After interviewing about 10 different florist for my June wedding, I was becoming frustrated and discouraged. No one seemed to understand my vision for my wedding, nor did they seem to want to listen. My vision was to have the room feel like a garden when you walked in, with high loose arrangements and candles. Gregory, from Flou(e)r, was the only one who not only understood me, but was able to make it become a reality. He is truly an expert at what he does. He makes sure that he listens to you and is very honest about what will look good and what won’t. He is also able to take your ideas and dreams of your wedding and make them even better. I would recommend Flou(e)r for any wedding or event.
From the moment I met Gregory and walked into Flou(e)r, I knew he was the florist for me. It is a day that I will never forget as I was so happy to meet someone who is so passionate about what he does. Gregory truly understands each bride’s unique vision and budget and offers creative floral options. Gregory listens, is organized, responsive, creative, understanding, reliable, and available at all times. He does exquisite work and is meticulous. Gregory went above and beyond to make sure I was happy with each flower in every floral arrangement. I had a crazy vision of lining a hallway with two-, three-, and four-foot tall candles. Gregory searched high and low to find the candles and designed a blueprint with options of how the candles could be arranged. This was more than we could have asked for and when we walked into the ballroom, the flowers took our breath away. I cannot say enough positive things about my experience with Flou(e)r. Highly recommended.
We love a winter wedding and this bouquet by Flou(-e)r is as cool as they come. Elements include cotton, white ranunculus, mini pinecones, dusty miller, mini white cabbage, white anemones, white tulips and iced birch branches. the wrap is made with a satin underlay and crystal overlay for some added holiday sparkle.
Gregory Costa-Saint John, founder and managing partner of Flou(-e)r, takes pride in his work as a floral designer, turning visions into reality for brides during the most important time in their lives. Since opening its doors seven years ago, Flou(-e)r has operated under the premise of serving and designing for just one bride at a time. Leaving no details unturned, Costa-Saint John is hands-on beginning to end, from initial consultations, guiding and assisting until the day-of, to designing and producing the final floral installation.
SNEW: How did your passion for flowers and floral design begin?
GCSJ: Prior to starting Flou(-e)r, I worked in a project management role which has given me the ability to execute and deliver every detail on time and exactly how our couples envision. After moonlighting with friends who were florists, I decided to take a leap of faith and opened Flou(-e)r.
SNEW: What do you love most about designing arrangements and styling weddings?
GCSJ: We take each wedding as an honor of being included in our bride and groom’s special day. We love taking each unique bride’s vision and watching it come to life; no two weddings are ever the same. The best part of our job is delivering the completed bouquets to our brides and bridesmaids and seeing the emotional reaction of sheer delight in what they get to hold for the day. We also love seeing the entire vision come alive at the venue, along with the linens, lighting and all the additional design elements that completely express the vision of our couples.
SNEW: What is your favorite type of flower and floral season?
GCSJ: My favorite flowers include peonies, tulips and phalaenopsis orchids. My two favorite seasons have to be spring and autumn. The spring brings so many amazing bloom options, especially after a long winter. During the autumnal months, the colors of blooms are so saturated and delicious, you can’t help but love the reds, oranges and burgundies that autumn brings.
SNEW: What piece of advice do you give to couples when selecting blooms for their wedding?
GCSJ: Do not get set on a specific bloom, no matter how important the particular bloom is to you. Mother nature has her own course of action and can pull some crazy stunts. Think more about your color vision and trust your designer to bring it to life for you.
SNEW: What do flowers communicate about a couple and their style?
GCSJ: For every bloom, there is a special couple’s personality that matches. From the start of our journey with our couple, we see the development of what will be the articulation of a very personal story of the love this special couple has found. Most of our couples understand the importance of carrying the vision from the ceremony to the reception. However, in some situations we have been asked to divide the feel of the reception, for example the cocktail hour reflects the groom’s personality while the reception reflects the bride’s – this makes for an extraordinary statement and a truly special day for the bride and groom.
SNEW: What is a fun flower or floral accent that you’re loving?
GCSJ: We love it when a bride takes complete control of her vision and fuses her personality into her wedding. For example, the downtown bride who is all about bling might use large gems as table markers, gem-encrusted vessels or gems submerged in vessels with uplighting. Or the bride that prefers a more rustic feel might have her centerpieces designed on birch logs and use birch vessels. I also love the bride that is just over the top making her wedding a theme, such as “The Great Gatsby,” and selecting blooms that articulate that vision.
September 9, 2012
The Crane Estate, Ipswich, Massachusetts
Darren Wong and Khatu Ho’s gorgeous outdoor wedding almost didn’t happen. In the week leading up to the main event, all of the weather reports promised rain—and as the couple drove up to the Crane Estate, in Ipswich, the day before their nuptials, it was pouring so hard “you could barely even see through the windshield,” Darren remembers. Thankfully, the clouds parted in time for a stunning celebration that married their heritages (Khatu is Vietnamese; Darren is Chinese) with the bride’s flair for fashion.
Khatu, a stylist and blogger, made clothing a big part of the celebration, donning an elaborately beaded dress from Vietnam for the traditional Asian tea ceremony, and an elegant Vera Wang gown for the American ceremony. Darren—who frequently models menswear for Khatu’s website—showed off a bright pair of socks from Barneys. “I just wanted everything to look classic and retain everything that showed off our personalities,” Khatu says. “Sometimes people can forget who they are when they are planning a wedding. I didn’t want to conform to any standard.”
The picturesque Crane Estate was the perfect setting for an outdoor ceremony. “As soon as I got out of the car to visit it, I turned around and gasped and knew that was it,” Khatu says.
Centerpieces of varying heights decorated the tables.
There’s an endless garden of centerpiece and bouquet options out there. Self-taught floral designer Gregory Costa-Saint John can help you make sense of petal and stem.
Photograph by Rania Matar
Seven years ago, Gregory Costa-Saint John was working as a project manager for an office-furniture company and moonlighting as a floral designer for friends’ weddings on nights and weekends. After booking 25 jobs at a bridal expo he attended in 2009, he reached a crossroads: “I had a come-to-Jesus moment with myself,” says the 43-year-old Dorchester resident, who at that point decided to leave the corporate world and open his own workshop, Flou(-e)r. Now, Costa-Saint John and his team of seven employees create stunning arrangements for events across New England. “We’re part of somebody’s big day, the most important day of their life,” he says. “Not only am I helping couples with their weddings, but I’m also educating them.”
How far in advance should a couple start thinking about their floral arrangements?
The sooner, the better. A year is ideal. Generally, we won’t meet with a bride until she has her venue booked. I can’t help with the vision if I don’t know the scale of the room that the ceremony and reception are being held in. If it’s a space with eight-foot ceilings, we’re not going to do high centerpieces because that will make the room look smaller. If it’s a huge space with really high ceilings, like the Boston Public Library, then you want higher pieces to make it more dramatic.
What’s the best way to prepare for a floral consultation?
Prior to our meeting, I send the bride and groom homework. We ask them for pictures of bridal bouquets, centerpieces, bridesmaid bouquets—pictures of things they like and don’t like. Seeing what they don’t like is just as important as seeing things they like. We also give them a document outlining the most commonly used flowers and make suggestions to help them think outside of the box. So when they come into the consultation, they’ve made some decisions, because they have a checklist. We also like to see pictures of the bride’s dress and her bridesmaid dresses, as they typically dictate the color palette.
Has Pinterest made your job easier?
It’s easier to understand a bride’s vision and what she wants, but it can limit our ability to be creative. We can’t always create that exact vision within the budget the couple has given us.
How do you handle brides who want something that’s unavailable or out of season?
I talk to them about look, vision, colors, and not getting set on a specific bloom. There are other options that can get you the same look without having to be exact.
What are some of the floral trends you’ve been seeing lately?
Rustic weddings are very big right now—lots of moss, birch logs, reclaimed wood. We’re doing a lot of work this season with mercury-glass vessels, too. We’re still using pastels and blushes, but we’re also working with a lot of deep, saturated pinks, blues, and purples, even in the spring. We’ve also seen terrariums and air plants as favors.
Is it possible for a green-minded bride and groom to use only local blooms in their arrangements?
The majority of our blooms come from overseas. If it’s not coming from Holland, it’s coming from South America. If I have a bride who’s having a green wedding, it really limits what we can and can’t do. With organic flowers, there is so much more TLC that is required from the growing stage to the design stage, because pesticides are limited or not used and therefore the blooms are not as sturdy and not as perfect—which drives up the cost. And if we use locally grown flowers, it reduces the carbon footprint, but the labor cost increases significantly. However, some of the blooms that we use are sourced locally, including dahlias, sunflowers, and zinnias.
Are there flowers that cost significantly more than others?
Orchids, gardenias, calla lilies, and flowering branches like cherry blossoms can get pricey. When flowers are just coming into season, there is a limited quantity, so they are very expensive. But once they’re fully in season, they’re a dime a dozen.
Any tips for couples on a budget?
I’m very big on repurposing. If your ceremony is in a church, why not use those two altarpieces at your reception? Or use your cocktail-reception pieces for your dessert bar? That way you can carry your vision all the way through from beginning to end.
Are there any flowers you avoid using?
I love lilies, but we try to stay away from them because their smell is so intense—and people associate them with funerals and death. English garden roses and gardenias also have a very strong smell.
Have you worked on any outside-the-box projects recently?
We did a South Asian wedding last year at the Hyatt downtown, and we designed all of the arrangements with dahlias, roses, and other flowers nested in green moss. We also used artichokes, green beans, and asparagus—the bride wanted her arrangements to be different from everyone else’s. The ceremony was outside, and the groom insisted that even though they were getting married in the city, he wanted it to feel like an enchanted garden. So we created a backdrop out of moss carpets that was 10 feet high and seven feet wide, and stapled it to a structure we built. And coming down from that were evergreens, orchids, and ivy.
Where do you get the inspiration for your bridal bouquets?
We like to start with the backdrop: the bride’s gown. We look at what’s going on between the chest and the knees—if there’s a lot of detail, types of fabrics, or intricate designs, then we don’t want to make a bouquet that’s too big, complicated, or textural. You don’t want it competing with the dress. From there, we’ll talk about colors. Has she envisioned her bridal bouquet to be in the white or cream family, or does she want to bring color into it? Then we start talking about specific flowers.
Flou(-e)r, 175 New Boston St., Woburn, 617-514-3756, myflouer.com.
TIPS
Costa-Saint John’s favorite additions to fall and winter arrangements.
Dahlias These big, textural blossoms can be sourced locally in the autumn.
White Peonies When closed, the tight, compact blooms look like snowballs. When fully open, they are reminiscent of a fresh coating of snow—perfect for a winter celebration.
Branches Look for varieties with bright leaves or berries to complement your flowers.
Roses, Calla Lilies, and Orchids These flowers offer rich, saturated colors for colder months.
Dusty Miller The silvery hue and fluffy texture of this plant’s foliage make it another great choice for winter nupitals. Or try silver brunia balls to make your bouquet pop.
Gregory and his team are the best. Look no further, this company is amazing. For my recent June wedding, Gregory provided boutonnieres, bridal bouquets, special flowers attached to bracelets for the mother of the bride, mother of the groom, and stepmother of the groom, and… Read More
Gregory and his team truly went above and beyond to create our dream wedding and exceeded our expectations of what we thought was possible. Planning a wedding from across the country posed many challenges but working with Gregory and his team was effortless and stress free.… Read More
I cannot say enough good things about Gregory and his team at Flou(-e)r. He understood my vision within minutes of talking to me and executed it with absolute perfection. I had a winter wedding in February at the Liberty Hotel in Boston and I wanted the flowers to be simple… Read More
