Vendor Spotlight: Pat Gibbons, San Francisco Bay Area Wedding Floral Designer

A true seasoned professional, Pat Gibbons moved to the Bay Area from Cambridge in 1981 where she’d been working in the Events Department at the Museum of Science in Boston. Her career in floral design began when she walked into a flower shop in Berkeley and was hired on the spot. It was an easy transition that combined many of her interests: flowers, art and gardening. From the moment she started, she tells us she loved designing with flowers and it’s never stopped. All you have to do is look at her work to understand why! She’s even been invited to participate in the prestigious Bouquets to Art, held at the De Young Museum in San Francisco for the past 22 years.


“It’s my love of color, texture and bringing interesting elements together that keeps everything fresh,” she tells us. “Every season brings a whole new flower palette. I enjoy meeting people for consultations and hearing about their ideas and find it a fun process to develop innovative designs. Because I limit the number of weddings I do to one per weekend day, I offer personalized and detailed service and great value. On the day of the wedding, I’m always on-site for the delivery and setting up of the flowers.”

While everything starts with service and quality, Pat strives to bring ‘style-design-beauty’ to everything she does. She has a great reputation with both her clients and peers and is known for her artistry, service and the expertise that comes from designing for 29 years. And true to the Bay Area, Pat strives to be a green as possible; recycling, using local vendors and products. We think she’s divine and so will you. Stop by at: http://www.patgibbonsfloral.com

Vendor Spotlight, Gilliflower, San Francisco Wedding Florist

We stumbled upon Madeline Trait of GilliFlower and couldn’t resist writing about her. And funny, she stumbled upon floral design in a most unique way. A past roommate admired Madeline’s love for fresh flowers and how she’d fill their apartment with them (dreamy roommate, right?). Upon the roommate’s engagement, she asked Madeline if she’d do the honor of designing her floral arrangements for her Big Day. Madeline tells us the wedding turned out great and a new career was born. She began part-time while she worked at a residential interior design firm as an architect and designer. Eventually, GilliFlower was born and Madeline was able to design for events full time. She continues to educate herself in floral design and horticulture.

“I like collaborating where I can offer guidance on colors, seasonal flowers, and how flowers will work as a composition with everything else like the wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, the venue and table settings,” she explains about her love of working with brides. “My design philosophy is that there should be balance between all visual elements and this is where my architecture, art and design background come into play. I am extremely detail oriented and like to ensure all details have been thought out to make a seamless design.”

Besides from coffee, Madeline says what keeps her fresh and creative is the idea of having a different creative endeavor on the horizon each day. “Of course nature has always had a big influence in my life,” she says, adding, “I love street art and the Mission, where I live, and it offers that: the bright colors contrasting with the surrounding buildings always inspires me to try new things. The bight bold patterns of Josef Frank; they’re interesting and can work for many different styles. On the other end of the spectrum I really love the interiors of Piet Boon, they are subtle, serene yet interesting at the same time.”

Aside from excellence in design and helping make her clients vision a reality, Madeline brings a high level of organization and professionalism to the job. With a background in project management with construction and interiors, she knows these characteristics are essential to a successful event and bringing dreams to life. View her beautiful work to see what we mean. Bridebound says breathtaking...!