Wedding Blog
Because we were doing so many things, it took me a while to realize the flowers were missing. I couldn’t wait to see them.
If you will remember, after I met with our wedding coordinator, I thought I was getting this style of bouquet, but with a mix of white and purple flowers.
Well, the flowers were finally delivered to our room and what we got was this:
This is a very lovely photo by our photographer that does way too much justice to the flowers: four bunches of white roses with five fuchsia-colored orchid stuck in each one. Fuchsia. The girls’ bouquets had about 10 or 12 roses in them and mine had a couple more than that. Um… yeah.
Part of me was immediately filled with regret over changing my all-orchid order for “mixed” flowers. But then again, the orchids weren’t even purple so an all-orchid bouquet wouldn’t be much better. Oh and did I mention I reaaaalllly dislike white roses??
But you know what? I did what any DW bride could do in such a situation: shrug.
I mean, what else could I do? There were only a few hours to our wedding, so I had to make the best of it. At least there was one thing we could fix - the atrocious presentation. Seriously, what the hell was with that explosion of purple ribbon at the top? And with the lazy wrapping of the handle which revealed cheap white ribbon underneath? And the loooong skinny stems that stretched way past the end of the purple ribbon?
Well, first I shrugged. Then I squared my shoulders and prepared to pull a MacGyver.
(Can I just tell you how much I love that photo? Really. I don’t know what it is… The fact you can see Mama Sea Breeze’s wedding band? The spots on her hands? The fact I couldn’t have done this without her? … But this photo makes me tear up.)
Along with Miss P, Mama and I chopped off the offensive stems for each bouquet and began the task of re-wrapping the purple ribbon and inserting more pearl tipped pins. No, we didn’t have a Swiss Army knife, but we did have scissors and pearl tipped pins. Whew!
At least that part of them was nice, in the end.
Then, just when I thought there was nothing worse than those bouquets, I saw the boutonnieres. We had ordered a whole bunch that were supposed to match the bouquets. Instead we got this: a box of white carnations. For which we paid $9.00 U.S. apiece. Awesome.
At least there’s one good thing about hating your bouquets—you have no problem whatsoever plucking flowers out of them to put in your friends’ hair.
Looks like we’re almost ready!
Excuse me, is there a bride in the room? Oh that’s right… it’s ME! YAY!!
Aw, I adore you girls!
And I don’t know what I’d do without you, Mama Sea Breeze. I love you.
Were you disappointed with your flowers on your wedding day? Did you also perform some last minute DIY alternations to them?
Photos by Photophil Steingard and his sidekick, Michael Steingard.
DW in the DR: Pack It Up, Pack It In
DW in the DR: Airport Confessions
DW in the DR: Bienvenidos a Punta Cana
DW in the DR: The Guest List Is In the Bag
DW in the DR: The OOTs in Action
DW in the DR: Planning the Reception
DW in the DR: Planning the Flowers & Cake
DW in the DR: Planning the Ceremony
DW in the DR: Planning the Photography
DW in the DR: Stag and Showerette
DW in the DR: The Meltdown
DW in the DR: Final Touches
DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed
DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous
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Share this post: DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers
way to fix the flowers! i think they look great–but it sucks they weren’t what you wanted.
At least you made the best out of your situation and made them work for you!
You go MacGyver! Way to go on getting rid of the frilly purple ribbon. I also wasn’t happy with my flowers - well, just my bouquet. The BM bouquets were lovely, but mine was completely the wrong colour. I wanted those dark blood-red lilies that look nearly black. What I got was PINK with white bits underneath. And I wanted black feathers here and there. What I got was a surround of peacock feathers. Um, yeah. SO what I asked for. And the florist still told me the lilies were out of season so she had to charge me more! If I’d known they were the WRONG lilies I would have changed my flower entirely. Sigh. Why do they do this to us???
Nice save on the flowers and staying cool about it!!! By the way your mom is so precious!!
As a fellow loather of white roses, I hear ya on that! You did a great job spiffing them up!
Did you end up having a word with the planner about the bouts? Because $9 for a carnation is nuts! That could have put me over the edge.
And um, hope you don’t mind, but in the “Who’s the bride? She’s the bride!” picture you look so much like a young Jane Seymour I did a double take. ^_^ Funny.
I have had a pit in my stomach for you since you posted about the meeting. I just knew this post was coming. I think you did a great job of salvaging them.
Your moms dress looks beautiful. Great work on the floral repairs. I wish I could do stuff like that when the going gets tough.
I had a DW in Bermuda and the bouquet was not what I expected either. For what I paid, I expected a much bigger bouquet than I got. I got a teeny tiny bouquet. But like you said, when the ceremony is looming just ahead, what can you do. Just shrug it off.
Your flowers look great! Good job 
Way to be resourceful!!
Those pictures of you and your girls at the end are GORGEOUS!! What a beautiful bunch of ladies!
I love it all- love the hair, love the dresses and I love your Mom- so cute. And the MacGyver flowers- if I didn’t know that you hated white roses- I’d say that they were beautiful!!
The pics of you and your mom almost made me tear up! You guys look amazing! Yay for McGyvering your flowers!
You are gorgeous, have I mentioned that to you?
Great job with the flowers! You guys are totally resourceful!
Awwww, you SO look like your mother! And I love that despite the floral woes, you were able to be so cheery and relaxed with your BMs!
omg i had the exact same thing happen to me, and we got married on the same day! 11/15. i didn’t get the flowers i ordered — i’m still mad about it! but oh well — you really did a great job coping. i only got my flowers about 30 min before the ceremony so i just went with what was there. oh well!
Your little Polish mama is just about he cutest little thing I have ever ever seen. I’m glad you are able to look back on the day without saying “the experience was ruined because of the flowers”. I’m actually a white rose hater myself. But only for weddings. I just think they are a little overdone… I hope your mom wore that sweet little dress for the ceremony, I’m in love with it!
oh, I would’ve been SO MAD, especially about the bouts!
Way to take control of the situation! The flowers looked SO much better after y’all fixed ‘em up! I am adding pearl tipped pins and scissors to my list of things to bring to Grand Cayman!
You’ve kept us in such suspense with the flowers! I’m glad to see you were able to make lemonade our of lemons. But now I’m really paranoid about flowers….
@Mrs. Avocado: “White rose hater”=hilarious! Miss SB, it’s amazing how relaxed, happy, and composed (not to mention pretty) you look in these photos! I think I’d have an ugly mad face happening. I love your resourcefulness and MacGyver skillz!
@Ruby Slippers: If it makes you feel better (it helps me!), your guests probably said the same things as mine, either: a) your flowers were lovely, or b) we don’t remember your flowers at all. Ha ha.
@SpinningJenny: That’s a new one! *goes to Google Jane Seymour*
@chicagowife: Aw, that sucks! Did you get married at the Majestic too?
Oooohhh flowers…… I had a doozy with mine. First off, I wanted calla lilies. I had pictured in my head about 2 dozen minis for me, just all bundles together, and half a dozen minis for my girls. Something small and simple. I also specifically told my florist I don’t like swags (I think that’s what they’re called? The flowers that you have to kinda hold in the crook of your arms)
Our wedding came. My bouquet was made up of 4 regular callas, which where HUGE and some other white flowers. My girls ended up each getting two regular callas (also HUGE) that were swags! WTH? But the best part??? THEY WERE DEAD!!!! Like brown, wilted, ends dried up, dead. All of the bouquets, dead. Turns out the florist made them two days ahead of time and forgot (??!!) to put them in water. So…. no flowers at our wedding!
We did get some funny pictures of us with the flowers. We actually posed with them for about a roll of film so that we could laugh at it for many years!
Okay, #1 you are gorgeous. #2, god help you for not killing your florist. #3, you are gorgeous.
Oh man! At least you were able to make it into a better situation! And the dresses look amazing on the bridesmaids, what a lovely color!
You are awesome. I love how calmly you took the whole thing!
Who else but Breezy MacGyver would have pearl tipped pins?!
I love following your blogs bc there are so many DIY, I’m from the DR and my favorite color is purple (aka my colors) haha I feel like a stalker fan … so thought I should let you know! keep the posts coming =D
wow you really did find your inner macGyver! That was a great fix!
@Emily: OUCH!! Good on you for taking photos! I guarantee, they WILL be funny one day.
@Mrs. Coconut: It was the wedding coordinator who dealt with the florist (for which the florist should be verrrry relieved). That said, the coordinator got an earful.
@Mrs. Cookie: I never leave home without them.
I was SO disappointed–everyone kept saying they looked lovely but it was NOT what i ordered. You look soooo beautiful in your photos–I see them and I think to heck witih the flowers!
You totally transformed them! That’s impressive. I can’t wait to see more!
Sorry that this happened to you. But it looks like you made the most of it!
sounds like everything workes out! i love your hair by the way! thats what i want mine to look like!
The picture of you and your mother is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I don’t think anyone would have noticed the flowers with you looking so good!!!
Wow, despite the flower dilemma, they ended up looking great. I guess regardless of how reliable your florist is, its really important to find vendors who know exactly what you’re expecting. Great job though, they looked beautiful!
wow, I can’t believe how much got lost in translation! I’m glad you were able to save your bouquet! You look absolutely stunning in your pictures. Me, on the other hand, cried after seeing my bouquet because I thought that the roses were white instead of a light pink.. but then my sister showed them to me in a different type of light, and I saw that they were light pink.. =)
Wonderful job on the floral reworking! I applaud you self-restraint; I would have smacked the coordinator and made her go get me the right flowers.
As everyone else mentioned, holy hotness, you are gorgeous! I love the pictures of you and your mom. Absolutely beautiful!
Nice job fixing your flowers! I think you look so happy and joyful in your photos that I wouldn’t have noticed the flowers anyways.
My florist did an overall outstanding job, but when it came to personal flowers he fell a little short. my bouquet was pretty but not what i imagined and it also weighed more than my dress and was HUGE. the bouts were, no joke, black mini-callas. except the “mini” callas were literally the length of my friggin forearm, and my husband is 5′11″, NOT seven feet tall. luckily, my sister in law saved them and cut the stems off the bloom of each calla, and re-wrapped the bloom so that they LOOKED like mini callas. nobody could tell that they weren’t whole flowers. WHEW. how is that florists who do weddings have no clue what makes sense sometimes??
miss perfume refers to lily of the valley as the rolls royce of flowers, & from the word go, i have loved them. so i have decided to try & grow my own–INSANE, right?! otherwise, i’m also macgyvering my boquet! we’re pretty much out of $, so potted orchids (home depot!) for centerpieces & costco roses for BM bouquets (and possibly my own if plan A fails–look for it on Fail Blog!) a few of my BMs are sort of hijacking my wedding-1st it was the dresses i chose, now one of them wants me to call several florists to price out BM bouquets, which i already said we can’t afford!
Btw, you did a fantastic job resurrecting your bouquet. I can’t believe those cheap jerks sent $9 carnations (not possible!) you hate white roses, i hate carnations (cheap man’s rose). although i do concede that they did seem to fit nicely with your DW. we can’t control every detail, & i’m sure your wedding was wonderful despite the flower SNAFU.
Good call on the ribbon re-do. I doubt I would have been so calm and cool if such a mistake arrived at my door on my wedding day!
I can’t believe you had the pins! I can’t believe what an adorable/coordinated getting read outfit you had!
Too cute as always, Seabreeze
Amazing. Simply amazing. I hope that I can have your grace if anything should happen!
p.s. *Repeated so many times it’s cliche* You look beautiful!
They are awesome! What talent on such short notice.
I also felt that pit in my stomach when I felt the “flower sitch” coming on..seriously NINE BUCKS for carnation bouts??? what the….?
I know there is a language barrier, but this is ridiculous!
You came prepared. You and your friends and mom rolled up the sleeves and did the work. They looked professionally done! Way to go!
Lemons to lemonade for Mrs. Sea Breeze!
AWESOME save!
@Alex: Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice of vendor - I ordered via the wedding coordinator and they relayed the message to their florist vendor. BOO. I was actually expecting a book of flower choices I could pick from but no, that would have been WAY TOO EASY.
@mrsbear: Beats me. Thank god for sisters-in-law (and mamas)!
@Nicole: Nope. But trust me, I told her how unhappy I was with them. (Little did she know I’d tell the Internets about it too, hahaha!)
@eileen marie: I say go for it! I’ve seen lots of gorgeous DIY flowers. But I do recommend doing a trial run first… make at least one bouquet so you learn what you like.
@Mrs. Tiramisu: The dress was a happy accident! I wanted to wear white but didn’t end up buying a white sundress so I threw this on in the morning. I think I coordinate like this by accident a lot for the simple reason I own so many purple things.
@bellenga: The killer is that the wedding coordinator’s English is quite good. So who knows what the heck happened between me telling her and her relaying the info to the florist.
You’re pictures are beautiful and the flowers turned out great. We had an issue with our flowers too. I had ordered burgundy and orange mini callas from on online wholesaler 6 months before the wedding. A week before the wedding they confirmed my order than the next day they sent me an email saying they couldnt get me burgundy callas. I started freaking out and called everyplace in town to try and find some…no luck. I ended up finding another online company who was able to find me flowers and get them to me on time. I was a little disappointed that the colors didn’t turn out like I had envisioned but they were still pretty in the end. I put together all the flowers and totally loved my bouquet!
You are so gorgeous and your maids are hawt too!
I just want to give your mama a hug!
I’m so impressed with your MacGuyver skills! Awesome!
I didn’t think I cared much about how my flowers looked. But I was disappointed when the stems weren’t wrapped with ribbon like I thought they would be. They had a sheer ribbon tied in a bow. And also my bouquet only had two types of flowers like I asked, but they weren’t mixed together very well. I mean how hard is it to arrange only two kinds of flowers together? Part of it was my fault because I should have given her the pictures I had, but she really rushed us when we put in our order, so I guess we share the blame…
You are awesome for just shrugging and pulling a MacGyver. And the fact that you remained calm after receiving those $9 carnations is amazing, I might have freaked over that. Seriously, you are too lovely and look so cute getting ready (especially love that dress of yours)!
My florist painted (or something) all my deep red mini calas (WTF?) and didn’t tell me she was going to do that, so of course in many of the photos you can see the guys bouts looking all jacked up because they were half red/half white because the paint was falling off. She also attached this big, ugly ass green leaf behind the bout. Not sure where she got the idea, but I didn’t have time to fix any of it because I didn’t see until after our ceremony so by then it was too late. Oh well…but could you maybe have your flowers photoshopped so at least the color the the orchid is more like you want it? I’m having my photographer do that to fix some of our flowers in photos.
Just curious–where did you find those BMs dresses in such a lovely shade of purple??
You totally made it work! And you still look radiant despite it all with your beautified bouquet.
Wow, it looks SO much better, and the handle wrap looks totally pro!! And dang, you are SO gorgeous, seriously glowing!
$9 for a carnation bout!? oh my! First, I hate carnations, but second, that is WAY too much to charge for a carnation!
at my matron of honors wedding, her bouquets arrived with an excess amount of greenery which she hated. fifteen minutes before the ceremony she and i sat on the floor with sizzors and reworked hte bouquets.
I feel a lot more confident about what my flowers will turn out like in the end with her on my team!
Way to take it all in stride!! Those really were pretty ugly to start. And the white carnations?! Seriously?!
I love the shots of you and Mama SeaBreeze!! She is so gorgeous!
That was a great fix-up! One of my favorite parts of a bouquet is the pearl-pin line. Just seems very wedding-y to me. Way to keep a smile on your face and not let the details bother you. 
They look beautiful, even if they weren’t quite right for your colors/style. No one will ever know, lookin at the photos, except for you. At least the bouts were the right color! They coulda been yellow or something!!
well flowers in your original bouquet on the picture that you picked out are way different kind of orchids (more expensive may I add - they run about $7 per head) what you got, and what you expected are completely two different looks.
Nobody will ever notice that something went wrong, and frankly it isn’t worth it to stress about. BUT ladies make sure when you talk to your floral designer and that they know exactly what you are expecting.
If there is budget difference and there are adjustments that need to be made in order to achieve the look that you want, make sure the florist points out exactly the flowers that they will be using.
I always attach pictures of flowers that I am using, so there is no surprises. If there are substitutions, my clients always know about it before hand.
fyi - i would never use carnations for boutonnieres, unless somebody would really really insist.
Oh my! I would throw those flowers at the florist before I ever presented them to my Bride. They look like they came from the grocerey store. Good girl for taking it in stride and not letting it take away from your Big day!
Wow…not only do you work great under the pressures from I put on you from work, you were able to extend that same grace and poise to something that would have caused even the calmest of brides to get the “Hulk” eye. You continue to amaze us all Mrs. Seabreeze…or should I say Mrs. MacGyver!!
Way to roll with the punches
and that picture of you and your mother is adorable!
P.S. I CANNOT believe she gave you carnations for our bouts… grrrr!
[...] DW in the DR: Pack It Up, Pack It In DW in the DR: Airport Confessions DW in the DR: Bienvenidos a Punta Cana DW in the DR: The Guest List Is In the Bag DW in the DR: The OOTs in Action DW in the DR: Planning the Reception DW in the DR: Planning the Flowers & Cake DW in the DR: Planning the Ceremony DW in the DR: Planning the Photography DW in the DR: Stag and Showerette DW in the DR: The Meltdown DW in the DR: Final Touches DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers [...]
I really really really want to coordinate my “getting ready” dress with my colors and my girls - you are so classy - it makes all of your pics look natural and chic simultaneously - you never cease to amaze me!
Wow, I love this post for so many reasons. The use of MacGyver especially. You are gorgeous and I love the picture of you and your mom! I’m sorry you had such an awful floral experience but it’s great that you can laugh about it and that you made it work anyway!
You worked your magic on the flowers, they look great. Also, the pic with you and your mom is gorgeous. Your mother is very pretty.
[...] DW in the DR: Final Touches DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers DW in the DR: I Finally Get to Wear the DWess DW in the DR: Girls Gone Wild DW in the DR: The [...]
[...] DW in the DR: Final Touches DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers DW in the DR: I Finally Get to Wear the DWess DW in the DR: Girls Gone Wild DW in the DR: The [...]
[...] DW in the DR: Final Touches DW in the DR: The Guys Get Groomed DW in the DR: The Girls Get Gorgeous DW in the DR: We MacGyver the Flowers DW in the DR: I Finally Get to Wear the DWess DW in the DR: Girls Gone Wild DW in the DR: The [...]
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Mrs. Sea Breeze, Vancouver/Dominican Republic
Age in 2008 and Occupation: 30, Communications Manager
Fiance's Age in 2008 and Occupation: 29, Experiential Marketing Director
Engagement Date: October 6, 2007
Wedding Date: November, 2008
Blogging Since: July 17, 2008
Venue: Majestic Colonial Resort, Punta Cana
About Me: Planning a destination wedding by the sea should be (oh no she di-in't…) a breeze (…*sigh* yep, she did) but when you've never been to the Caribbean, your powers of imagination are really put to the test. Luckily, I'm 90% resourceful, creative optimist (and kooky, neurotic practicalist-if-that's-a-word for the other ten). Other than writing about our week-long celebration of family, friends, laughter and love, I adore books, shoes and… you guessed it… long walks on the beach.
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