american flowers week ~ June 28 to July 4 ~ Celebrating American Grown Flowers in all 50 States

2024 Botanical Couture Look Three: Summer Romance

Last summer, Alanna Messner-Scholl expressed her fashionista talents in an Instagram post featuring a feminine and ferny party frock on a dressmaker’s form, photographed in the garden. Of course, we reached out to learn more and discovered that the Pennsylvania-based farmer florist once studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Experience in fashion, plus a subsequent career in healthcare, led to Alanna eventually establishing a flower farm called Waverly Flower Co. After finishing her post-doctoral fellowship, Alanna stepped back from the healthcare industry during the height of COVID to focus on raising her two children, now toddlers.

Today, Alanna has expanded Waverly Flower Co. into a bustling wedding and events studio with 32 weddings on the books for 2024. Alanna’s most recent creation for American Flowers Week transforms greenery and blooms into botanical couture worn by a human model.

The endeavor drew inspiration from her muse, model Lindsey Gerstlauer, a floral designer who frequently freelances for Waverly Flower Co., and the photography venue, Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm, the historic farm where Ashley Meier photographed the finished look. “Little Figgie,” the vintage roadster and iconic prop, played an important supporting role.

Past and Present features a lush, two-piece garment—a fitted bodice and a petticoat skirt. The design is based on a layer of greenery to which roses and other flowers are added. With an uneven hemline falling just below the knee, the tea-length gown is admittedly foliage-heavy, which is what Alanna wanted.

“To me, ‘garden-inspired’ also means a healthy proportion of greens, because that’s typically what we see in the garden,” she said, adding that she sourced entirely from her garden and flower fields. Knowing that large quantities of foliage would be required to cover the skirt and top, she trialed 30 different leaf types to determine the best varieties to last out of water for several hours.

“The vast majority did not hold well or retain their shapes,” she noted. “I was open-minded in the sense that I didn’t have to have particularly long stems, but the greenery choices were limited.” She found that the best options were magnolia, pieris, and wisteria foliage, and together, a cascade of these elements provided dimension and detail for the flirty skirt. Alanna wired the leaves to an overskirt made from soft window screening (the type that comes on a roll at the hardware store), which draped over the fabric petticoat.

A proliferation of garden roses, harvested at their peak, frames the neckline, crossing the torso to the hemline in a diagonal arrangement. ‘Desdemona’, ‘Earth Angel’, and ‘Wollerton Old Hall’ roses are accented by creamy white blooms of goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus) and allium flowers.

Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm is one of Alanna’s favorite local event venues and Waverly Flower Co. was an invited floral vendor and florist in residence over Mother’s Day weekend. The dreamy landscape, old-world stone barn, garden paths, arbors, and rustic fencing provided authentic character as setting for the photography.

To continue her narrative, Alanna procured the use of a stylish roadster called “Little Figgie.” The car is often rented for weddings and events, appearing at prior Life’s Patina events as well. Manufactured as a retro concept car by Nissan in 1991, the Figaro model is now a favorite of collectors. Alanna considered the cool blue-gray hue a perfect match for her blue-eyed model.

DESIGN + CONCEPT: Alanna Messner-Scholl, Waverly Flower Co., waverlyflowerco.com, @waverlyflowerco
FLOWER SOURCES: Waverly Flower Co., Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
PHOTOGRAPHER: Ashley Meier, ashleymeierphotography.com, @ashleymeier26
MODEL: Lindsey Gerstlauer, @lindseygerstlauer
VENUE: Life’s Patina at Willowbrook Farm, lifespatina.com, @lifes.patina_willowbrookfarm
MAKEUP: Ashley Novak, Glam on Demand, glamondemand.com, @glamondemand
VINTAGE CAR: Little Figgie, @littlefiggie

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