Today's post is from Marie Ackerman, AIFD, who runs the Teleflora Education Center in Oklahoma City, and served as the on-set floral consultant for the movie “Love Happens,” a romantic drama starring Aaron Eckhart, and Jennifer Aniston as a Seattle-based Teleflora florist.
In conjunction with Universal Pictures and inspired by the movie, Teleflora created a stunning and sweet arrangement of white spray roses called the “Love Happens” bouquet. These gorgeous flowers are perfect for a longtime love or a brand-new crush.
Here, Marie shares some behind-the-scenes highlights from the experience.
Shooting at the Hyatt Regency, Vancouver
Though set in Seattle, much of the movie was filmed in Vancouver. The first shots were in a hotel where Eloise hand-delivers flowers and the two main characters meet. Aaron Eckhart plays a motivational speaker named Burke Ryan and Jennifer Aniston plays Eloise, a quirky Seattle florist.
The task was to work with the set decorator Lesley Beale and the production designer Sharon Seymour to create designs that complemented the hotel setting.
We spent a good deal of time suggesting color palettes, selecting containers and making samples, especially for the large designs that were the background for many of the hotel scenes.
Our color palette was a contemporary blend of chartreuse, butter yellow, inky blue and blush peach. Many of the containers were made of layered birch bark to create a natural, Seattle-inspired feel.
The flowers included chartreuse and white cymbidium orchid stems, chartreuse anthurium, soft yellow oriental lilies, blue delphinium, chartreuse viburnum, ornithogalum, ornamental kale.
We also used lots of natural greenery and berries, including jasmine, palm, aspidistra leaves, ivy, ruscus, privet berries, eucalyptus fruit, date palm berries, lily grass, oregonia and bi-color cordyline. Moss-covered lichen branches were also used to convey the outdoor atmosphere of the Seattle area.
We maintained the designs daily and kept them looking good for about 9 days of shooting.
Floral arrangements included:
*two large designs that were viewable from all angles, ie, a 360-degree circle (shown here)
*two side-table designs
*8 other designs that were more sculptural in feeling
*windowscape designs to accessorize hotel windows
Stay tuned: In Part Two, I’ll describe how we created a flower shop.
