Weddingbee Blog

Forgive me. I’ve strayed from wedding planning for a bit because I made the mistake of reading the first chapter of the book Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer. This book isn’t for your average rocket scientist, but talk about a guilty pleasure! For the next few days, I was so engrossed in the book and anything Vampire related, that I forgot I was getting married. Planning halted to an erupt stop and even my conversations with Mr. Martini changed.

Mr. Martini: I love you!
Me: I guess you’re okay, for a human.

There are three more books after Twilight, and although a friend (who has also read the books) suggested that I postpone wedding planning for another week to finish off the series, I realize how dangerous it would be to do that, and decided I’m better off not going anywhere near the rest of those books until after the wedding. Luckily, Mr. Martini humored my Vampire obsession and patiently waited for me to snap back into reality. In fact, he welcomed it because I was no longer stressing about wedding things that needed to be done.

Now that I’m back to my normal, stressful self, I have a new challenge – flowers. Mr. Martini and I are meeting with a florist today, and as involved Mr. Martini has been with the whole wedding process, it has been pretty much understood that flowers will be my task to take on alone. He is only coming with me for moral support, and also to make sure that I don’t sign with a florist who is about three times our budget.

We long ago decided we would not be spending a lot of money on flowers. As gorgeous some of those centerpieces can be, we thought that the money would be better spent on entertainment and other things. So early on, I decided that I wanted to go with the classic submerged-flower-in-a-tall-vase-with-tons-and-tons-of-candles look for the centerpieces, for a few reasons:

1. It is simple, but pretty.
2. It is more cost efficient, depending on what flower you use.
3. Korean parents (who are notorious for running away with the centerpieces before the wedding is over) will find it a challenge to steal large cylinder vases filled to the brim with water, and the thought of watching them try anyway makes me laugh.

When I saw the below centerpieces from this site I squealed, because this was exactly what I was picturing in my head:

I described this to the florist on the phone, and she quoted me an average 75 dollars per table. Eeek! Still a little too expensive. What if I bought my own vases? I asked. She gets the vases for 15 dollars each. The last time I checked, Michaels sold them for about 20 dollars each. So, the cost was in the type of flower. I started looking for alternatives and came across this picture:

(source)

I thought the tulips looked adorable, and I didn’t think it would be hard to find purple tulips to match our wedding colors. At least I know that it doesn’t have to be an orchid. All of a sudden, the possibilities were endless!

Earlier today, a friend sent me a list of a few purple colored flowers. I’ve never even heard of some of these, so I googled them immediately. I liked these the best:

Crocus

Sweet Pea

Forget-me-nots

Anemone

I also adored Mrs Lemon’s amazing DIY candle centerpieces and even considered going without flowers altogether, especially when I saw how genius a little food coloring can be:

I am looking forward to today’s meeting with the florist because I would like to hear her suggestions on lower cost alternatives for the centerpeices, and from there decide which direction to go. I also have no clue what I want in terms of the bouquet, so it will be nice to speak to someone who has the experience to suggest a perfect fit for me. To be honest I don’t have much of a preference - as long as it looks nice, I will be happy. Wish me luck!

How are you saving money when it comes to your centerpieces?