A few years ago, in the midst of planning my own wedding, I had the privilege of meeting and working with Nona Tai of Floral Design Studios. My husband and I were immediately drawn to her friendly personality and ability to quickly sketch out several ideas of how the floral decorations should look on our big day. I love me some color and what she designed far exceeded our expectations.

Now that I'm a photographer, it's an honor to have this opportunity to write about Nona as an artist and person.
On my quest to learn about Nona and all the hard work she puts into running her business, I accepted her invitation to accompany her on a trip to the San Francisco Wholesale Flower Mart, a place where floral vendors come together to purchase what their businesses need. I had to be there are 5:30 a.m. (eeek!), but nonetheless I was still excited for this rare opportunity to go behind the scenes.

Nona had been preparing for an annual event called Bouquet to Arts, an event held at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. Floral designers display their work in ways to interpret the artwork in the exhibits. I can barely keep a cactus alive so to see floral designers get together to design these spectacular floral arrangements (even making them look like cupcakes!) is pretty amazing.

Have you ever had those moments where, while you're listening to someone talk, you realize that the things they're saying are amazingly tied into profound truths? That's a bit of what I experienced while Nona and I chatted away and she skillfully worked on her craft back at her warehouse. She smiled and told me that to understand and work with each flower is very much like working and understanding a human being....one wouldn't force another one into ways that are not naturally them as a person and the same goes for a flower. To figure out the room temperature, the special care required for each flower, required paying close attention and heeding to it's "language"...again, very much like a person. That if you wanted to get the best out of a flower you had to know it well first and respond accordingly.

Pretty cool, huh? I sat there and nodded away feeling very Karate Kid/ Mr. Miyagi-like...but surrounded with vases, flowers, and scissors instead of sparring mats and hi-yawwww type of boards.

Nona understands full well she's helping brides create irreplaceable memories with each unique design she crafts together. She helped make my own wedding day a memorable one and it's awesome see that she continues to do the same for so many others.

Here are a few snapshots that show a day in the life of the Flower Diva herself, Ms. Nona Tai. Be sure to check out her Floral Design Studios on Facebook.

Her little fur baby accompanied us to the Flower Market...