Flowers that outlast the occasion.
Hand-painted crepe paper botanicals, commissioned for events, interiors, and installations. Built one petal at a time to be permanent and indistinguishable at arm’s length.
There is a moment, three days after an event, when the flowers begin to go. The garden roses drop. The ranunculus bow. Everything that cost a great deal and looked extraordinary becomes something a crew bags and carries out.
Commissioned work from Petals to Stems doesn’t have that moment.
Every stem is cut from Italian crepe paper and hand-painted before it’s shaped — leaves veined and shaded, petals curved one at a time, each bloom studied against the real thing. The result reads as botanical, not decorative. Guests reach out to touch it. Then it goes home with someone, or into a foyer, and it’s still doing that in a decade.
What commissioning looks like
A conversation first. Bring the palette, the venue, the room, the fabric swatch, the photograph of a garden rose you can’t stop thinking about. We work from what you actually want, not a catalogue.
Species and palette developed to your specification. Color is mixed and painted by hand, which means it can be matched — to a fabric, a paint deck, a bridesmaid’s dress, a client’s existing collection. This is the part fresh flowers can’t promise you.
A sample before scale. For larger commissions, a single finished stem or a small grouping goes out for approval before the full piece is built. Nothing large is a surprise.
Built, then delivered and installed. We are located in Southern California and can deliver to much of the Greater Los Angeles area. We also ship throughout the United States.
For event planners
You already know the failure modes: the market didn’t have the variety, the color came in wrong, the heat took the arrangements by the second course, and none of it survives the night.
Commissioned paper botanicals remove that risk from the timeline.
- Specified months out, delivered finished. No day-of substitutions, no seasonality, no market surprises.
- Color matched exactly, to fabric or paint reference.
- Species available regardless of season — peonies in November, garden roses in February.
- Heat, cold, and dry rooms are irrelevant. No water, no refrigeration, no wilt at hour six.
- Reusable across a series of events, or resold, or gifted to the client afterward as an object rather than a memory.
- Trade terms available for planners and floral designers. [Details.]
Installation and backdrop work, escort tables, ceremony arches, tablescapes, and single statement pieces. See also paper flower walls and giant paper flowers.
For those who love real flowers
If what you love about fresh flowers is the scent, and the fact that they’re alive and briefly perfect, nothing replaces that. Keep buying them.
But if what you love is the form — the particular way a Café au Lait dahlia opens, the ombré at the edge of a coral garden rose, having something extraordinary in the entryway — then the argument for permanence is strong. Some clients commission a piece that recreates their wedding flowers, or a bloom from a garden that no longer exists.
Compare the materials honestly: paper vs. silk vs. dried vs. preserved.
For interior designers
For designers specifying for private residences, showrooms, and hospitality:
- Scaled and colored to the room. Stem height, bloom size, and palette developed against your drawings and finish schedule.
- Matched to your specification — paint decks, textiles, existing art.
- No maintenance line item. No florist contract, no weekly replacement, no water damage to a console or a stone surface.
- Appropriate where fresh isn’t viable — low light, high ceilings, second homes, rooms that are photographed and then closed.
- Allergen-free, which matters more often than clients say up front.
- Made to be photographed. Paper holds color under lights in a way silk doesn’t, and reads correctly at both three feet and three inches.
- Trade program. [Terms, samples, lead times.]
Materials and longevity
Plain facts, because clients will ask:
- Italian and German crepe paper, [weights], hand-painted with [medium]
- Wire-armatured stems, wrapped and finished — arrangeable, not rigid
- Longevity: indefinite with reasonable care. Keep out of direct sun and standing humidity. Dust with [method].
- No water, no refrigeration, no seasonal replacement
- Repairable. [Repair or refresh policy.]