Planning flowers or planning planting for a wedding can be one of the most fun and scary parts of the whole ordeal. Everyone has different budgets, different ideas, different lengths of time to plan, and sometimes conflicting ideas coming from the bride, the groom and their families.
The Jolly Green Goddess knows — she was just there! Having dreamed for years that she wanted her then-imaginary wedding reception in our back garden, our daughter and her fiancé discussed and discussed, and weighed both of their ideas and expectations. Having taken a few flower arranging classes at a local community college, our daughter ended up ordering her flowers online by getting samples from three suppliers and choosing the best and most prompt from among them.
Then her sister and a cousin and I gathered at my cousin’s home and we all made bouquets for the bridesmaids, and our daughter made her own, which astonished even her mother!
In the wine country we have lots of local choices of how to have fabulously creative florists do it all for us, or help us to provide wedding flowers ourselves.
Las Adas Flowers and Gifts across from Sonoma Valley High School (next to the Flag Emporium) is the brainchild of sisters Adalinda and Delores Sandoval, immigrants from Sonoma’s Mexican Sister City of Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan.
Adalinda and Delores came north in 1991, and Adalinda worked with the Job Corps in Washington, hoping to be a nurse. Soon she realized that nursing was not her destiny, tried to follow her father into masonry, gave that up, worked in business, and then thought about what she really loved.
Back in Patzcuaro, she used to pass the Mercado every day on her way to school and always admired two ladies who had thousands of flowers for sale. Adalinda begged them to let her “work as a volunteer,” which she did after school for several years. “I was one with the flowers,” she reminisces.
She remembers her mother, Maria, who now takes care of the sisters’ children while they serve customers at Las Adas (The Godmothers), worked for years for Monrovia flower growers in Oregon, and “really knows flowers. She goes to the Flower Mart with us and helps us select the best, and she does all of our plants.”
Recently Las Adas moved from a little adjunct at the side of Salsa Trading Co. at Broadway and Napa Road to their newly and tastefully renovated location.
Las Adas is unique for many reasons. They carry a full line of quality dresses and suits, intended originally as Christening, First Communion and Quinciniera attire, which also work very well as flower girl, ring bearer, and bridesmaids’ outfits. Currently they have one wedding dress and will carry a full line for this year’s wedding season, all at reasonable prices.
The other unusual quality about Las Adas is that they sell retail everything you need to do your own flowers for any occasion, and are extremely willing to help customers do just that, including guiding you to where to buy flowers. Adalinda says, “If someone just wants to buy a sponge—fine! I will gladly sell it to them and help them. We all want to make our weddings special and perfect in our minds, and I was that way. So I understand.”
Call before you visit Las Adas at 20079 Broadway, Sonoma, (707) 939-9204, because if their children need them they occasionally stay home but check messages constantly.
La Tisha Chiurco, of La Tisha’s Floral Design, has a whole different approach. A Sonoma native, La Tisha’s mother told her to go out and get a job at age 15, so she took a job with Fresh ‘n’ Fancy, the florist that started Sonoma Market’s floral department and later moved to the Marketplace, because she “thought it would be easy.”
La Tisha gives Fresh ‘n’ Fancy’s owner Karen Kuhlman full credit for “teaching me everything. I owe everything to her. She taught me designs, how to run a business, and promoted me to manager.”
She found out that flowers aren’t so easy, getting up at 1:30 a.m. three times a week to travel to San Francisco’s Flower Mart and standing on cement all day long. Now La Tisha goes for the best and “can do every flower thing one might want for a wedding: personal flowers, flowers for the ceremony, for the wedding reception, and even for the cake.”
La Tisha says she goes for “quality of the flowers and colors, because the best quality lasts the longest. I get no hot house roses, all are imported.” At her shop, cost depends on if the desired flowers are in season, whether they are imported, or whether she can get them from a Sonoma grower.
Check out La Tisha’s at 250 West Napa Street, Sonoma, (707) 996-8474, where staffers Leslie Collins and Molly Schettig are also tremendous designers.
Josette Brose-Eichar operates her Lavender Floral out of her home and fills orders when she receives them. A graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, Josette went to Hollywood to become a designer, didn’t really like the movie industry, worked for a bank, then for years for Visa credit card company in San Francisco. “I hated corporate life!” she exclaimed. “I wanted to start my own business”
One of the things she enjoyed was flowers, so she did something about it, opening Lavender Floral in San Francisco in a small shop for several years. Soon she felt the need to get out of The City and found her true home in Sonoma.
Josette is dedicated to providing environmentally friendly materials and no longer imports flowers “from South America because of pesticides. I only deal in seasonal flowers raised without pesticides.”
Be sure to check out her website at www.lavenderfloral.com, email her at Josette@lavenderfloral.com, or call her at (707) 935-8638.
Anne Appleman Flowers & Plants, which occupies the wonderful Pinni House in the historic stone building just east of the Blue Wing building on East Spain Street, creates some exciting arrangements, and quickly, in her “unique botanical experience.” The 1906 building once housed Taylor’s Florist, and then Sloan & Jones, which moved and then vanished.
Appleman offers full service flowers and plants, and can do anything from temporarily replanting planters for a temporary “Hollywood staging,” after which she removes the plants. Basically you rent a garden. She once owned a greeting card shop in Mill Valley, then began to do flowers in San Francisco’s commercial buildings “out of the back of my truck and apartment.” After a while the process got old and she “looked around for a great place to live,” ending up like many of us in Sonoma.
It’s worth a trip to Anne Appleman’s to see the building and the quiet environment she has created. 147 East Spain Street, Sonoma, (707) 938-3571.
Bancroft’s Flowers & Gifts, in the former gas station at Broadway and Andrieux Street, is no longer owned by the Bancroft family. But it is the longest existing florist in Sonoma, and is a classic florist with everything available most of the time.
Owner Jenise Kneeland worked for Carol Green, who had bought the flower shop from the Bancrofts, and then eventually took it over from Green. Manager Susan Fay, like Kneeland, earned a Floristry Certificate from Santa Rosa Junior College.
Fay stresses that what Bancroft’s offers is that they “cater to everyone’s needs, from low income to high end. We work within people’s budgets, whatever they are. We take pride in the fact that the flowers come out sensational, no matter whether they are daisies or orchids.”
Visit Bancroft’s at 711 Broadway, Sonoma, right behind the Big Shots coffee stand. (707) 996-2902. www.ftd.com/bancroftsflowersandgifts
Watch my next Jolly Green Goddess in two weeks to find out when and how to plant your garden for a wedding reception at home.
Kathleen Hill is co-author of Sonoma Valley-The Secret Wine Country and Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines. Kathleen is also the host of The Kathleen Hill Show, Mondays from 3 to 4 pm on KSVY- 91.3 You may reach Kathleen at hilltopub@aol.com.
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