Wedding Blog

This past weekend, the Dude and I went to our first meeting with our florist, Abby. She’s the in-house florist for our venue, which I love because that means she is an expert at making Barr Mansion look beautiful. The meeting went really well—I felt like she understood my vision right away. All I had to do was utter a few key phrases: “vintage”, “English garden”, and “cabbage rose”, and she was on the same page as me. She was totally realistic about the types of flowers that will and won’t be available in September. (Sadly, peonies, buttercups, and anemones are out.) However, she assured me that garden or cabbage roses would be a wonderful substitute, really giving the feel that we’re going for.

Flowers I can’t have

We decided on a combo of pale pale pink and cream garden roses and spray roses, with green and pink hydrangea and dusty miller filling out the bouquets. Not only will the dusty miller match the Dude’s gray suit, but it will also provide a much-needed contrast to the girly pastels making up the rest of the bouquet. The hydrangea will contribute a lush, organic element. (The Dude liked the hydrangea!) The Dude also really liked the idea of fresh herbs, so we will be incorporating rosemary into the corsages, boutonnieres, and place settings. It’ll look and smell awesome.

You likey the cabbage rose?

Some green hydrangea

Dusty Miller (not to be confused with that guy that went to your high school)

Rosemary and lavender boutonniere

Abby also talked to us about the candles and other decor that we’ll have at the reception site. I told her about the soy candles that I’m DIYing, and she gave me some estimates of how many we might need for the ballroom where our reception will be. She liked the idea of putting votives into different-sized mason jars, and she also suggested we look for vases in varying sizes and heights to use for the floral centerpieces. We jumped all over that idea! In fact, the Dude and I couldn’t wait to get started on this project, so we hit up a flea market just outside of Austin right after our meeting with Abby. We ended up buying 23 vases and jars for around $16! We still have a ways to go (3 candle jars and 3 vases per table, at least 13 tables), but check out the progress we’ve made:

These need a good washin’

A close-up of our “splurge” piece ($3!)

Throughout the meeting, Abby guided the Dude and me through all of the options for flowers during the ceremony and reception, but she didn’t pressure us to order things we didn’t need. Our estimate was waiting for us in my Gmail inbox when we got home, and—surprise, surprise—it was right around the budget we had come up with independently! This was the case even though we didn’t discuss pricing at the meeting.

Abby was great to work with, and she seemed happy that we requested things that were a tad offbeat and that we trusted her judgment on a lot of things. I feel totally comfortable leaving the vision in her hands.

This is probably the most excited and inspired I’ve been at any point in the planning process. It was great to finally get the Dude in on something, too. I think he enjoyed the meeting about 40% as much as I did, which is saying a lot! When we were leaving, he told me, “You’re really good at this stuff.” Finally, he’s paying attention.

Did you bring your FI to your floral meetings? Did he enjoy himself?