All Things Wedding From Wedding Stationery to Bridal Wear

I don’t like flower girl baskets. All of the ones I see are satin-y and white and frilly… and not me at all.

Like this:

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I mean, it’s beautiful… but it’s so fancy! It does not at ALL fit in with the theme of our wedding – fun, cheerful, and slightly whimsical. So, to be honest, I figured that the FG basket was something I’d just forget about until a week before the wedding and then I’d just cave and buy a fancy one.

I tried to think of an alternative, but I really wanted our flower girl to be able to throw petals, and I just couldn’t think of a cute option to hold the flower petals that would actually fit in with the rest of our wedding! There’s no such thing as a cute, non-fancy flower girl basket, right?

WRONG! A few days after Easter, Mr. C and I were in Hobby Lobby, and when we walked through the door I saw a huge display of Easter stuff, on sale for 50% off. We decided to walk through the aisles and see if we saw anything fun, and then, I saw this:

It’s cheery! And yellow! And fun! And only FOUR DOLLARS! I hadn’t really thought I would find a cute Easter basket that would work, because most of them are pretty large with ridiculously long handles, to fit all of the Easter loot. But not this one! It’s the perfect FG basket size, with a proportionately sized handle to boot!

I’m so glad we decided to check, and I’m ecstatic that I actually found a flower girl basket that I like!

Did you have any wedding items that you didn’t think you’d be excited about, only to fall in love with something?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

So, you want to know how to save a bundle on flowers?

Did you perhaps receive a florists’ quote exceeding $4,000, for what you thought was a rather skimpy amount of blooms?

Of course, not to knock the florists’ talents! It’s well worth the money to avoid the hassle of planning and arranging for your own floral needs at your own wedding! As professionals, florists deserve to mark up their product, just like any other vendor would.

That said, I am an avid gardener and passionate arranger of flowers and so I will be doing it myself all for under $300.

Anyway. If you’re going the DIY route, first off, establish a budget. This, we saved until the week before the wedding, like big stupid heads.

We were going to try to source everything from our own garden, but it was a tough winter on our flowers.

So, all the Paisley money has run out, being that it is a week before the wedding. Fortunately, a generous, last-minute gift from Mama and Papa Paisley of $300 was enough to play with, considering we have our own garden full of filler blooms.

That money brings us, courtesy of Sequoia Wholesalers:

• 15 stems Dahlias (light pink)
• 20 stems Billy Buttons
• 40 stems Veronica (white)
• 100 stems scabiosa (white)

And, from Fiftyflowers.com:

• 56 stems peach Juliet peony roses

For some reason, the thought of putting together my own bouquets and 22 centerpieces scared Mama Paisley. For some reason. I honestly don’t know what!

She ordered me outside to prove my flower-arranging worth, and, not to brag, but less than 10 minutes later I came back with a nicely shaped, full, pink-and-white bridal bouquet that I would have been happy to carry on the actual big day. Except Mama Paisley said it stank (the smell, not the looks) and put it outside. But, Mama Paisley looked relieved, and I was happy to assuage her fears and show off in front of her and MOH Paisley.

Arranging flowers is what I most look forward to doing the day before our wedding.

For “filler” flowers, I have this, my mom’s garden, to work with:

A nice, big, Mock Orange:

Some Feverfew:

Lamb’s ears:

Pink Veronica:

And much, much more:

With these as fillers and my Veronica, Feverfew, Scabiosa and oodles of the showy, white-and-yellow Matilija poppies, (that grow on the roadside in Lake County) my centerpieces will resemble Saipua’s aesthetic: loose, organic, gorgeous!

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A cross between the above, and this:

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For our bouquets, using the peach Juliet roses, they will turn out something like this:

Miss Cowboy Boot’s bouquet! With peach Juliet roses, I believe.

The Billy’s Buttons I might use for the boutonnieres, or perhaps the centerpieces.

Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

Are you taking on a HUGE do-it-yourself project that everybody and their brother just shakes their heads at when you tell them about it? But you just don’t care what they say because you luuuuurve doing said project? Maybe it’s baking your own cake? Baking batches of macaroons for your dessert table? Sewing your bridesmaids’ gowns? Letterpress printing your own invites? Do share!

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I have a certain fear.

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All of the flowers at the ceremony and reception are going to be roses and peonies. So while for the most part that means a ton of fluffy goodness, it can also be concerning. For evidence, see above.

My beef with rose bouts is this: they remind me of high school dances, where every single date of mine had the same tight rosebud bout. I also don’t love how far it sits away from the lapel. I’d like to avoid this.

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Those aren’t roses, they’re dahlias, but they sure are awesome. Note how the flowers lay flat across the lapel and while they’re large, they’re a quirky large, not “I’m a giant bud” large.

Another convincing argument:

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So I think at this point, a rose is not the ideal flower bout for us. But peonies are a little delicate and I assume they would not hold up as a bout either. Do you have any last minute suggestions for a flower available in June that’d be flat and big and lovely?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

What are pomanders? Well, when Mr. Dolphin and I jumped on this crazy ride called our wedding, we had no idea. I simply dubbed them daisy balls ’til I could properly pronounce their official name (thanks to some help from Seminole Bridesmaid, aka, the wedding guru).

image from Weddingbee Classifieds

After seeing these daisy pomanders in the Weddingbee Classifieds section for $75 for 10 of them (not including shipping or shepherds hooks to hang them on), I figured I could tackle these myself (and since the listing quickly sold, I had no choice but to make them myself). So, on I went to Walmart to purchase 6 green floral foam balls (only 6, not 10, because we are on quite the budget), yellow ribbon, and several bunches of daisies.

These beautiful daisy pomanders are super easy (and really quite fun to put together).

Step-by-Step Instructions: (I apologize I don’t have photos, I made these last May)

1. Cut the faux daisy off the bunch at about 1.5″ from the flower
2. Take the flower stem and stick it into the floral foam ball (I originally bought a hot glue gun to glue the daisies into the ball, but found that simply just sticking them into the ball, held them enough)
3. Repeat, repeat, repeat until the green of the floral foam ball is no longer seen
4. Then take a strip of ribbon and fold it over into a knot. String a large metal paper clip through the ribbon and stick the paper clip into the floral foam ball.
5. Adjust the daisies until the paper clip is no longer seen.

photos courtesy of Mr. Dolphin

And… voila! You have a daisy pomander, ready to hang on a cute little shepherd’s hook, or a chair arm.

• faux white daisy bunches $4.50/bunch
• green floral foam ball $2.37/piece
• 40 inch shepard’s hook $5.97/piece

Total per Daisy Pomander set = $13.28
Grand total for 6 sets = $79.71
all items bought at Walmart

The ad on Weddingbee classifieds charged $7.50 per pomander (no hook), and I made them for about $7.31 each (no hook). Which I think, isn’t quite bad at all!

Our ceremony decor hanging in our wedding closest. Mr. Dolphin even installed a light in the closest, so I could better see and organize all our wedding stuff. What a sweetie!

These babies are now hanging peacefully (as long as Dolphin Kitty doesn’t get to them!) in our wedding closet.

How are you keeping your animals out of your wedding stuff?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Confession: I’m scared of flowers.

Before wedding planning, my flower facts included yellow roses are for friends and the fact that I like gerbera daisies (just to prove how clueless I am, the first time I wrote this post it read “Gerber daisies”. Gerber as in the baby food brand, sigh). I can tell if something is “pretty” but I can’t verbalize what I like about them. This is why I dreaded the floral decisions.

NOT

Gerbera Daisies, Gerber Baby Food

Sadly, Googling “wedding flowers” didn’t help me much either. Then I found Style Me Pretty’s 121 pages of floral inspiration and Martha Stewart Weddings’ flower section.

I’ve always loved the fluffiness of them but I’m pretty sure peonies are out of the question in August. Then I found a viable alternative from Martha Stewart… and look how fluffy they look!

I wanna be peony

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Better yet, roses are less delicate than peonies and so they’ll be able to withstand the August heat and my abuse better (I don’t treat my things nicely, especially under stress). I also like dahlias and ranunculus, but maybe more for the centerpieces:

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I love how the tones of pinks and purples in this centerpiece tie the colors together.

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The multiple vases with different or single blooms adds some texture to the tablescape. The antique silver vases add a nice vintage garden feel, too!

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As you know, many brides are shocked when they get their first floral proposal. I didn’t want to be one of them. Luckily, I stumbled upon Weddingbee’s sister site Weddingbee PRO which has florist bloggers. This blog post was also helpful in understanding why wedding flowers are priced the way they are.

I am now armed with a few ideas and inspiration and a better knowledge of floral pricing. The next step would be to meet with one of the recommended florists.

Are you as scared of the floral decisions as I am? How did you do your research to prepare yourself?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

We’re quickly approaching the equinox, which for us means that it’s getting harder and harder to get out of bed and go for a surf in the chilly mornings, but for those of you on the other side of the world, it means spring is coming! Which means, I really need to start thinking about what kind of flowers I want. Pronto.

We still have 5 months until the wedding, so why so early? Because we are hoping that our talented friends and family will be able to grow us all of the flowers we need for the wedding, which means said flowers need to be planted. This also means that this veggie farmer needs to start thinking blooms.

Looking back I see that I went about this process in the complete wrong order. You see, I scoped out ideas, fell in love with certain flowers, and then figured out what they were called and when they were in season. This whole process involved some mild heartbreak when I found out that peonies and ranunculus (two of my faves) will definitely not be in bloom in the Eastern U.S. in August. I probably should’ve found a list of what is in bloom, then picked some off of that that I loved. Oh well… live and learn.

Here were the inspiration for my flower choices: (You knew I’d have an inspiration board or two for you.)

Sources: Top: Left, Center, Right; Middle: Left, Left-Center, Right-Center, Right; Bottom: Left, Center, Right

Sources: Top: Left, Center, Right; Middle: Left, Center; Bottom: Left, Center, Right

And here are the blooms that are involved in making these dreams come true:

Sources: Phlox, Brassica, Aster, Craspedia, Chrysanthemum, Zinnia, Peony, Dahlia, Poppy, Garlic Scape, Ranunculus

Yep, included in that list are brassica (cabbage) and garlic flowers. What would a veggie wedding be without some veggie blooms?

Luckily after researching what is in bloom, almost all of these are possible. We’ll probably need to say goodbye to peony and ranunculus, but I’m still holding out hope for late blooming varieties that might be grown by our guests coming from Maine and New Hampshire. Garlic scapes are also an early summer flower, but here’s hoping that one of our creative friends finds a way to set some back (Piling snow on top of the garlic bed? Planting them in shade?).

There are some drawbacks to our approach to flowers. Will we know ahead of time what our centerpieces and bouquets will look like? No. Will we have to spend time the day of putting it all together? Yes. Will I have strict creative control over how it all turns out? No. But we’re OK with all that. For us, the upsides: no money spent, the love of our friends and family going into our big day, and a low carbon footprint, definitely outweigh all the drawbacks.

How did you decide on which flowers you wanted to be included in your wedding? Are you including any non-traditional flowers?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Catching up on our newsreader this week we stumbled across this post over on The Brides Cafe featuring these utterly gorgeous corsages from Emersonmade. Feast your eyes on these little beauties:

This article was originally posted onWeddings by Zoe Lingard.

For many brides, choosing a beautiful bunch of wedding flowers may be one of their priorities as they accessorise their dress.

However, according to one publication, they should not worry too much about what is in fashion and instead, should just pick what they like.

According to thestar.com, people are giving too much thought to their blooms instead of going with their instincts.

Similarly, they are also over-thinking the practicality of their flowers, especially when it comes to bouquets that may get crushed when they are greeted or hugged by relatives.

"But, like so much about planning a wedding, that is but a needless worry. Ruined by embraces? What a lovely way to go." the news provider states.

It adds that the wedding flowers should be used as a way to enhance the occasion with fragrance, as this "makes memories better than anything else".

One thing women may not struggle to decide on for their wedding is how they are going to wear their hair, as creative director at the Mark Hill Salon Jules Holland said that 1940s-style waves are very in vogue this year.

Whatever colour scheme or style of wedding you choose, be sure to find a matching flower in the hitched.co.uk wedding flowers section

This article was originally posted onHitched.

So, if you’ve been following along, you know that I decided on using baby’s breath for our DIY centerpieces, and that I scoured the stores to find a plethora of vintage-y vases.

Now, it was time to take them on a test run (please try to ignore my end-of-day nasty hairdo if you can)!

I purchased 3 small bunches of baby’s breath from Publix (they sell 3 bunches for $10). Each bunch included 3 stems. First, I cut the stems down (each stem has a number of smaller “branches” splitting off on each side), and then simply placed them in a vase until I achieved something that looked like this:

So simple, yet so pretty! Each vase requires an average of about 3 stems of baby’s breath. I was pleasantly surprised to see how full the vases looked with what seemed like 3 measly stems when I started!

But, we decided that we needed to make the process even easier, since we will have to assemble them ourselves on the day of the wedding. We tried out the method of securing the stems with a twist tie. Easy! We arranged the stems into a “pouf”, wrapped them with a twist tie, and then dropped them into the vase. This will work out well, we hope! The plan is to assemble the poufs the night before/the morning of the wedding. We are starting to collect wine cases; each pouf (and its matching vase) will be placed in a slot for easy travel.

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Then, we will simply have to place each pouf into its vase when we arrive at the venue. Hopefully, this will save us time, as we won’t have to hang around the venue to assemble flowers the entire morning!

Did you take on a DIY with flowers? How did you go about transporting/arranging them on the day of the wedding?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.