Weddingbee

Not only something that (most) every bride wants at her wedding, but the best way to describe our fantastic florist Dana (owner/designer) of Fresh Floral Design Studio in Shoreham, Vermont. This is one of the few vendors that I was very picky about, mostly because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I know that sounds confusing, but I interviewed one photographer (after poring through hundreds of websites), tasted one bakery’s cakes, but to decide on a florist I met with three — all in one day!

When you’re planning your wedding 300 miles away, you have to get as much done as possible at once and be very decisive. I’m ok with the first thing, but the latter is a little more difficult for me.

So I made appointments with three well respected Vermont florists. The first was a mother/daughter team with tons of experience, the second was someone who studied in NYC and was just starting her Vermont business (Dana), and the third had a TON of experience, a store front, and a slew of knot raves.

The thing that made Dana stand out for me was her creativity, style and her communication style. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a very visual person. I didn’t know a lot about flowers, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk into a floral meeting and say “I want these four flowers in this accent color, blah blah blah.” Dana’s first questions were about the rest of the wedding and my personal style. Then she went through a series of images she’d either torn from magazines or images of her own work in contrasting styles. It felt slightly like a psychology test, but she asked me to just “react” to each image.

You can just tell what a kind and calm person she is from her picture.

From here we were able to nail down what my floral style would be, so she could put together some ideas. The other two florists sent me a written proposal with names of flowers they suggested and prices. Dana sent me a link to a private page on her website dedicated to visual ideas she had in mind for us! Perfect. I was able to see what she had in mind, which, when you’re talking about floral design, really is the most important thing.

So here are some of the first images she sent me with her notes:

The bridesmaids’ bouquets would be larger versions of these bundles (quite a bit larger.) These bundles would go at each place setting.

We were trying to keep the budget low, and dried lavender would be less expensive. We opted for fresh flowers for the girls, but the bundles will go on the place settings with my “mini-moo” cards tied to them!

The inspiration for your bouquet, but yours wouldn’t be as leafy. This one has freesia, stephanotis (we would sub bouvardia) and ranunculus. I would leave out the mini calla lilies (very expensive flowers!) and add waxflower (see picture below.)

Not only did she know I HATED calla lilies — it worked out because they are too expensive! Score.

Freesia boutonniere

Love them!

Here you can see yellow, white, and lavender freesia (top row) and white bouvardia (bottom row, left.)

This was to give me an idea of the shades of yellow and purple of each variety of flower.

Yellow ranunculus, just in case you like it…it’s a strong yellow like the freesia and yellow tulips.

I began wanting pale yellow, green and cream (I didn’t have purple in mind). But when she showed me the vibrant shades of yellow in the flowers I loved, we decided to cut the yellow all together and go with purple — lavender and tulips mostly.

Small square plates would be filled with dried lavender bloom and floating votives would be in the center in glass holders.

From here we went back and forth for weeks about details with more photos until I was totally happy with what we’d chosen! I feel totally confident now that I will LOVE what I see when she delivers the bouquets, when I walk into the church and when we arrive at the reception.

If you’re getting married in the Vermont/New Hampshire area I HIGHLY recommend you contact Dana at Fresh Floral Design Studio!! Get a sense of how “it all comes together” on her website.

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