Hi all!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are back into the swing of things! We just returned from a fabulous floral conference for the American Institute of Floral Designers held in our own backyard, San Francisco.  AIFD is an organization dedicated to the advancement of floral design education, service and leadership.  With floral designers traveling from around the world to attend, and the most fabulous presenters, we always walk away from AIFD Symposium totally inspired!  Here are just a few photos we captured to share with you all!

At AIFD Symposium there are flowers EVERYwhere, including the bathrooms.  Here’s an arrangement that was displayed in the hotels’ lobby.  Sorry, I don’t know the designer on this one.

We enjoyed a tour of the San Francisco Flower Market.  I tell you, we are so lucky to have the most amazing flowers here in California.  Others from around the country were gawking over the California Grown products!  Pictured above from left to right is Melinda Lynch, AIFD; owner of Festive Designs and floral instructor at California Polytechnic State University, Christin Henderson, AIFD; owner of Garden Grace Designs and agriculture teacher at Dinuba High School, J Schwanke, with ubloom and JTV, an online community for floral designers; Darci, a student of Cal Poly and SAIFD member, and myself.  J has the coolest videos and product ideas for those in the floral industry, check out ubloom and JTV online!

Succulent trays where you can hand-pick your plant materials.

Here is a design from Amsterdam native Rene Van Rems, AIFD.  Rene’s designs are European-influenced, and always breathtaking.  His presentation focused on “Designs Through the Centuries.”

Bill Schaffer, AIFD and Kris Kratt, AIFD featured an event geared presentation with the most gorgeous Red Riding Hood chuppah I didn’t get a photo of… it was awesome!  Here are a few floral columns they created for a Bat Mitzvah vignette.  I love the structure and the beautiful leafwork!  Their presentation also featured interviews with highly regarded event professionals sharing trends, new industry technology and vendor interactions.  The biggest surprise of all was their own engagement at the end of the presentation… a huge secret to all, and an entire change of scene known as a “strike” in the event world.  Very cool, and such a highlight of the events this Symposium!

A design created by Lois Hiranaga of Hawaii.  Lois was inspired by the rug hanging behind the structure, I think this compliments the look perfectly!  And so fun!

A bridal bouquet created by Pim van den Akker.  I love the shape of this, and learned a lot of new techniques from Pim’s presentation.

What a great and inspiring week!  Just being around flower lovers and designers is so inspirational and really re-energizing!  Until next years Symposium in Miami, it has been a fun one here in San Fran!