Live Sessions - October 2020 Schedule

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More helpful tips and techniques coming your way!  Check out the following live sessions scheduled for the month of October.

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Flower Arranging in a Vase

  • Date: Sunday, 10/11/20

  • Time: 11:00 AM

  • Where: Instagram Live

  • RSVP: Reserve your seat

  • Topic: Learn the art of arranging a bouquet in a vase.

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Tool Cleaning

  • Date: Sunday, 10/25/20

  • Time: 11:00 AM

  • Where: Instagram Live

  • RSVP: Reserve your seat

  • Topic: Tips on how to clean and care for your floral arranging tools.

Favorite Flower Series - Introducing the Second Flower

Today we're talking about Anthuriums! Some of you may have started to see this tropical beauty popping up on your feeds on Pinterest and Instagram lately. They’re super popular and widely used from bridal bouquets, to centerpieces and even some really fun installations.

Anthurium blooms come from a flowering plant native to Colombia and Ecuador, however, you'll see them a lot in Hawaii. It was honestly one of the first times I was introduced to this flower.


They come in a variety of colors and sizes with a sort of waxy, shiny heart shaped leaf spathe that surrounds the spadix in the center, which is generally white or yellow in color.

Some fun facts about Anthuriums are;

  • This plant helps to clean the air and is listed on Nasa’s Clean Air Study

  • The entire plant is toxic

  • Some other common names include Lace Leaf, Painter’s Palette and Flamingo Flower

We love Anthuriums and use them often in our designs. What do you all think of this flower?

Favorite Flower Series - Introducing the First Flower

We LOVE all flowers and while they are all beautiful in their own right, we do have some of our own favorites! When selecting flowers for our designs we like to choose the unusual, unique and interesting blooms that speak to us. We also consider seasonality, color and what purpose each flower will serve in our designs.

We are beyond excited for all the amazing blooms that appear to reflect the warm summer season.  Since so much of our design inspiration is driven by the changing seasons, we want to share and educate you about the flowers of summer.   

These seasonal blooms are used in our Summer Bouquet and Arrangement Collection - not only will you know more about the flowers we are using but you can also purchase and enjoy them in the comfort of your home, studio or office.

With that said, we are introducing our first flower of the series! 

The Carnation!

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With a history that dates back more than 2,000 years, it's not surprising that carnations are rich with symbolism, mythology and even debate. While some scholars suggest that their name comes from the word "corone" (flower garlands) or "coronation" because of its use in Greek ceremonial crowns, others propose that it's derived from the Latin "carnis" (flesh) referring to the flower's original pinkish-hued color or "incarnacyon" (incarnation), referring to the incarnation of God-made flesh.

Today, carnations can be found in a wide range of colors, and while in general they express love, fascination and distinction, virtually every color carries a unique and rich association. White carnations suggest pure love and good luck, light red symbolizes admiration, while dark red represents deep love and affection. Purple carnations imply capriciousness, and pink carnations carry the greatest significance, beginning with the belief that they first appeared on earth from the Virgin Mary's tears – making them the symbol of a mother's undying love.

This hardy, sweetly fragrant flower is also the state flower of Ohio, the January birth month flower and the 1st wedding anniversary flower.

The single flowers of the Carnations species, Dianthus caryophyllus have 5 petals and vary from white to pink to purple in color. Border Carnation cultivars may have double flowers with as many as 40 petals.

When grown in gardens, Carnations grow to between 6 and 8.5 cm in diameter. Petals on Carnations are generally clawed or serrated.

Carnations are bisexual flowers and bloom simply or in a branched or forked cluster. The stamens on Carnations can occur in one or two whorls, in equal number or twice the number of the petals.

The Carnation leaves are narrow and stalk less and their color varies from green to grey-blue or purple. Carnations grow big, full blooms on strong, straight stems.

Fun Facts:

  • Carnations express love, fascination and distinction.

  • Carnations are native to Eurasia.

  • Historically, Carnations are known to have been used for the first time by Greeks and Romans in garlands.

  • Carnations are exotic to Australia but have been grown commercially as a flower crop since 1954.

  • Carnation blooms last a long time even after they are cut.

  • Carnation flowers have become symbolic of mother's love and also of Mother's Day.

We hope you enjoyed the first flower of our Favorite Flower Series - check back next week for our next flower!

Sources: Teleflora, Pickupflowers

C & S Wedding Recap

Today we are celebrating the one year wedding anniversary of Christina + Shmuel who were wed at the fun and quirky Grass Room in Downtown LA. We cannot believe it's already been a year and we wish we could be together with everyone celebrating these two all over again.

Christina and Shmuel wanted to create a festive, fun, relaxed and non traditional atmosphere for their friends and family. Their main inspirations came from surrealism, Frida Kahlo, Where the Wild Things Are and the movie The Life Aquatic.

Part of our design approach is to understand the space and to make sure the design is intentional and in context to the surroundings. We played up the concept of ocean life found in the venue's murals, combined with bright tropicals and added a modern eclectic twist with dried elements, painted leaves and the coolest carved candles all the way from Ukraine to complete the design.

Christina and Shmuel were an absolute dream to work with and really allowed us to have creative freedom to take their vision and bring it to life. Our mutual love for color, tropicals and eclectic elements really helped to make this one incredible fun and colorful. Can you tell we love using all the colors in the rainbow!?

If you like to see more from this rad day. Check out the feature on Green Wedding Shoes.

Thank you to the fabulous vendor team. We miss you!


photography: Hannah Costello // venue name: Grass Room, Los Angeles, California, USA // planning: Feathered Arrow // florals: Inessa Nichols Design // wedding dress: Grace Loves Lace // hairpiece: Inessa Nichols Design // bride's shoes: Botkier // bride's ring: No. 3 in San Francisco - Custom Design from Bario Neal // hair stylist: 1011 Makeup // makeup artist: 1011 Makeup // groom attire: Indochino // paper goods: Jules Weissman // catering: Border Grill // desserts: Cool Haus // tabletop rentals: La Pinata Party Rentals // linen rentals: Heather Taylor Home // specialty rentals: Chuppah Rental from Chuppah Studio // music: Dart Collective // officiant: Rabbi Rebecca Schatz // photo booth: GC Photobooth // cocktails: The Whaling Club // acrylic signs : Creative Amme

A Mother's Day to Remember

Since the start of COVID-19 stay at home order in March, our business came to a screeching halt.  All scheduled events and weddings were either cancelled or postponed.  We watched as our fellow vendors, wholesalers and farmers all involved in the supply chain take a hit.  In result, we’ve had to use our imaginations and pivot our businesses to survive this new era.

Our fierce leader decided to take Mother’s Day bouquet and arrangement orders to bring beautiful flowers to Moms all over Southern California.  We did not expect such an amazing response from existing and new customers.  Your overwhelming support was so very much appreciated, especially during this unprecedented time.

Because the Mother’s Day orders were a huge success, we wanted to share with you all the love and support we received - thanks to all of our amazing partners, vendors, farmers and customers!

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To show our love and support for local businesses in Long Beach, we partnered with Salud Juice and Trademark Brewing.  Salud offered bouquet pickups at their 4th street location and Trademark Brewing offered a bouquet and crowler bundle.  

We hope that you guys check them out and continue to support these businesses as they make amazing juices, snacks and food at Salud and brew some delicious beer at Trademark Brewing - both are opened, so swing on by and say hello.  Huge thank you to the amazing leaders and staff that helped us make this Mother’s Day special this year.

In addition to the bouquets, arrangements and partnerships, Inessa created a Mommy & Me Crown collection - check out the sweet photo of one of our Mom’s with her darling daughter wearing their one of a kind everlasting crowns. She also just happens to be one of our favorite past brides. We love you!!

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We also had one amazing Mom donate two bouquets to two single Moms.  She expressed how challenging it can be to be a Mother and doing it alone is even harder - so she wanted to encourage two single Moms and thank them for being great Moms to their children - our donor would like to remain anonymous but this was such a treat and we loved being a part of it!

As we were making our deliveries on Mother’s Day, we were rewarded with all the smiles we saw and all the hard work we did paid off!  On one of our first deliveries of the day, we were gifted two hummingbirds handmade out of soda cans and wire - we will cherish them and keep them as reminders of this amazing day - we were so touched by these gifts that we had to share.  To make the deliveries even more special, we got a chance to catch up with one of our former brides Amy - we chatted through the glass window and got teary eyed because we loved getting to see her and sharing our brief but sweet interaction so much.

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We received a flood of comments and thank you’s - one of favorites is from the amazing Momma below - we just had to share her picture with her beautiful bouquet. She loved her bouquet so much that she set-up a mini photo shoot to capture it in all its glory.

Thank you again for supporting IND with all of your orders for Mother’s Day - it has truly touched us. We hope to continue spreading the joy of flowers for years to come.  We are now taking bouquet and arrangement orders all year round - visit our Shop to order yours!

Introducing our Operations Manager

2020 has been off to a great start and the exciting news keeps on coming.  In December of last year, IND hired our first full-time employee. IND has been growing and we need more hands to get it all done.  

Without further ado, we are happy to announce that Liliya Zherebnenko has joined the IND team as the Operations Manager!

Liliya has shown her support from the beginning, but this time it’s full in.  She facilitates our event processing, production and setup timelines. Her priorities are to make sure all tasks are done on time and we are on schedule for all our events.  Not only that, but she also works closely with Inessa on our marketing efforts, event planning, organizing and preparing for future opportunities.

Liliya brings an extensive background in project management, customer service and product development.  This has been a big change for her career wise, but she is excited to take on this new creative industry.  We are also excited to have Liliya on board and looking forward to an amazing journey together!

If you are interested in joining the team, we currently offer an apprenticeship program - read about it here.  And you’ll get to work with Liliya to get you started.

Congratulations Liliya - here’s to a great career at IND!

Cover Girl - Clean Fresh Collection Launch

Fresh new make up goes so well with fun and cheerful florals. For Cover Girls new product launch event, we were inspired to create a floral design that showcased the colors and vibes of the Clean Fresh Collection - Cover Girls new product line of vegan based makeup.  The event took place at Rolling Greens in the inspiring and picturesque arts district of DTLA. Two beautiful backdrops were styled with florals for guests to take pictures - we call them activations.  To finish off the look we also incorporated accent floral pieces throughout the venue for guests to take the perfect pictures. Thank you to the team at Cover Girl, Sequin Productions and One Nine Design for having us be apart of this Clean Fresh Collection launch event - we love how it turned out!

Photography: Breana Powell Photography

Floral Design + Styling: Inessa Nichols Design with the assistance of Lizbeth from Rawfinery

Production: Sequin Productions

Fabrications: One Nine Design

Venue: Rolling Greens, DTLA

Lili Reinhart the face of the Clean Fresh campaign with our first backdrop activation

Lili Reinhart the face of the Clean Fresh campaign with our first backdrop activation

Lili Reinhart and Sydney Sweeney posing in front of the first backdrop activation we created together with One Nine Design

Lili Reinhart and Sydney Sweeney posing in front of the first backdrop activation we created together with One Nine Design

Flashback to Our First Centerpiece Workshop

One beautiful and sunny spring morning, Inessa Nichols Design Team met at The Howl (in downtown Long Beach) to setup their very first centerpiece workshop. After loading in all the florals, sponsor giveaways and refreshments the team arranged tables with tools and supplies creating a unique learning experience for all the guests.

Once the guests settled in, the workshop started off with Inessa announcing the itinerary for the day and led a demonstration on how to start a centerpiece arrangement. At each stage, guests were guided by Inessa on what’s next and were able to ask questions for direction.

Inessa demonstrating the elements on a centerpiece and steps involved on how to arrange one.

Inessa demonstrating the elements on a centerpiece and steps involved on how to arrange one.

As the workshop continued, guests were encouraged to incorporate florals that they haven’t worked with before and apply elements like citrus, fruit and dried berries to their centerpieces.

Guests were also able to take breaks, step back from their centerpieces and enjoy refreshments and giveaways from some of our sponsors like Salud Juice, Restauration and Silk and Willow. It was truly a day of creative fun and all the guests made beautiful centerpieces - keep scrolling to see them for yourself!

When the guests completed their beautiful arrangements, we had a professional photoshoot with each guest and their very own centerpiece. Take a look below at some of the amazing arrangements our guests made!

Lastly we wrapped up the workshop with a gorgeous group photo with each guest show casing their beautiful work.

Want to learn how to make your very own centerpiece? Contact us for your one-on-one learning session with Inessa Nichols. Be on the lookout for our seasonal workshops - our next one will be held in June on bouquet making.