It's So Fluffy!

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So you can read up on my struggles to find a florist here, here, and here. You last heard that I found an awesome florist who was willing to work with our budget and not skimp on the look we wanted! We stopped in last Saturday to see a mock up of our big centerpieces, they will be at roughly 6 tables or so and at our king table. Without further ado...here they are:

These puppies are made of hydrangeas, baby's breath, and purple caspia which are on a plate that rests on our tall square vases.

Here is a close up.

I LOVE them! They are exactly what we wanted. The smaller centerpieces will consist of just hydrangeas and baby's breath and will be in a small cube.Again, I recommend Bob over at White Cottage Gardens in Amsterdam, NY. They have given me piece of mind!

Did anyone else's flower vision come to life?

DIY Flower Girl Basket

When I began thinking about details, I always would think, "what am I going to have the flower girl carry?" I was not a fan of the generic silk baskets that were gleaming white, they did nothing for me.

So, in October, I went to the local Good Will to look for some clothing for my Halloween outfit. When looking over by the housewares section they had a ton of baskets, literally a ton! I found a perfect round woven basket. It was marked $1 but was 50% off, so I bought it for a whooping 50 cents! Being the horrible blogger that I am, I have no pictures of my purchase of its transformation process...for that I apologize, but I do have a final product picture...so just tag along.

I started off by taking some white spray paint laying around. I coated it twice, since the wicker soaked up the paint like no one's business. Then all I did was take some of my left over purple satin ribbon from my DIY unity candle, and wrapped it around the handle. Then on each side I added a bow.

My original idea was to have our flower girl throw petals down the aisle...alas, our church or any church in the area for that matter, does not allow that anymore. So we are going to put a stem of hydrangea in the basket for her to carry down the aisle.

Here is the finished product. (You know the drill, crappy Blackberry photo)

This was a super easy product that really cost me only 50 cents, since I used other products that I had already bought beforehand. 

Did anyone else have a super easy DIY?

Floral Burnout Part 3

I last left you when I received a proposal of $7,000!!! My heart still stops and I begin drooling on myself a little when I hear that number....I could feed almost 120 people for that price!

So my aunt tells me, "go to so and so on 30, they are amazing and did my bouquet." (she was just married the end of December) So i schedule a meeting on February 12, because they wouldn't be swamped with Valentine's Day orders or anything! (hint of sarcasm...I do a lot of it, be warned!) My aunt says she will meet me up there, they both do work for her shop, and I willingly drag my mom along.

Again, photos in hand, spirit a little broken, I drive the whole 5 minutes it takes to get there. To my surprise, I have driven by this place a million times. It shares the same parking lot with my and Kev's favorite place for lunch! As soon as I walk in I knew I made the right choice. The inside is all rustic out, (that may not make sense but it does to me!) wood beams, cute little wooden carvings, even a sweet deer head on the wall. It was like the sign I was looking for! Then he has gorgeous flowers everywhere and...hydrangeas and baby's breath everywhere!

Bob, the owner, brought us upstairs to talk. I told him that we didn't/couldn't spend a lot, it just wasn't in the budget anymore, and that we wanted to spend from $1,500-$2,000. I was expecting him to wince at the low number, instead he asked me to tell him the look and flowers I was interested in. I repeated my memorized line, "I want fluffy and romantic, I love hydrangeas, I know peonies aren't available and was thinking maybe a garden rose or another variety. As long as they aren't regular roses...I hate regular roses. And I don't want a conformed look, I like the messy, garden look much better."

He starts telling me not to go with garden roses because they can cost $5-$10 a stem, and there are better ways to send my money. He tells me about a snowy jewel rose, it has more of a peony look and is cheaper than a garden rose. Not only does he tell me about it, he goes in the back to his computer and prints me out 3 pages of snowy jewel roses!

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I was sold from that point forward. Bob did everything I expected a florist to do, he gave me suggestions, gave me prices, told me his professional opinion on what would look best, and even brought out flowers to show me how it would look.

We decided on having the girls carry 3 or 4 stems of white hydrangea, I love how fluffy it is! They will be wrapped with some white satin.

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My flowers will be a combination of hydrangeas, around 9 white snowy jewel roses, and some purple chaenorrhium thrown in for some purple. (At least I think that's the flower he said, it's something small and purple)

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For my awesome flower girl, since she isn't allowed to throw petals like my original plan, and I didn't want her to have a pomander/flower wand, I had to think. I had gotten a basket from good will that I planned on spray painting white, and didn't want to stray from that idea. *Lightbulb* Why not put a stem of hydrangea in the basket and she can carry it? I know, I surprise myself sometimes with my genius!

Like this, but more awesome!
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We are going with my original inspiration photo, and having the dads and grandfathers have ranunculus boutonnieres.

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Kev and the groomsmen don't need flower boutonnieres because they will be wearing the fish fly bouts I made for them.

The mothers both expressed that they wanted wristlets, and the grandmothers will be rocking out boutonnieres as well. As far as what flowers we aren't positive yet.

As for the centerpieces, they will be a combination of short and tall with square vases. They will be similar to my bouquet with hydrangeas, snowy white roses, maybe some pom poms, and some purple accents. The taller ones will be a mix of hydrangeas and baby's breath (we had baby's breath on the back burner if other flowers ended up being too expensive).

Besides having two baskets at the church, we also wanted to have two memorial baskets. Our original thoughts were to have one on my side representing my Poppie that passed when I was in middle school, and one on Kev's side to represent his grandmother who passed. We got to thinking, we didn't want to leave anyone out. So my side will be a combination of my dad's dad (who I never met because he died when my dad was in his teens) and then my poppie (my dad's step dad, who was the only grandfather I knew on that side). Kev's will be his grandmother and his dad's parents (who died when Kev was a baby). I expressed my concern on how to do this to Bob, he had the genius idea of doing hydrangeas with two purple roses in it on my side and three purple roses in Kevin's. That way each rose would represent a person. Genius! Did I mention I loved Bob?

Bob is in Florida right now on vacation, but when he gets back he is even doing centerpiece mockups for me so I can see if I like it or not and go from there.

So if anyone is looking for a florist in the Upstate/Capital Region area, I would totally suggest Bob and his team at White Cottage Gardens in Amsterdam, NY. I love them!

See....happy ending!

Oh and as if to justify my hydrangea decision...look at the centerpiece picture that was featured on Style Me Pretty yesterday!

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Floral Burnout Part 2

When I last left you, I had just met with family florist X, and was ready to give up on flowers altogether.

As soon as I walked into work the next day, I put my feelers out for other florists in the area. I swear I sent out mass emails asking two things. Are you still available for our date? and would you be able to meet and go over things? I was surprised that only 50% of the people I contacted had the decency to respond. Out of the other 50% I weeded through more, and then made an appointment with a florist in Saratoga. She was off the beaten path and I had a recommendation for her, so I headed up Friday after work again with some inspiration pictures.

In more technical terms, fluffy and romantic was what I was after!

When I arrived, I was surprised to find her in the middle of a residential district. Her shop was smaller but was filled with the most gorgeous flowers...and hydrangeas! As soon as we started talking she made me feel comfortable and gave me suggestions. She even busted out her laptop and showed me bouquets and centerpieces she had created for other weddings that matched my taste. (I'd say that this was a big step up from me making the decisions, and X writing nothing down what so ever) She even had a form and filled out Everything we talked about. Since she works with a local farmer she told me that she has a leg up on the competition because she is able to almost get any and everything people want.

She even showed me the glass vases (small and tall), like the last picture, and I fell in love. It would all be perfect! I felt so good after meeting with her I knew she would be the one! She told me that she would send the proposal out in a couple days and I would receive it sometime next week.

I felt so accomplished that weekend......and then the proposal came on Thursday. I told Kev...I'm saying it will be no more than $3,000. I mean we were just getting a lot of hydrangeas and roses...how bad could it be? The proposal was for $7,000!!! WHAT?!?!?!

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So although centerpieces of hydrangeas are fairly inexpensive, she tacked on a minimum fee of $100 for each table. And then taxes and "services" took up $1,500! One day of service is $1,500? I'm in the wrong field! I was a combination of mad and defeated.

Mad that I had left something in someone else's hands and now was scrambling to find an available and decent priced florist in 5 months, and defeated because it didn't seem like flowers were going to be an option for us with these prices.

Stay tuned for part 3....I swear there is a happy ending!

Floral Burnout

One of the few things that I let someone else deal with was flowers for the wedding. I am not very knowledgeable on the subject and let my Nana *dictate where I was going.

*A little backstory, being from a large family means being related to a big portion of our small town. Which means, being related to a lot of people who have their own businesses and having a lot of friendors.

My Nana, in the beginning of wedding planning, said that she would like to pay for our flowers, BUT I had to go to X. X being a relative who owns a business in town. I should have known there was trouble brewing with this arrangement, but did it to please her, since I am the first grandchild getting married. So the beginning of the year rolls around and my mom made an appointment.

I, being a gung ho bride equipped with pretty pictures and wonderful floral ideas in my head, walk in all ready to discuss options, vases, alternatives, colors, and what is available for me in July.

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Instead, the "meeting" left me like this.

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I say "meeting" because there was nothing professional or informative about it. Right off the bat he was rude, insulted our priest and church, made accusations about our priest, and for being a florist with 30+ years experience, couldn't tell the difference between a rose and a garden rose. He told me that he "doesn't do" hydrangeas in centerpieces, and when going through his books from the 70s and 80s, he didn't know what was available in July or what colors flowers came in (he made ME look through the books and tell HIM what was available). He wouldn't discuss budget or how much stems and centerpieces would cost. Every question I asked him, well would flower a, b, and c look good together? Do you think purple or white would look more elegant? etc, his go to response was, "well ultimately you are the bride and you need to decide what you want!" "Normally it takes the brides 3 or 4 times to come in here and look through the books until they decide what they want."

So why am I paying you, if I am going to be picking everything out, finding out what is available, and basically telling you what to order? Isn't that a florists responsibility? I understand I need a general idea of what I'm looking for, which I did have, but I need suggestions and professional opinions of what would fit the image I have in my head and will fit into our budget.

There was nothing out of the "meeting" that was positive. There was more than five times that I wanted to get up and walk out. Half of the time I was there I sat in complete silence while looking through his 30+ year old wedding books, not knowing what anything was, how much it cost, or if it would even be available. I would say that this was the worst wedding planning experience to date! He wants me to come back to go through the books again sometime this week, but there is no way I will give this man any business or family money.

So a warning to other couples who have family or friends as wedding vendors, do not feel obligated to choose them. In the end it isn't worth your piece of mind, or wallet to please family members.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the floral saga.

DIY Flower Girl Headband

When speaking to my cute as a button flower girl she made it very clear that she wanted a flower in her hair, so she could be just like me on the big day! I am making my own hair flower and thought it would be great to make hers too. My original plan was to make a hair flower and then attach it to a comb. Then I thought of her twirling and dancing and running around and, well, being a kid. Maybe something that won't fall out so easy would be better. I had a spare clear headband laying around and thought that would do the trick! So I started off with my deconstructed flower from Michael's, a needle and white thread, the headband, and a couple of beads left over from my elementary school days.

Now I can't sew for squat! I'm lucky if i can sew a button back on a shirt without using the entire spool of thread! But I did this entire project while watching Modern Family and Cougar Town...unlike Mrs. Poodle, on Weddingbee, who can make a gorgeous dress from scratch in 6 hours, but whose comparing?

Here is a picture of the flower with a couple beads sewn in the middle to give it a little something something.

Yes, I used the entire flower instead of making it smaller. One, she wanted a huge flower to match me, and two, the kid has a ton of hair and I think it will look good amongst her massive head of hair. I took the finished flower and just hot glued it to the headband. And voila...a hair flower fit for the little princess!

I Don't Want To Give It Away!

I already can not believe the price that florists charge for something you will use for one day, and more than likely, will die or wilt shortly after. After I got over that mental hurtle, I began thinking about a bouquet toss. We were on the fence for a while on whether or not to even do one and a garter toss. After weighing out the pros and cons we decided to go for it, but I couldn't bare dropping $100-$200 on a bouquet only to "throw" it away to a guest. 

So we will be having a "stunt double" bouquet, a smaller bouquet that I will toss instead of my actual bouquet. Then FI's cousin told me she had her bouquet preserved. Her florist did everything for her and framed it. They now have it displayed in their living room. I loved the idea! Look at these beautiful preserved bouquets and bouts!

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Has anyone preserved their bouquet or is thinking about it?

Elegant Baby's Breath

Who knew baby's breath could be so elegant and modern? Growing up I hated baby's breath. I hated it in flowers, and corsages, and i most definitely hated it when my mom would put some in the tree at Christmas. I still actually hate the little bits of it they throw into flowers, but when I saw them all bunched together I think my heart skipped a beat!

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I fell head over heels for this idea! I've never personally seen it done at a wedding and think it would be a great addition to ours! I'm not sold on having them at the reception yet but absolutely for the ceremony. It would give a romantic quality to everything.

Here our some inspiration photos for the ceremony itself:

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Has anyone else thought of using baby's breath or used it in your actual wedding?