Top 10 moments of 2018

Some of my favorite moments of 2018! (Floral, personal and otherwise)

1. Welcoming this little peanut into the world is definitely number one!

   My sweet nephew was born in May of this year and he has brought so much joy to our family! He is sweet, happy and his little puffy legs melt anyone’s heart! Right now he’s teething and absolutely adores peek a boo! He lights up when he sees me (well any of his family) and that little smiling face just turns me to marshmallow! I love this little guy and I adore being an aunt!

2. Delivering this bouquet to the sweetest bride.

Taylor and Andrew’s wedding will always be special to me. These two were so genuine, joyful and welcoming from the very start. I became good friends with them both over the course of working on their wedding and I am so honored to have been part of such a beautiful day! I got to sneak over and say hi to them on their wedding day just after their first look and I am so grateful that the photographer snapped this photo! Prior to the wedding, they invited my husband and I to stay and celebrate with them during the meal and reception and that is one of my most favorite wedding memories to date! It was so emotional seeing my clients so happy with the way their flowers turned out and getting to experience my work at the wedding of a couple that loved each other so deeply was moving. I will cherish this photo for years to come.

3. Pulling off our biggest, most romantic wedding yet!

This winter wedding was movie worthy! I prepared for this wedding for months. The logistics involved a custom made arch that had to be installed into the space the day of the wedding, two trips of supplies, hiring my biggest team yet, renting a trailer to fit the arbor on, two full days (waking up at 7 am and going to bed at midnight) of designing and prepping lots of inventory! On the day of the wedding, December 1st, Robby and I were up at 4:30 to pick up the arch and then caravan over to the Royal Palms to get it set up. While Robby and my dad set up the arch I unloaded wagon after wagon of inventory into the ballroom. We then raced back to pick up the flowers and the team and shortly were on the road, making our way back to Royal Palms for the day. We had a mantle instal, a huge arbor to fill with smilax and roses, 15 centerpieces, personals, rose petals, and just about 200 candles to place and light. If I do say so myself… WE KILLED IT! My team was absolutely fantastic and we were ahead of schedule all day. After finishing the ceremony I took a step back and just felt so proud of how far my team and I have come in such a short amount of time! The deep reds, soft blushes and elegant whites of this wedding were the definition of romantic! The candle lit dinner and burning fireplace adorned in roses just set the mood for a magical night. I have so much gratitude for my clients and their trust in me to make their wedding the one of their dreams!

4. We were published in the first print issue of Embrace Magazine with our friend Hannah Ball.

This boudoir editorial was perfect in the first issue of Embrace Magazine. There’s just something about opening up a a magazine and seeing your own work! I can’t wait until I have a shelf full of Magazines that feature my work. But for now, we are celebrating this highlight for 2018! It’s a big one for us.

5. I spent my first visit to Jackson, Wyoming flowering up 4 weddings and creating the greatest friendships!

My friend Sam owns a wedding design business and flew me and another Arizona designer out to her home to help her with a monster wedding weekend! My time there was definitely hard work but it has created such wonderful memories for me! It was my first time meeting Sam and her family and they were the sweetest most welcoming bunch! It was all around a wonderful week but playing with flowers made a trip to remember! Also, these dahlias were probably the biggest bunch of perfect stems I have ever seen!

6. Making the drive to Laguna Beach with Basically Brandy (you’re for sure going to want to read this one)

Brandy and I had known each other for about a month when we decided to hit the road and head straight to Laguna! Of course, we grab our starbucks and snackies and we head for the city limit. We get to what felt like the middle of nowhere, when all of a sudden Brandy is having a pretty large panic attack. She looks at me and says “the gas light just went on”. We both went into a little bit of a freak out. If you have never done the drive from Phoenix to California, there is a long (LONG) stretch of highway that doesn’t have a single gas stop… We were right in the middle of that stretch. She forgot to put gas in the rental car when she got it and I was doing my best to remain calm. I look up the closest gas station in hopes that we get really lucky and are closer than we think. The nearest gas station is 40 miles away… I go straight for the hopeful routine. I’m like “you know what, it’s going to be totally fine! We’re definitely going to make it.” My faith started to fade very very very fast. About ten miles go by and I’m praying (out loud) at this point that God just works a miracle and gets us to the gas station some how. Then my faith meter goes down a little more and I go “well, we only need to get within a mile of the gas station right?! At that point we can walk if we have to! (we would be leaving her camera equipment and the flowers in sun, on the side of the road). So I start chanting.. “God just get us within a mile of the gas station! God please look after us and get us within a mile of the gas station!” I kid you not!! The rental car chugged to a stop one yard past the highway sign that said “ Gas, 1 mile”. At this point I had to be thankful that God answered my prayer but I was still freaking out! Do we call the cops and have them give us ride? Do we leave all our stuff?! Then, Brandy starts saying “Kourtney! I’ve seen TV shows where cute girls get killed by creepy men because they got stuck on the side of road!” I’m like WHAT!? I’m ready to start sprinting to the gas station! Brandy grabs her 100 pound camera bag and we start our very slow trudge up the hill to the gas station. About 8 minutes in, a man appears out of no where and is now gaining on us. We’re both loosing our minds trying to walk as fast as we can. {Turns out he ran out of gas too! So we felt bad for judging and felt better (only a little) that we weren’t the only ones!} We fill up the red gas can about 5 gallons and start our even slower trudge back to the car. She’s carrying her bag still and I’m attempting to carry this awkwardly large and horribly shaped gas can while also trying to keep it from spilling on me. What felt like an hour and a half later, we get to the car, dump the gas in and drive to the gas station. Throughout the entire situation Brandy and I kept saying #worthit! “running out of gas in the middle of nowhere on your way to an engagement photo shoot?! #worthit” “spilling gasoline all over your brand new birks.. #worthit” “getting a ticket for speeding in order to make up lost time (which she did, about an hour after we left the gas station) #worthit” “climbing 1000 steps to get to the beach we were shooting at with a 5 gallon bucket of water in my hands, and she has her huge camera bag hanging on her side (which we also did about 5 hours later)… #worthit”. And it definitely was #worthit! We were exhausted at the end of the night but this is one of the funniest memories of my year! Such a good reminder that life is going to happen, it’s how you handle it that matters.

7. Being in the car with my hubby for three days on a weekend trip to the Salt Flats to shoot with Jeremy Chou was a major highlight!

There are a couple things I get to check of my list here! Not only did I get to visit the salt flats, but I got to do it with an awesome group of people! Rob and I hoped in the car after work on Saturday afternoon and started our trek to Salt Lake City, Utah (well we stopped for coffee and food first of course, but thats a given!). At midnight we stopped at a tiny little city to sleep, got up at 7 am and hoped back in the car ( definitely got coffee). On to Salt Lake! After a whole bunch of podcasts, lots of chatting and a couple jam sessions, we pulled in to the hotel that everybody was meeting up at, got more coffee and jumped back in the car to our shoot destination… you guessed it, the salt flats! Driving across this highway and seeing miles and miles of flat ground covered in white salt was so much more breathtaking than I had even imagined. Two and a half hours later we got to the rest stop (best place for photos) to find a foot of water covering the salt. It was one of the most magical sights. It felt like we had arrived at another planet. I didn’t want to leave but we decided to turn back a couple miles to shoot where the dress would be free of salt water stains. Back in the car we went! This time without coffee, but with a lot of excitement! Jeremy ended up destroying his shoes in the mud and texted us all later saying that he had to throw them out! After about forty five minutes of shooting we took a group picture, said our goodbyes and Robby and I hopped back in the car to arrive in Las Vegas 6 hours later. Two in the morning we check in, get our room, crash, wake up at 6 and…… YEP! hop back in the car for another 4 hour drive home! (Oh! and don’t worry, we stopped to get coffee before we left for vegas and before our final drive home lol) we got home Monday afternoon and both got right back to work on Tuesday. I didn’t touch the steering wheel once! I don’t know how Robby does it! He’s like a super human driver! It was one of the quickest, craziest, most claustrophobic weekends of my life but I have such a happy memory of it because sometimes its worth doing something a little crazy. Sometimes you gotta just say, “Hey! wanna drive me to Salt Lake and then turn right around and head back before work on Tuesday?!” And sometimes your husband just says “You’re crazy! But yeah, that sounds like an adventure.” And then you go.

8. My sweet friend Bree Marie asking my sister and I to model for her!

My sister is such a natural! Bree was entering a couple photos into a contest and asked if she could get us to model for her. Of course, we said yes. (I mean free photos by an awesome photographer… duh!) I am so grateful to her for asking us. This is one of my all time favorite photos of my youngest sister and I feel so blessed that being in this industry allowed for this opportunity to happen. But seriously, she should model full time! Don’t you think?

9. Hubby driving me to Santa Ynez California to shoot with Matthew Nigel in the mountains and adventuring to the surrounding vineyards is a memory I’ll always cherish. (yes, my husband does a lot of driving for me… he’s an angel, what can I say!)

Driving through the mountains and hills of Santa Ynez way surpassed my expectations. It was one of the prettiest drives we’ve done and it made me wish I still had my little convertible to soak up the sun and take it all in. We met up with the vendor team in the small but adorable town of Santa Ynez and then caravanned to the shoot location. We ran into a hiccup when it looked as though we would be shooting on private property. So Matt being the cool guy that he is, called up some of his photographer friends who gave him a new location to shoot. We zig zagged through some sketchy turns up the side of the mountain until it opened up into this gorgeous lookout with golden grasses and rolling hills! The sunset was breathtaking from that spot and although we were freezing, all bundled up and trying to stay warm, I did not want to leave! But we finished shooting, it quickly got dark and we made our way out of Santa Ynez. During the rest of our weekend in the Santa Maria area we got to visit what is now my second favorite vineyard, Chamisal! (Incase your wondering, my all time favorite is called 360 and it’s in Maribor Slovenia) The weather was perfect, a cool breeze with the warm sun shining. We went to a couple vineyards, did some shopping, ate wonderful food and then made our trip home. This is one of my favorite trips because it just marked such a relaxing time of the year. It was the middle of summer so I was out of wedding season, the weather in Cali was the perfect get away from the Arizona heat and I just have such fond memories of this beautiful trip where we became friends with beautiful people.

10. On the way home from highlight number 9, we ran into Gordon Ramsey at the Starbucks in Malibu! He was the sweetest!

Rob and I, as always, felt like we were in need of a little coffee pick me up on our way home from Santa Ynez. We were driving through Malibu, California so we found the closest Starbucks and scurried on in. I have a tiny bladder so every time we stop I try to make sure I use the restroom (TMI?). While I’m in the restroom I miss a call from Robby. I think hmm… thats weird. He knows I’m in the restroom. He calls again and I’m like what the heck is going on?! What could he possibly need me for? I then see that he’s texted me in all caps: GORDON RAMSEY IS HERE! So naturally.. I rush to finish up and go sprinting out of the bathroom. As I walk out of the bathroom I look down at my phone to make sure I read his text right. The second I look down at my phone I walk (almost brushing shoulders with) Gordon Ramsey and I don’t even realize it. Everyone else in the Starbucks is oblivious to the fact that a hollywood star and food magician is in their presence because he’s wearing a biking helmet, a highlighter yellow biking romper looking thing, and he’s walking around in his socks with a kind of goggle on. So Robby whispers and lets me know that I walked right by him and I’m all upset because I’m thinking great! I didn’t even get to see him! We grab our coffees and take them over to the creamer section in the back and start doing our little coffee ritual.. (3 raw sugars and cream) and out of the corner of my eye, THERE’S GORDON RAMSEY! He’s standing right next to me and I’m thinking keep it calm Kourtney. You don’t want to make a scene because that’ll just piss him off. He obviously doesn’t want to be noticed. So I smile at him and say “Hi!”. He smiles back at me and says “Oh hello there! How are you two doing today?” me and Robby then start fan-girling and fan-boying out inside but Rob very James Bond-esque lets him know that we are big fans of his and we think he’s just great. He says thanks so much and starts walking back to the bar to grab the water they have waiting for him. Me and Rob are thinking how cool was that? Expecting that to be the end of the encounter. After grabbing his water he comes back over to us (mind you, in a Starbucks full of people that don’t realize who it is we’re talking to) and says “So what are you guys doing this weekend? What have you got going on?” I screamed like a little girl inside! GORDON RAMSEY CAME BACK TO TALK TO US!! EEEPPPP!!! But of course on the outside I kept it cool. “We’re actually heading back to Phoenix, we were just out here for a weekend getaway and a photo shoot.” We stood there and chatted with him for about 5 more minutes and then I made my move, “Can I take a quick selfie with you?”. He says, “Well it better be quick as the goal is to not be recognized. Let’s go.” Frantically I opened my camera and snapped this gem! He then apologized to me that he didn’t look better and “sorry for the mess” as he pointed to his hair. He couldn’t have been nicer or more personable! It was such an unexpected highlight to that trip and for about an hour after that we talked about how we just met Gordon Ramsey and he came back to talk to us!

Bonus Highlight! This Highlight doesn’t get a number because I could write a thousand highlights regarding Robby, my husband. As you’ve read, he did a lot of these adventures with me (typically behind the steering wheel). I cherish each moment that we got to jam out in the car, talk business, work a wedding together and so many more! The amount of bouquets he’s held for me, buckets he’s carried, stem’s he’s processed, weddings he’s stayed up to do strike and SO many other things he’s done for me over the course of this year are immeasurable. He’s cheered me on, stood by my side, worked his butt of, given advice, gotten up before the sun and stayed up later and been in my corner every step of the way! All while chasing his own dream and working a full time job. His actions always tell me that he truly believes that my success and happiness are also his. Getting to be his wife through another calendar year has been one of the biggest highlights of all!

We’ve had a wonderful year and can’t wait to dive into 2019 with more flowers, brides, love and joy than any other year! Share with us what your highlights were this year!