One things that we saved a big chunk of money on was flowers. I made all of our wedding flowers in advance with silk flowers to not only save money but also reduce stress (and they don’t wilt!). We were pleased with how all of the flowers came out.

Overall I made:

5 bouquets

10 bouttonnieres

7 corsages

All photos in the post are by Chatman Photography

I’m a detail-oriented person so I think as I begin to share the elements of the Lilac wedding with you, I’ll share some details first. Bring on the pictures….

What details are you most interested in for your wedding?

All photos in the post are by Chatman Photography

By now, you’ve probably seen a brooch bouquet or twelve! What used to be a unique alternative to your bridal bouquet is becoming a bit overdone in the wedding world! Hey, it isn’t the brooch bouquets fault it’s so darn cute!

To get back the uniqueness of the bouquet, check out this cool twist!  A heart-shaped brooch bouquet!

Picture courtesy of McAvoy Photography via Ok, now what? BRIDE Blog

I’m super excited to show all of you how these turned out. You might remember me talking about making flowers out of fabric and trims for the wedding party…well they are finally done – and rather impressive if I do say so myself! Let’s start with the smaller projects – the groomsmen’s boutonnieres. I think these will really pop on their khaki suits!

groomsmen bouts

close up

The bridesmaids bouquets took a little more time because, well there are a lot more flowers in each one – nine to be exact! I tucked the tulle in between the flowers for texture. I think the blue tulle adds dimension. These too will pop as the girls are wearing navy taffeta dresses.

bridesmaid bouquet

front view

We can’t forget about the flower girl – after all “flower” is part of her title. She opted to carry a bouquet as well, so we will just sprinkle some petals when we decorate the church. I really had fun with this one using different techniques and fabrics to resemble different flowers. This was sort of a practice run of my own bouquet, only on a smaller scale.

flower girl bouquet

close up

Now all that’s left is my own bouquet and one to toss! and about 35 bouts for family and friends with other various jobs!

Time to start looking for wrist pretties for the moms: my mother, my future mother-in-law, and the two grandmas. We’re going to wrist corsages because they don’t need to be pinned and they’re more convenient than hand-held mini bouquets.

Criteria:

1- Real flowers. I love how creative the options are in terms of silk or handmade (seriously, gorgeous options on Etsy), but there’s nothing like classic, real flowers to go with our chic wedding.

2- Not Prom-like.

to avoid.

But that’s tough, right?

I’ve fallen hard for this:

What *is* that flower? Is it even a real flower? I love, love the “big” flower wrist corsage. It’s elegant, it doesn’t scream “prom”, and I love the bracelet aspect. Definitely what we’ll be doing.

Other inspirations I love:

… orchids would go with my centerpieces. Otherwise I can go closer to match my bouquet, and choose roses:

without those leaves… dusty miller would look nicer in there.

So what do you think?

Are you having wrist pretties for the moms?

I think I’ve been driving my florist crazy. I originally wanted this bout for my groom:

a sophisticated white anemone.

After some research and after ordering samples to show me, she tells me that anemones are too fragile (their petals are tissue paper thin) to hold up to July heat. They’ll make it through the ceremony, but she’s afraid they will wilt during the reception. Yeah, as if the groom isn’t going to be photographed during the reception. So this clearly doesn’t work.

Since then, I’ve put off choosing flowers for the bouts. The florist was suggesting roses, calla lilies, and orchids … all lovely flowers, but I want something different. “These flowers are used often because they work. They hold up to heat.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So with the florist calling me about once a week and leaving me voicemails similar to:

“Hello? Magnolia? This is Mrs. Florist. Just calling to remind you that I don’t have your chosen flowers for your groom’s bout. If you wouldn’t mind please calling me back as soon as you can.”

and

“Yes, hello, Magnolia? You are aware that I have to order these flowers in advance, right? Please call me back.”

I’ve been sort of avoiding her.

Anyway, so here’s what I think I’d like… opinions are very much appreciated (so I can choose already).

White freesia (which I was told holds up to heat beautifully) and pink bouvardia (never heard of it either, but with my luck, these flowers will be expensive special-ordered and shipped from Thailand. Ha.)

Next up, Freesia accentuated with hypericum berries.

Or, what my florist would suggest:

a spray rose with a small white dendrobium orchid.

Thoughts?

I’m starting to look into flowers more seriously now. Although I’ve been saving inspiration pics for ages, I’ve realized that I am really drawn to big, “fluffy” flowers with lots of petals. Like so:

peonies, ranunculus, anemonies

garden roses

dahlia, peony, garden rose, dusty miller

garden rose, spray rose, dusty miller

peony

garden rose, peony, dusty miller

Right. Lots of peonies and garden roses here. I just need to pick something so that my florist can tell me what she can do, right? Now, I don’t know much about flowers… but at least I’ve got the “fluffy” part down. Anyone know the “floral” term for that?

What’s your flower personality?

On at least five separate occasions, I’ve been asked, “What are your wedding colors?” And the truth is, we don’t have any. Which is not to say that our wedding will be void of color — in fact, quite the opposite is true — but at no point did we sit down and pick a two- or three-color scheme for our wedding.

Is that so shocking?

Yes, apparently it is.

Instead, the guiding aesthetic principle for our wedding is: jewel tones. We’re getting married in a stately private club that is already outfitted with rich wood accents, gilded chandeliers and magnificent stained glass windows. It has so much personality going for it already, we thought committing to an arbitrary three-color scheme would just look and feel forced.

So, jewel tones…what does that mean? Think  an organic mix of ultra saturated reds, blues, violets, fuschias and emeralds, accented with touches of gold and silver. In fact, the only white thing at my wedding will be me.

Does that sound like a rainbow train wreck waiting to happen?

One of the biggest expenses when planning a wedding is the flowers. I mean, think of all the places you have to put them!

You have the  brides bouquet, the bridesmaids’ bouquets, the button holes, church decorations and any that you want in the reception venue. By the time you have considered it all you can likely added on a good £1000 to your budget.

But do you have to?

The theme for my wedding is going to be a dark blue, white and touches of silver. When it came to thinking about bouquets, I knew pretty much straight away what I wanted to have – something dainty and not too bulky, probably daisies. However, my biggest worry was the price.

It was then that I came across a couple of alternative types of bouquet that would help me save a lot of money and I would be able to keep for a long time after the wedding.

I expect you know what I am going to say – yes, silk flowers.

Silk flowers can be found in abundance on many different sites through which people sell the items that they have made themselves. They can range in price and size and can be bought in small amounts over a large amount of time. For example, buying the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets four months before the wedding after purchasing the button holes from someone else two months earlier.

They also give you the option of having a bouquet of rare flowers without necessarily raising the price, as would happen with a regular bouquet.

However, they run the risk of looking fake and not as good as the real thing.

Alongside silk flowers you can now also get Real Touch flowers, which are essentially the same thing but feel that little bit more realistic. This can take you back towards having the impression of real flowers but the price of silk flowers.

So, would you do it? Sacrifice a small amount of quality (or spend a long time searching for the highest quality) in order to get a lower price, or go for the full swing and buy the real flowers.

Personally, due to budget and the fact I want to be able to spread the cost of buying the flowers over the next couple of years, I would go for the silk. The only concern I would have would be the greenery – as this tends to look the most plastic-like and would be something I was picky about.

But that, as all things at a wedding, is down to your preference.

So we met with a florist last weekend. Whew, that appointment was definitely more than I had bargained for!  Lovebug and I had previously talked about what flowers we wanted in a road trip we had taken over the summer. He was content with having my mother and I go to the florist while he was at work knowing that we had pretty much already picked everything. Man, was he wrong.

Our appointment, which we were told would take about 2 hours, took 2 1/2 and we didn’t even get to reception decor! I was really pleased with the florist we met with, Nancy, and LOVED her ideas. I did not realize, however, how much stuff I needed to know already! She asked all kinds of questions that I really had not even thought about yet. Here are a sampling of them:

• How big are the flower girl baskets?
• What color dress is everyone wearing who is getting a corsage?
• Do we want pin-on corsages or wrist corsages?
• What type of wrap do we want for the bouquets?
• What color wraps do we want for the bouquets?
• Do we have swatches of both my dress and the bridesmaid dresses?

You get the idea.  Maybe it’s just me but I really had not thought all this information was needed for flowers!  I definitely understand now why it is but I felt so unprepared. I guess when it gets to be 8 months out from our wedding date the details start creeping up on me.

Regardless of my anxiety, the appointment went really well and I’m pretty excited about the ideas Nancy had.  Here are some of them:

This is for the bridesmaids

This for my bouquet

After the vows and, of course, the dress, the most important element of the wedding, in this bride’s opinion, is the flowers.

I’m not just talking about the bouquets; I mean the centerpieces, the aisle décor, the cake table, and those other intimate details that serve as the eye candy for your wedding. That’s what makes those David Tutera weddings so amazing — the venue is transformed into a magical, once-in-a-lifetime space that creates a lasting memory for you and your guests.

But it seems like I’m in the minority for thinking so. People tell me, “Flowers die! Spend on the food instead!” To which I say, the flowers live on forever in the photos! And when was the last time you remembered what you ate at a wedding? It was chicken something, right? Or steak?

It probably looked like this.

Those online wedding budget calculators tell you to allot less than 8% of your total wedding budget to flowers. In my case, that’s about $2,000 — which is a sizable chunk of change already. But here in New York City, the land of the Carrie Bradshaw dream wedding, that’s a drop in the bucket.

So where did I start? First, I searched the blogs for real New York City weddings that featured flowers that I loved. Jotted down those vendors. Then I sent an e-mail detailing what I was looking for and inquiring where their pricing started. Quick reality check: The average New York City wedding florist works for around $5,000, that’s more than twice my budget. What to do, what to do?

Well, I’m not much of a DIY girl. The crafting gene sort of skipped my generation of the family, and I don’t know the first thing about flowers. To avoid a wedding day catastrophe, I sidestepped the idea of building my bouquets pretty quickly.

Instead, I went back to my budget and cut out those elements I knew we didn’t need. Limo was the first to go. Then I had each of the florists give me a complimentary proposal, pricing out every single element I could imagine for the wedding, up to and sometimes including a champagne bar. What I got back was, well, intimidating.

So then I got on the phone and was completely honest. I gave a reasonable expectation of what we want to spend, and how could we bring the total cost down? Here’s what we came up with:

1. For the bridesmaids: posy bouquets, rather than traditional round ones. They’re half the price and twice as sweet.
2. I was flexible with the types of flowers I wanted. By subbing out some of the more expensive ones, like fiddlehead fern and off-season ranunculus, I brought the price of my bouquet down by about $75.
3. With one florist, I said point blank that the centerpieces were too expensive. They knocked off $50 per just like that, for a total savings of $500.
4. Bar floral arrangements: You don’t need ‘em. The only people hanging around the bar will be your uncles, and of all the people on your guest list, they are the least likely to appreciate those flowers. Boom! Saved $300.
5. Have the bouquets delivered in mason jars, or other interesting vessels, filled with water. That way, after the ceremony, the bridesmaids’ flowers can be used on the bar, or in the bathrooms, or in any other corner needing some sweet adornment.
6. Between the three florists, setup and delivery charges ranged from $100 to $600. Obviously, we veered away from the latter.
7. Then there’s the old “cash discount.” It’s a little embarrassing to ask about, but the reward can be an extra $400 off your tab.

Oh, and my favorite part of talking with the florists is the inspiration boards they create for you. Check out some of mine…

One detail I overlooked when picking my flowers and discussions with the florist was how my bouquet and the bridal party bouquets would be wrapped and presented.  This wasn’t something I ever thought of until I saw this picture.

http://blog.karentran.com/

How gorgeous is that??  Imagine how those bridal pictures will look with this final little touch.  Now my mind is running amok with ideas of what wrap will suit my cattails, freesia and grass bouquet best.   While the above picture likely is too ornate for the style of our wedding, something more along these lines would fit in great.

To further entice and inspire you, check out these pictures. The pictures show how ornate, simple or unique the wrap can be.

http://dellables.com/bg_bouquets.html

http://dellables.com/bg_bouquets.html

Have you decided on a wrap or was this a detail overlooked?

Our DIY wedding included DIY flowers, as well.  In a previous post I mentioned a crafty project making the men’s boutonnieres.  I also mentioned my plans to use cotton bolls and dried lavender, both purchased online and shipped ahead to our wedding location, for our bouquets and corsages.

So, how did it all turn out?

Well…  thank goodness for small town florists!

Naturally, I didn’t get around to making our bouquets and corsages until 48 hours before our wedding.  When I finally opened the boxes of dried lavender and cotton bolls I felt completely deflated.  I had envisioned bouquets of cotton – but the bolls had stems between 2″ – 4″ long.  Not exactly the proper length for a bouquet.  I had also imagined a lovely lavender bouquet for me to carry, but what I found in the box was dried out, sad and whithered disapointment.  I didn’t cry, but I certainly felt like it.

Have I mentioned our wedding was held in a rural part of NH - where the choices of retail stores and such are very slim?  I was so disheartened by my DIY attempt towards our wedding florals that when I called the local florist, Renaissance Florals in Bristol, NH, I really didn’t have great expectations.  I’ve since learned to not judge a florist by it’s small town location.  The women at Renaissance Florals saved my DIY wedding.

I walked into Renaissance Florals with my sad lavender in one hand, my short bolls in the other and my tail between my legs.  Melissa Traber greeted me with a huge smile, lots of helpful know-how and even gave me a couple hands-on lessons on how to save my wedding florals.  Melissa showed me how to attach the cotton bolls to wooden skewers with floral tape to extend their stems so I could use them in bouquets.  She ordered fresh lavender stems for me, with less than 48 hours notice.  She even showed me how to attach floral wire onto the little flowers I wanted my hair stylist to attach to my ‘do.  I left Renaissance Florals, not only with fresh flowers for a very reasonable price, but with a ton of support and DIY knowledge that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.  Melissa’s compassion and experience helped me create wonderful wedding florals, that I couldn’t have pulled off without her expertise.

Beginning my bouquet with lavender.

Adding wheat to my bouquet.

My bouquet nestled between my Maids’ of Honor cotton boll bouquets.

Cotton boll bouquet in my reception espadrilles.

My sister (MOH) and me with our bouquets.

CC pinning a cotton boll corsage.

Me pinning a cotton boll corsage.

Best Men with the boutonnieres.

CC’s boutonniere.

My attempt at the sentimental.

This final photograph is of the trinkets I attached to my bouquet and carried down the aisle with me.  I wasn’t such a traditional bride that I went the Old, New, Borrowed, Blue route, but I am a sentimental girl.  My version of this included my maternal grandmother’s engagement ring (which, is also my engagement ring, now), my husband’s maternal grandmother’s 50th wedding anniversary ring, a St. Raymond medallion (to represent my deceased father) and Ganesha – to clear the obstacles from my path.  This was my non-traditional attempt at tradition.

Are you planning to DIY your wedding florals?  Do you have any traditions that you’re altering to make your own?

All photographs courtesy of TK&J Lochmandy Photography.

You may remember a previous post where I explained that I would be creating the floral pieces for my wedding from silk flowers. I have taken that idea to the extreme and am now not only am I making the arrangements…but I am making the flowers too! (out of various fabrics) Call me crazy!

One of my favorite hobbies is sewing. Although my mom and grandmother are both excellent seamstresses…I am self-taught (that’s just how I do a lot of things). I have a love for textiles…those who know me best would describe it as an obsession.

So when I was having a hard time picking out flowers for bouquets, a thought popped into my head. I had already created some fabric flowers to accessorize headband, scarves and such…why not wire them and create the flowers I have envisioned in my head? The only thing stopping me was my ability to create a variety of flowers to add interest to the bouquets. After a little research…that wasn’t an issue any more.

These videos on ThreadBanger were really helpful in giving me ideas! A big thanks to my sister for sharing them with me!

Look for future posts on my flower choices and how-to!

I took a floral design class here a the U just a semester back…it was AMAZING! I learned the basics of designing my own arrangements as well as the in’s and out’s of a floral business. The most helpful thing I learned…how expensive real flowers are! For the make-believe wedding I was required to create for the class final, the budget for the flowers was upwards of $7,000. And I thought my arrangements were pretty modest!

Here’s some pictures of arrangement I made in class just to give you an idea:

Now that I am trying to cap spending on my own REAL wedding at $10,000…spending over 2/3 of the budget on flowers isn’t realistic. My solution: I will be buying silk flowers and making the arrangements myself with some help from a terrific and talented family friend.

I’m also saving money (and the planet) by recycling containers to use as vases for the arrangements at the reception. I’m going to use wine bottles for taller arrangements and mason jars and tin cans for shorter ones. Just add a little ribbon, decorative wire, and vio-la! Now I just need to pick the flowers…ha!

Be sure to look for a post in the future about the arrangements I create!

It was a whirlwind experience to create a concept from start to finish. I did it! I was able to pull together a gorgeous wedding with my husband. The first image is the view of our ceremony. A third of our ballroom was decorated like this. The blue, purple and pink flowers accentuated the tiffany blue. I just love our aisle centerpieces and archway. The centerpieces were then transferred to our guest tables and the archway was moved to decorate the cake table (see picture #2)

My brother decorated the flower petals displayed all over the aisle. He volunteered to help the florist and I must say that everyone was impressed with him. The tiffany blue sash wrapped around our chair covers just gave that elegant touch that Towie Bear and I were aiming for.

We felt the romance and the serenity in the room. It was a beautiful ceremony filled with love and bliss. I am looking forward to sharing many more pictures. I am patiently waiting for our photographer to send us the pictures. Be patient with me, I will share more images of our amazing day.

I love looking at photos of other’s weddings as I really enjoying searching for the small details, the little things that we may sometimes overlook.  As you all know, I had run the wedding gauntlet in the years leading up to my moment, and for so many of those weddings, I never paid attention to the little things; like bouquets, accessories, table numbers, guest books and even cakes and centerpieces… all the things that you can use to show your personality. Of course once I started planning my own wedding, these things became much more pronounced and I started pulling inspiration from every wedding I attended!

Here are a few shots of some of our small details, that I absolutely loved!

My bouquet... I never would have thought these things would be so heavy!

My jewelry, and yes ladies you all helped me pick out that cuff!

Can't get enough of my shoes! Photographed here with Dogwood Dude's and my rings.

The palm frond isle runner... although there was some pretty serious tripping going on.

Our engraved cake cutting utensils, a gift from my fabulous friend Lindsay.

Our guest book, a book of photos from the Florida Keys.

Wonderful photography provided by Emily Harris Photography, flowers by Blooming Design and Events.

I opted for Hydrangeas for my girls because one bunch is about the size I wanted for their bouquets and they mixed our blue and green colors nicely.

I wrapped the stem of each in yarn so they would have white bases and something for the girls to grip.

Then I wrapped the stem in tulle. Then tied with a ribbon.

I purchased white silk roses, green roses (they were made out of a foam-like material), and ribbon then I got to work making my bouquet. Like I did with my veil, I’ll give you a photo overview.

My stem of roses (it came with fake rubber stems)

My green tea roses

I nestled the green into the white

I fed everything into the rubber tube "stems" then wrapped with white ribbon

I criscrossed with blue ribbon for a something blue

I secured everything at the top.

I tied a pretty bow

And there's my bouquet

One thing I have absolutely loved about BridalBuds is the feedback I have gotten from everyone! I had so many questions along the way, and my wedding colors were probably one of the biggest dilemmas I faced.  After much thought, I ended up going with Coral and Turquoise/Tiffany Blue.  I was pretty excited about our colors given the room we were working with, and the amazing natural light that filled the room especially during the sunset. Of course with all the candles we had, it was just as beautiful at night.

Here are a few pics of our decor, with a special thanks to Charlene Lopez at the Key Largo Hilton, Blooming Design and Events and Edda’s Cake Designs for making our wedding an absolute dream.  The creativity that went into designing this amazing scene was well beyond our wildest dreams.

Our wedding cake… I couldn’t stop starring at it, I was just so obsessed with it!

I loved this centerpiece design because I felt like it was bright, colorful and refreshing.  We had floating votive candles in blue water, a few smaller floral centerpieces and a larger center floral design with a round style vase floating in a square vase.

A view of the amazing natural light.  I had originally wanted white chivari chairs, but due to budget constraints went with the white wood folding chairs… personally I thought they still looked great!

Close up of the incredible centerpiece!

A bar shot

And just because I love it, one more close up of the cake!

Thanks to Emily Harris Photography for capturing every single detail so I can relive it every day!

Thanks to the Key Largo Grande for providing a vision and such an amazing backdrop for Blooming Designs and Events to work with! And last but definitely not least, thanks to Edda’s for a beautiful… and tasty cake!

Wedding flowers are insanely expensive.  But you knew that already.  I love flowers.  I love when CC brings home a bouquet of fresh flowers for me.  I love trying to grow flowers in our tiny front garden (I say try because my green thumb is not so green.).  However, I don’t love the idea of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on flowers for our wedding.  I know it’s our special day, but it is – Just. One. Day.

What’s a thrifty girl to do?

Well, let’s stop and take a look at my inspiration and the bouquets that I adore.

Lavender. I remember about ten years ago, my best friend Anne wore lavender all of the time.  She had lavender scented everything.  I, uh, hated it.  To me, it smelled like little old ladies.  In fact, I teased her all of the time because she smelled like little old ladies.  ~::Time Warp 8 Years Forward::~ I rediscovered lavender a couple years ago and, you guessed it, I love the smell!  I am now that person who has lavender hand soap in the loo, lavender laundry soap and dryer sheets, lavender hand lotion, lavender medicinal balm –  You name it, it is scented lavender in my home.  Naturally then, I gravitated towards lavender for an option as a bridal bouquet.

Source

Source

Source

Cotton. It’s no accident that I chose Cotton Bud as my moniker here on BridalBuds.  My other option for a bridal bouquet is cotton bolls.  Cotton is simple, comforting and rustic – perfectly suited for our casual, country celebration.  I stumbled upon the first inspiration photo below in a google search and knew that cotton bolls were going to be added to the list of possibilities for my bridal bouquet.

Source

Source

Source

Now that I had found inspirational bouquets that I loved, I realized I wouldn’t have to waste money on live flowers for our wedding; cotton bolls are already, well, dead and dried lavender would look just as nice as fresh cut. That was a relief to our budget.  After a little bargain hunting on the world wide web I bought a box of cotton bolls here and several bunches of lavender here.

So, let’s see your bridal bouquet!

Have I mentioned I’m getting married 3000 miles from where I live?  Yup, my dried lavender and cotton bolls are currently nestled in their boxes in my parents’ garage, in NH – I’m still in CA.  Soon, I will be traveling east, however, and the real adventure will begin, as I haven’t actually decided yet which bouquet I want!

♥Will I make a lavender bouquet for myself and my Maid of Honors?
♥Will I make bouquets of cotton bolls for my Maid of Honors and myself?
♥Will I mix the two flowers together, creating a combo bouquet for all 3 of us?
♥Or will I have one kind of bouquet and my Maid of Honors another?

Honestly, I don’t know.  I have never made a bouquet and I have no idea how they will turn out.  I’ll have to play with both the lavender and the cotton bolls the week before the wedding and see what happens.  I don’t know what the results will be, but seriously – How hard can it be?

What flowers did you choose for your wedding?  Did you DIY your bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres or arrangements?

From Day 1 of wedding planning I knew I would have a lavender bouquet. I ♥ lavender. The smell, the color, the natural properties it possesses to calm and relax. I couldn’t think of a more perfect bouquet for me on my wedding day. But lavender boutonnieres? Well, I just couldn’t picture it. I honestly couldn’t imagine one more DIY project, either. I couldn’t picture how to even make a boutonniere; so, I began my search for the best bout for the boys on etsy.com – who doesn’t love etsy?

Sources
Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right

I dreamed of pheasant feathers and berries all tightly packaged in a masculine ribbon on my CC’s chest. However, when I shared the above bouts with CC, I got a lukewarm reception. Something like, “Feathers? Uh, no.” Really?? No feathers! I’ll be honest, I was a bit disappointed – as by this point I had also envisioned coordinating pheasant feathers in my hairpiece. Well, then – back to the etsy shops to find another boutonniere.

Theodore, by Pixel & Hank
Source

I was ecstatic upon finding the above boutonniere, Theodore, at pixelandhank. I’d long since forgotten about the feathers and was now in love with the rustic, fabric leaves! Pixelandhank were so helpful, too, via email when I inquired about customizing the colors to fit better into our brown/lavender palette. I thought for sure this was the one. CC gave them a thumbs up, too!

So that’s that, then, right? Got your boutonnieres? Not quite. I had all intentions of ordering these gorgeous bouts from pixelandhank when we got a bit closer to the wedding (did I mention that it was still 6 months before our big day?) but one Sunday night, while preparing for our weekly TV time (The Simpsons and Family Guy!) I remembered I had some wool fabric scraps. Hmmm… could I make these bouts, myself? You guessed it, in about an hour and a half, I whipped out 5 boutonnieres based on the inspiration I had received from pixelandhank.

Photos by Cotton Bud

Yes!  Those are my handcrafted boutonnieres above! Turns out, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. They’re not perfect, but neither are CC and I! He loves them (he picked out the flower and ribbon combo, too – so he better!), I love them and I think they’re going to be perfect at our rustic, country, folksy wedding!
Here’s a tutorial, if you’re interested in trying your hand at these, yourself.

Did you have any DIY projects that just happened? How did you fall into them?

One of the most common bouquet types I’ve seen this year is the hand-wrapped bouquet. The stems of the flowers are wrapped in ribbon, lace, or cloth.

Photo from Digital504

From some florists the hand-wrapped style is even cheaper! And for DIY brides it’s an easy option for making bouquets.

Photo from Digital504

I know when I sit down with my silk flowers this summer I’ll be wrapping them up in ribbon.

From North Shore Wedding Blog

Now, let’s talk about my favorite thing…the details. As I mentioned before, the colors of our friends wedding were two tones of green with yellow. They did an amazing job by selecting just the right tones of green and yellow for their country wedding.

The following is what I am very passionate about and that’s cakes! The cake table was sweet and classic. Our friends focused more on flavor and they nailed it! They had marionberry or peach filling with orange cake. This was my first time tasting orange cake and it was out of this world. The cake was made by Mike’s Amazing Cakes, one of the most famous bakers in WA State.

Their cake topper was the initial of the groom’s last name.

This was one of the guest tables.

And here is the centerpiece. I fell in love with this because tied in perfectly with the beginning of summer.

This was the wedding favor. Towie Bear got addicted with the lemon drops. By the way, the green one’s were apple flavored. However, they look like lime. This was a clever concept.

My first country wedding was a great experience. I can’t wait for the next one!

Photo taken at the 2010 Seattle Wedding Show

Wow! There is so much to do. The good news is that I am getting things done. This month I have a couple of meetings with different vendors. I’m trying to remind myself of the following details for each meeting:

1. Florist

-Walk through the wedding venue. I will give her a copy of the seating chart. This will make it easy for her to display all of the flower arrangements before the wedding.

Photo taken at the January 2010 ABC Meeting in Renton, WA

-Determine the placement of the wedding archway. Since we are getting married on the dance floor of our ballroom, I don’t want our archway to be too close from the reception area.

-Go over the flower plan that we discussed on our first meeting. Some flowers will be used twice in our wedding. For example the archway will be used first on our ceremony and then it will be placed on the cake table for decoration.

2.   Photographer

-Walk through the wedding venue. I want to show her what Towie Bear and love about our venue. Our photographer can start gathering ideas in advance of where to take pictures and what angles would work best.

-I already gave her a shot list, but it’s nice to go over it on site prior to the wedding.

-Also, I would like to discuss the policies that our wedding venue has regarding photography. The most important one is to not step on the golfing grounds, especially while others are playing.

3.   Special Events Coordinator with my Wedding Planners

-This is the most important meeting of them all.

-We will go over the Banquet Event Orders.

-Timing will also be discussed. The Special Events Coordinator asked us to give her staff some time in advance to prep for certain parts of the wedding such as toasts, cake cutting, etc.

-The seating chart is an imperative element of our wedding. My wedding planners and I have some really cool ideas regarding the set up for cocktail hour. If the weather is nice, we could have the appetizers and beverages outside on the patio. This way, the changeover inside the ballroom will go more smoothly.

-Our wedding venue has a storage area. It would be nice to go over the boxes that we have and where we could place them during the event.

These and many other details should be discussed in advance. I understand that some details will be missed. However, if I communicate as much as I can, I am hoping for a good wedding day!