Part 1: The Road to Clematis does lead to Ariella Chezar

I had a funny dream last week where I contacted Ariella Chezar and asked her if she needed help on a wedding and she said yes. 

If you’re not familiar with her design work, you're in for a treat:  http://ariellaflowers.com/

Ariella Chezar is one of the finest floral designer/ artists working today. I had never met her as she’s currently living in Massachusetts and has a store in NY City. She’s one of my favorite designers. Her work is blossom luscious. I love her sense of color and touch with tropical flowers which seem hard to pull off without being a suntan cliche.

And I have to pinch my cheeks, because it wasn't a dream. Ariella sometimes offers workshops at Chalk Hill Clematis Farm. When I was there last week (subject of my last post), I Iearned the workshop had been held but that she was returning to the Bay Area to do a wedding and use the Chalk Hill workshop.

Well, dang- how could I not at least ask? Designers don’t always bring their staff!

Being a newcomer, I offered to wash buckets and perform whatever minor floral infractions and miscellaneous tasks that were required. It was just the kind of help Ariella needed and the event was coming up fast. She already had our local designers, Max Gill and Peter St. Lawrence on board to help along with Momo, a designer from the south bay and Lee, Max’s assistant. So with a two days notice, off I went. 

These photos were taken at the Chalk Hill workshop of work in progress and flowers for a photo shoot of her upcoming book. Stay tuned for the finished flowers.