Weddingbee

I’ve never been a huge fan of flowers, considering how much they make my eyes puff up and give me sneezing fits that usually result in a series of unfortunate faces. After being disappointed by a number of florists in Philadelphia who weren’t willing to work with our humble budget, I was dreading the search for the perfect florist. I decided to grow a pair and face my florist fear head on and do what any bride-to-be would do…I browsed Google for over a week in search of the perfect florist. I nearly gave up, until I discovered Carl Alan Creations, a company that had each of those five little yellow stars filled in on every single review.

I don’t mean to sound like an infomercial, but Carl Alan Creations brought our visions to life while keeping in mind every aspect of our wedding. Before our initial consultation, Carl asked me to e-mail him as many of the details of our wedding as I could: photos of my dress and the bridesmaid dresses, the venue, centerpiece ideas, our theme and colors, etc. Our consultation was about an hour and a half and it was one of those moments where everything felt like it was coming together smoothly (dare I say like buttah?), and it all was starting to feel so real. Carl gave us ideas on how to make our vision fit within our budget, while remaining classy and true to our personalities. After meeting with Carl, he turned us to his creative design team, who whipped together bouquet mock-ups in less than five minutes and had me designing my own dream bouquet, as well as the bridesmaids’ bouquets.

Smirks and flowers galore!

My bouquet includes chocolate calla lilies, freesia, hydrangeas, and green berries.

Blue hydrangeas and green berries for the ladies (an uber-rushed mock-up).

(Photo courtesy van swearingen on Flickr)

Mr. Candy Corn will be wearing a double chocolate cymbidium orchid boutonniere.

Carl impressed us so much with his amazing attention to detail, that we went ahead and put him in charge of our centerpieces too. I had initially planned on DIY-ing the centerpieces, until I was given the task of arranging the centerpieces for my boss’s wedding, and spent the rest of the ceremony and reception sneezing my arse off and wishing my throat didn’t feel like it had elephantiasis.

We wanted something lovely and simple, that matched our bird aesthetic, without being too literal. These birch containers just screamed us and although they don’t exactly match the colors of our theme, I think they will be a refreshing break from all of the blue and brown.

These birch tubes were originally available at Small Stump, where I ordered 10 and later realized I’d need about 20 more for our centerpieces (arranging three at each table with varying heights, with flowers just like the photos above). Small Stump no longer offers the birch tubes and unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find them anywhere else. I found a website where I can order sheets of birch and make the containers myself (note to self: purchase a hot glue gun), which sounds easy enough!

How about you guys…is anyone having trouble finding an affordable florist that thinks outside the box?

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