Wedding Flowers

I had a bit of a lull in wedding planning, but now that are less than 8 weeks from the wedding I had better get with it again.

I spoke with one of my coworkers on Wednesday about the wedding and she has offered to help me make my bridal bouquet. I am thinking I'm going to let her help me. I have a tendency to want to do everything myself, I'm too independent sometimes, but I have been stressing a little about what to do about the bridal bouquet. It will be good to start letting others help me with some things that need to be done.

I do want to use real white roses in my bridal bouquet. I'm thinking about picking them up the Friday before the wedding. I wonder if that will be enough time to allow for bouquet making. I can leave the bouquet either in my office at work, or maybe in the walk-in refrigerator to keep them fresher. This site says to buy the flowers two days in advance, and tells how to keep them fresh and what to do to them once you get them. Frugal Bride: What You Need to Make Your Own Floral Arrangements.

So I have the purple berry flowers, about forty bunches, and the white rose bunches, I'm thinking a dozen of those.

I'm thinking about attaching a bunch of the purple berry flowers to the chair on the inside of the aisle. Maybe some tulle around the stem, draping down? I got the idea from this photo over on the SewChic blog, but the bows wouldn't be this big. Since we won't be using pews, but chairs. I'm not even sure about the tulle idea... maybe just a bunch of the flowers attached to the inside chair. I'll have to see. Maybe white ribbons draping down?

The bridal bouquet I really loved is here, but it is too expensive to make (when I priced out the items it came to over $80!). I still like the idea of the bouquet cascading. I love the way it looks, but also I read that when the bride is "plus size" the length causes a slimming effect. I still don't want to spend $80. I like the cascading ivy... I'm pretty sure that is what is hanging down. But I don't know how the ivy would look with roses and the purple berries (probably just used as accents, not overwhelming with the purple) OR maybe like my coworker suggested, ribbon hanging down.

I previously blogged about my floral centerpiece.

There will also be an arch and I haven't figured out what to do with that, flower-wise, but am hoping there will be enough purple berry flowers for that. I figure I have forty, and will need at least 12 for the aisle (chairs) and probably 4 bunches for the table centerpieces. Oh, and I have two vases to put in front of the arch on each side that will need about 3 bunches each. That leaves 20 bunches for the arch. Dh was going to make the arch, but when he realized it would only cost $15 (from Michael's or Joann's with the 40% off coupon), he said we can't make it for less than that.

So that's where I'm at with the flowers. I really like baby's breath and will probably see about getting some fresh of that also, to put into the bridal bouquet. I'm starting to realize I do have something in mind of what I want... and starting to feel some hesitancy about letting someone else put together my bouquet. But there is only so much I can do myself on the Friday before the wedding. I'm going to have to start getting my people together who can help me out.

I just realized that we will need to make some boutonnière's. For dear honey and our sons. Maybe from silk so that will be out of the way? Items needed:

* 1 'Anna' rose
* 2 leaves of Pittosporum and perfect rose greens (collect them from the discarded rose stems)
* 1 24 gauge straight wire
* ½-wide light green stem wrap/ corsage tape -
* Floral clippers
* Pearl headed boutonniere pin

Maybe a corsage for each mothers? Speaking of mothers, I need to go shopping with each of them (at very least with my own mother to help her) for a new dress. I must schedule in time for that! On Sunday, ds2 and I are going to church together, then over to my friend Rees' house for my test hairdo. And then back to church for Q&A. We don't have Sunday night service and they usually have Q&A every other Sunday night but attendance had dwindled to the point where they stopped having them, at least for the summer. But at church last Sunday, someone asked when we'll be having our next one and Pastor set it up for us.

Here are some articles that looked good for reference on flower arranging: Jill Slater's Wedding Flowers:
How to make your own bouquets, boutonnieres and centerpieces.

Expert Village Video Tutorials on Floral Design

Until next time.