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

We got ourselves another addition from the Simply Bridal photo shoot! This time it’s all about the incredibly beautiful Alissa! This saucy redhead is one of my all time favorite subjects. I knew her tall statuesque frame would look amazing in the Lydia Gown from Simply Bridal. I like to keep things real yester-year so the teared flowing fabric really did it for me. I took those cues from the dress and played up the vintage 20′s/30′s styling. We busted out my favorite hair styling tool and gave her large waves throughout her sun soaked mane then tucked it up in a faux bob. This was a great compliment to the floral headpiece I designed for her. Kinda vintage, kinda boho, I kinda love it.

Let’s talk flowers! I had mentioned in a previous post that the purple lilacs really set the stage for this flower haul. They sent me down the purple path without turning back. To me roses are a no brainer. They pretty much go with any flower and come in so many colors that I want to add them to ALMOST everything. These lavender babies were a perfect pairing. I wanted to keep the flowing theme and make this bouquet a bit wild so I added the silver dollar and baby blue eucalyptus. The tall baby blue really made the asymmetrical shape I was going for. Tossed in some Queen Anne’s Lace (the better baby’s breath) and fire and ice spray roses, because I’m obsessed with them and because I wanted a touch of contrasting color. It was still missing something so I added some tree fern around the outside and I’m telling you that took it to the NEXT LEVEL. I had some burlap on hand so I used that to cover up the stems. So vintage.  

I am over the moon with how these turned out. I mean could that shot of her sitting by the pool BE any more gorgeous?! The answer is no. It could not.

As always you can check out the Lydia dress and many others at www.simplybridal.com and I’ll have some more stills from this look up on the blog soon. 

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

Boulevard Florist Wholesale Flower Haul!

A very happy Friday to all! I have been meaning to post this for awhile. As you may recall, we have relocated to the westside of Los Angeles in recent months. A slight con in this arrangement is the fact that we now live further from the DTLA flower market with all the sweet flower deals. So I have been on the hunt for other flower options that are cost effective and give me the same kind of variety that are a little closer to home. A friend of mine brought Boulevard Florist Wholesale Flower Market to my attention in Hawthorne. It’s closer for me than downtown LA so I was bursting with excitement to check it out.

When I finally made it over I didn’t have anything in particular I needed to make. I just wanted to tour the shop, note the prices and maybe grab some things to play with if they called to me. It is of course much smaller. It’s about the size or a large flower shop. It reminded me a lot of the flower shop I used to work in back in the day when I was young, I’m not a kid anymore. Anywho, even though it wasn’t the giant of downtown there was still tons to choose from. They have everything from floral supplies to fresh flowers to plants and accessories. It's also a fully functioning design and delivery shop. If you didn’t want to do it yourself or buy for me to play, you can ask one of the staff to dress up your purchase, Adam Kovic.

They have a cooler in the center where they house most of the fresh flowers. When I stepped in I could clearly hear these raspberry and cream roses calling, nay, SINGING to me! The pictures don’t do them justice really. I splurged and went for the 60 inch stems at $26 for the bunch (about 24 stems). I couldn’t resist those big fat buds. I also found these wine colored peonies that seemed to be a match made in flower heaven. They were $20 for 5 stems which is pricey but the same as DTLA. Not that this was my motivation, but these bunches fit right in to the Pantone color of the year! 2015′s Marsala! So I went with it. On an unrelated trip to Trader Joe’s I stumbled upon a massive Peony sale the same day. 5 stems for $6. D: arrrrrgh after I was so happy about my wholesale purchase. But you know the old saying, when you see a peony sale at Trader Joe’s you buy them, even though you just bought them somewhere else. I think that’s how it goes. So I bought another bunch of white ones just because. I will say that TJ’s P’s opened up almost immediately so I guess you get what you pay for. Feeling better about my original purchase.

I happened to have all of these silver and mercury accents around so I threw them in a wide mercury glass vase. The greens were left over from the previous weeks haul which worked out nicely. And what better to set a scene than to add an elephant, which I have in abundance. I am really happy with the way these turned out and I can’t wait to go back to that shop. If you are in the area and interested in checking it out, here is the link. 

http://www.boulevardflst.com/

Want to see more hauls? More designed end products? Let me know, I like sharing!

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

Wedding Wednesday! 

Appropriately for WW, here’s another look at the photo shoot we did with Kitty wearing the Shiloh gown courtesy of Simply Bridal. Here she is just frolicking about the garden as one does. In these pics you can see more of the floral detail in her hair. We were able to use two large white Gerbera daisies with some of the kale leaf accents. They did a great job of covering some of the supportive hair elements like rubber bands and bobby pins. These gerbs are pretty giant so you have to find the right placement within the do. Even though they were big, it worked well to kind of make a pyramid over the high ponytail. For the most freedom, we just used bobby pins to secure so the flowers weren’t actually fastened to anything permanently. 

We did end up using a ribbon to tighten the back of the dress as it was a bit too big. But luckily it looked adorbs with that little bow in the back. 

There’s more where these came from so stay tuned! And of course you can find the oh so cute Shiloh dress on www.simplybridal.com

All my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

Collab shoot for Simply Bridal - The Stunning Miss Kitty! 

A while back I was approached by a bridal boutique in Los Angeles, Simply Bridal, to do a partnered shoot with their dresses. This is a super exciting opportunity so I of course jumped at the chance and am thrilled to work with them. The deal is as such, I got to pick any dress from their lovely collection, they shipped it out, and I got to play photo shoot to my heart’s content. Simply Bridal was nice enough to send me 2 dresses at a time because of course, I couldn’t choose just one! Fortunately, I have no shortage of hot babe friends and 2 of them were kind enough to model for me. I literally, LITERALLY,  had so many shots to choose from that I will have to break these posts up to really do them justice. For now we will focus and the stunning, incredible and badass Kitty wearing the Shiloh Gown. 

I selected this dress as more of a non traditional/traditional style. It seemed to nod to the 50s with the floral detail at the natural waste and the fuller skirt. I say non traditional because it’s a shorter length and we styled it with black patent leather platforms. This is the sassy bride. The “I might ditch the groom, hop in my cadillac and hit the road” bride. You can’t tell here but, this chick has a TON of hair. So long in fact that my aunt (and on set hair stylist) had to stand about 3 feet away from her head to pile on those curls. The updo was essential as a throwback to that mid century style. 

Not only did I get to style and shoot, it also gave me the opportunity to design some floral elements to go along with it. Multiple birds with just one stone…and one Kitty. I was lucky to find these white gerbs with the black center at the flower market that day to really bring home the black and white theme. The stems are wrapped with a hint of black and white stripes then finished off with black feathers, because you gotta have feathers. I feel like Gerbera Daisies don’t look right with just any flower or green. They are so graphic. I decided to keep it simple with some chunky green kale to accent. 

I have to say thank you again to my aunt for letting me use her backyard and her (wo)man power. And thank you to my girl Kitty! You made it pretty easy to get the pretty :)

Stay tuned for picks of my other marvelous model from the shoot and even MORE pics of this rockstar, Kitty. And head over to www.simplybridal.com to check out this dress and the rest of their collection.

http://www.simplybridal.com/

Kisses,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

DTLA Flower Market Haul! 

Last weekend I rallied some of my best girls to help me with a bridal/floral photo shoot. More on that to come but today I wanted to share my downtown Los Angeles flower market haul. The ORIGINAL LA flower market. It’s a different kind of experience when you get to shop for your own vision. Not that I don’t inject myself into work for clients but this time I was picking entirely completely and only what I wanted. It’s almost overwhelming. When I’m picking up for an order I know what I need, but when the reins are off and I get to pull what I want?!? There are so many options, so many things I want to try! My head spins. But then I say to myself “Jessi”, that’s what I call myself, “Jessi, get it together. It’s flowers”... And I calm the eff down. Thanks self. 

In an earlier post I talked about my Trader Joe’s haul, this is a different kind of experience. Rather than getting creative with whatever they have, I’m presented with endless options. I did have a vision in mind but I always like to go in open to those random cool things that just happen to be there that day. First, I needed romantic looking flowers, something a little wild. I didn’t go in with a purple scheme in mind but then I saw the lilac and they literally called my name...”Jesssssssssi”. Turns out, Lilacs call me that too. Purple it is! Those Lilacs were the most expensive thing I bought at $16 for 5 stems. They're lucky they spoke to me. Ended up grabbing a bunch of lavender roses for $10 and a heap of Silver Dollar and Baby Blue Eucalyptus, lemon leaf and tree fern. I think they were about $4 ish per bunch. For filler I bought some Queen Anne’s lace, which in my humble opinion is superior to Baby’s Breath in every way. 

For my other project I grabbed some white Gerbera Daisies with black centers. I did kind of have these in mind but knew they would only maybe be there. Lucky day for me. They feel really vintage and I actually had a couple in my wedding bouquet :) I had been wanting to use Kale in something for awhile and finally decided the green and white variety would be a good Gerb buddy. Oh and I spotted one of my all time favorites - fire and ice roses (white with red tips and centers) in spray rose form. Call them an alt buy but I had to have them. I also bought some standard white hydrangea that I didn’t really end up using this time.

In total I think I spent about $80, which for 2 buckets of flowers is pretty great. Stay tuned for pics of the finished products coming, oh I don’t know, let’s say in the future. And I’ll be heading to check out a new Flower spot today so yeah get hype for that. 

All my love,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

The teacup series...

I have a lot of teacups. A LOT OF TEACUPS. For my bridal shower in 2012, my fab friends and fam threw the most beautiful tea party. Part of the festivities asked each guest to kindly gift the bride a teacup. This afforded me quite the collection. 

At our last apartment, what seemed like a nice open kitchen was really lacking in storage space. All floor and no function. Sadly, my cups were stored away. Now in the dawn of a new apartment age, we are swimming in kitchen cupboards. I mean not really, not like a past time. But we could. There’s that many. Or maybe it seems like a lot to me coming from all of my previous kitchens. In any case, I feel blessed by the storage gods. I’ll share pics soon, as we’re still organizing but for now...teacups! They can finally be regularly used and flourish as intended. Because I’m not having fancy tea parties everyday like I would like to, I’ve found another way to show them off. This is the start of an ongoing photo series I’lll be working on. Capturing cups and carnations. Not really carnations because...no...I can’t even. Just coppin’ that alliteration game. ;) Currently, my heart belongs to stock flower (as pictured)

Motivated and excited to see all my stuff again. Let’s do this!

all my love,

jess 

[sugar-bunch]

Trader Joe’s Flower Haul! 

One of my all time favorite places to be is the Flower Market in Downtown LA. They have so many choices and at those prices you can’t afford not to buy a huge bucket of mini roses. Unfortunately for this flower picker, since we moved, I am no longer in walking distance of petal paradise. I still make the half hour drive when I need large quantities, but for the everyday I wanted to explore closer options. I was very happy to find a great selection at my local Trader Joe’s. When it comes to flowers in spring, Joe knows fo sho. I can’t yet attest to the rest of the year but I’m on the case and will report back later in the year. Of course compared to a specialized wholesale retailer the selection is tiny and varies day to day and store to store. 

On this occasion, I wanted to make a lovely housewarming bouquet for a friend so it made much more sense to check out TJ’s. I was pretty open to what was available, I just wanted some bright and sunny colors. Behold, yellow and peach mini roses ($5.99/stems). These went great with peachy pink snap dragons ($3.99/5 stems) mixed with the combo of pale and bold colored stock flower ($4.99/5 stems). Throw in some bright green spider mums ($4.99/5stems) and baby you got a stew goin’. They also had a great gladiolus deal which I snagged for another project ($4.99/12 stems). I will note that the selection is much better earlier in the day and that a lot of the buds were pretty open so best for using right away. 

All in all, I’d say in a pinch and for casual use it’s a great option. Still keeping my eyes open for bulk shopping but I’m gonna go ahead and give my Mr. T (Joe’s) 2 thorn calloused thumbs up and pity the fool who doesn’t live by this delightful chain. Even though Caprica couldn’t be bothered to look at the camera, i’m pretty sure she approves.

All our love,

jess & capi

[sugar-bunch]

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mommy. Mama. MA-ma. Mum. Mummy. MaMa. MaMA. Mom....Hi. 

For all that you endure, I see you moms. We all did this last Sunday. This year’s mother’s day ended up being rather eventful for me and mine. We were met with a bit of an emergency that lead to a special appearance by the paramedics. We certainly did not plan on our Mother of mothers, my grandma, to have a health scare but there it was. Not to be alarmed, she is ok. Happy and healthy. For this I’m a so thankful. But I just have to say, as scary as these things are, I am so proud of the way my whole family came together. Particularly the mothers. My mom and my aunt jumped to action as they always do, this time for their mother as she has always done for them. I applaud them in a blog form. In a family dominated by females, we are a pretty tight group of gals and take care of each other one way or another. A scary day to remember but mostly I will remember the love and the strength. 

For these extra special ladies, I made extra special mother’s day bouquets. Stock flower and mini roses in pink ish hues for my awesome Auntie, yellow calla lilies and yellow roses for my Grammie (she loves yellow) and the largest bouquet for my mom with spider mums, calla lilies and stock flower (she likes her’s to stand out so I had to make it big. She is my mom after all <3) All the girls received glads as well (even the non mothers) :)

Wishing all the love and support I witness from my family to all of you!

all my love,

jess

[sugar-bunch]

As it would appear, I am getting back into the flower game. I mean, don’t call it a comeback - I’ve been here for years. Flowers have always held a special place in my heart. My very fist job happened to be at a flower shop. As a teen I left my flower post to pursue an exciting career in retail. Oh the tales I could tell of mall food and finger spacing, but I’ll save that for another day. Fast forward through art school and various internships/jobs, I hadn’t really thought much about doing flowers. It wasn’t until my wedding in 2012 that I dusted off my pruning shears so I could A. Save a buck (weddings are expensive!) and B. have complete control. Turns out, I had missed it. It really calmed me to do my flowers on the wedding day. I know that may not be the case for a lot of people but it worked for me. Ever since then, I’ve had what I’ve called a side project doing flowers here and there along with all of my other creative interests. Theses “interests” congealed into Sugar Bunch. Admittedly, the Bunch has been simmering on the back burner all this time and I think that maybe it kinda might be time to stir the pot. I’d like to explain what exactly Sugar Bunch is...but I’m still working that out. Let’s say 1 part flowers, a dash of photography and a generous amount of design... to taste. Mmm mmm tastes like grass and glitter. The fact is, I have a yearning to create and I’m obsessed with pretty things. So I’m gonna make some cool stuff and share it with the world. Ya dig? Sweet. 

Keep up with the day to day on Instagram/Twitter @sugar_bunch

all my love,

sugar bunch babe 

[sugar-bunch]

Style Exploration Time: I am all about this scarf/lip/hair color combo!

Picked up the scarf on Amazon and of course, it has elephants on it. I actually didn’t know that until it arrived, I just liked the colors. It seems it was meant to be. Usually I would tie a scarf a little less Tupac-ie, but once the ends are tucked in I think it works for that bohemian style.

Oh how smitten I am by this lip color. This is Lime Crime’s Velvetine’s matte lip color line in Salem, also bought on Amazon. It stays all day and is drink/kiss proof. I’m now officially a collector, I also have it in Red Velvet. 

It’s Friday, put on your head scarf and party.

matte lip kisses,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

Miss Miranda!

Had the pleasure of styling and shooting one of my very good friends, Miranda, at her home in Southern CA. It’s always fun shooting with a friend, especially one that will let me play dress up with her. She has the most awesome backyard with a ton of beautiful greenery that made the perfect backdrop.

I chose to give her a beehive hairdo and a vintage red lip to go with her classic dress by froufroula.com. Definite 60′s inspiration here. I love how they turned out but of course with a gorgeous model like that, how could I go wrong ;)

Thanks Miranda for being my muse! Oh and for the classy Martini (prop)

all my love,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

Holi Celebration 

Came across a large group of people celebrating the Hindu festival Holi last weekend at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles. Holi takes place in the spring and is known as the festival of colors.

Being in India to witness this beautiful tradition is definitely on my bucket list but it was a treat to see them celebrate right here in LA. It seemed like they were having so much fun coating each other in color, that next Thanksgiving I’m just gonna start a food fight. Although, the grey and brown palette typical of the holiday might not produce as lovely a scene as this one. 

In living color,

Jess

[sugar-bunch]

Beach Baes!

Spent some time at Dockweiler Beach in LA for a friend’s birthday last weekend. Turned up the heat and grabbed some sun soaked candid portraits of these ladies and one gent. They look too cool to even pose for pictures. I’m definitely getting an 80′s vibe here and I love it. 

Had to keep it hot on the west coast while my other half was chillin’ in Boston for PAX East. Literally, I think he was pretty cold. 

More weekend pics to come!

All my love,

Jess