From her home country Japan, Tomoko brought beautiful, eclectic floral designs incorporating high style, European design, and Ikebana. After receiving her degree from the prestigious Hibiya Flower Academy in Tokyo, she was sponsored by a Floral Company in San Francisco. It did not take long before another store recognized her talent and hired her as head designer. Since 2002 she has had her own studio, calling it Tomobi: belong to beauty.

I love her unusual, fresh ideas, which caught the attention of celebrities such as Barry Bonds, Danielle Steele, and Robin Williams. Her designs can be very elegant including orchids, calla lilies, braided and woven palm leaves or surprising and fun; e.g. a center piece that had a wreath around a bowl with goldfish. Tomoko often makes her own altar decorations. I saw a picture of a tripod made of bamboo, wrapped in gailax leaves with a spray of flowers on the top. For an Asian buffet she tied bamboo to a kind of scaffolding, put tiny red lanterns on it, and placed a row of pears at the base.

Colors and textures play an important role; they might be picked up from the dresses or furnishings in the room.  Sprays and vines trail elegantly down from centerpieces on high flower stands. There are heart-shaped Valentine's decorations, egg baskets combined with flowers for Easter, as well as fall and winter bouquets.

One of her customer from London, found her attractive website on the Internet. She wrote me after the wedding:
"I have been impressed with Tomoko's flower arrangement. Her style containing a bit of oriental influence caught my eye. Only few days before the wedding we finalized the details in San Francisco. She was very patient and very helpful in the whole process. The final result was so spectacular, that even the registrar at City Hall asked me for her phone number!"

Before you hire a florist