Photography by Dave and Charlotte
Years after meeting at Algonquin College, friends Tanya List and Amy Saleh set out to open a flower shop conducive to the ever-evolving floral industry after while simultaneously honing their creativity and passion for all things floral. Maintaining a distinct presence among their fellow professionals, the ladies of Pink Twig have come to embody the uniqueness, accessibility and earnestness that brides long for, catering to each client by utilizing their knowledge of the industry, their love of originality and their genuine talent. Toronto Wedding Society sat down with Tanya and Amy to discuss floral trends, their personal tastes and the way they’ve begun to see weddings evolve.
TWS: What are the biggest trends you’ve noticed for weddings in regards to floral arrangements?
Tanya List: Probably the biggest trend this year is that people are getting away from the ball-shaped arrangement – everything had to be perfect before, and now they want it a little more organic, a little more natural-looking.
Amy Saleh: And colour. People are starting to add colour. I mean, our first year in business, every weekend it was white, white, white. Now, there’s splashes of purple and lots of lime greens, and so a lot of colour which is really nice.
TWS: Well, I think that the dishevelled aesthetic is kind of prevalent in a lot of different areas with weddings. Do you think it’s kind of reflecting on a new generation of people that are not as structured as their parents?
TL: It could very well be – I have no idea. It’s nicer, it’s actually more fun to make arrangements like this, though. It’s easier as well because you don’t have to make sure that things are exactly perfect.
TWS: What are the most popular bouquets for brides now?
TL: Well definitely something with a hand-tie. I don’t think that since we opened have we made a bouquet in a bouquet holder.
AS: And no cascading bouquets. But we still do a lot of rose bouquets and stuff like that. People still like that classic look of a pretty ball, but we use hydrangeas and orchids and tulips and all sorts of flowers.
TL: Even just fun things –like if you add berries and different kinds of greenery. You can roll leaves and make them look kind of funky.
TWS: Well people seem to be attracted to the vendors that reflect them the most. Do you find you draw clientele similar to you?
TL: They’re all kind of different, I would say. Everyone’s a little bit different. Everyone’s kind of young, easy to get along with – I find that’s kind of a common theme, but everyone has different tastes, but it all works together at some point.
TWS: What are some of your tastes?
TL: I like things really bright. I like pink and orange together, pink and purple – I think pink, honestly, goes with everything in flowers. It’s awesome.
AS: Well, I love purple. I like anything purple, but for me personally if I was ever going to plan a wedding, everything would be multiples of one. I just like one flower, and it doesn’t matter how it’s arranged, but I like one flower. In different vases, there can be five vases on the table, but each would have its own flower and just have multiples of one. That would be my favourite thing to do.
TWS: I like that, it’s original.
TS: It looks really cool – especially from a photographer’s point of view. It looks really nice all together.
TWS: It’s got an edge to it. Do you think brides have become a little more edgier?
TS: Definitely. The great thing is is that the magazines have caught on. They’re not showing the same things over and over again, and people are attracted to what’s in the magazines, and now that there’s so many blogs online and so many websites, people come in all the time [or send] emails [and] pictures and they’re like, ‘Can you do this?’
TWS: Do you think smaller DIY weddings are starting to take hold?
TS: Most brides do plan it themselves. Wedding planners are great, they’re awesome, but some people can’t afford them, so most people end up doing them themselves. But most people don’t do their own flower arrangements because again, they are perishable goods and you don’t want to make them too far in advance, and on their wedding day, people aren’t going to want to mess around with flowers. It’s time consuming.
TWS: Coming into wedding season 2010, what’s the biggest trend you’re looking forward to?
AS: I know what I’m not looking forward to! Right now we’re doing a lot of weddings with twigs and all that sort of stuff, and we’d like to start moving away from that, we’ve been doing that for the last couple years now. It’s getting a little boring for us, so we’ll have to think of something new and fun and green. We did a photo shoot for House and Home three and a half years ago that had flowery twigs in it and that was sort of the first time, and now it’s sort of taken on a life of its own and we’d like to come up with something new and fresh.
TWS: Is it something that’s happening in the city? Because you’d think people in the city would kind of steer away from that.
TS: Everybody loves twigs. It’s a great way to make things look bigger and more expensive. What I love now is that the real flowering twigs are coming in. Which is awesome.
