Los Angeles, California floral designer Lauryl Lane has come a long way from her Winter 2007 Flower feature, in which she created a ruby-colored wedding that made the cover. We caught up with the designer, who is still crafting beautiful wedding experiences but has added “stylist” to her impressive résumé.
Flower: How would you describe your style 10 years ago, and how has it changed?
Lauryl Lane: Ten years ago my floral design style was very lush but also very regimented. Today I am more in tune with my artistic medium, and I believe in really following the lines of the flowers to create the shape of my arrangements. I’m still heavy-handed with the floral but have more movement and texture. I want them to look luxurious without being stuffy or overdone.
If you could give your younger self any piece of advice, what would it be?
Listen to your gut. A few times I’ve ended up in a situation that was less than ideal, and every one of those times, I had a premonition that I should decline the job. I learned quickly through those experiences that I needed to listen to that voice in my head.
If you could be something other than human, what would you be?
Oh, a flower fairy, for sure! I love reading Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairy books to my 3-year old twin daughters. We geek out over the fairies’ names and their wardrobes, made from delicate flower petals and other bits of nature.
What is one of your favorite travel destinations?
London has always been my favorite travel destination because I am obsessed with British history, literature, art, and architecture I can never visit the Pre-Raphaelite paintings at the Tate gallery too many times or have enough high tea at The Orangery. Going to see a Shakespeare production every night of the week at The Globe or the RC is heaven. And I’m fascinated by the monarchy.
What flower do you think best represents your personality, and why?
I think it’s a white anemone with the black center. I’m someone who loves etiquette and elegance, but I also have my “darker” side. Anemones can be pretty uniform, but they’re still lively and vivacious, and I love that juxtaposition of light and dark. I’m drawn to dark, moody colors, old libraries, mysterious castles, fantasy, and sci-fi, but I work with flowers and live and breathe in one of the brightest, lightest cities in the world. I suppose we’re all a study in contradictions in one way or another, no?
By Jena Hippensteel