To Hold?

To Hold?

July 26th, 2009 @ 10:00 am by Mrs. Sunbeam
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It’s been glaring at me from my to-do list since “6-8 months” before the wedding. Book Florist. I know I should do it, I know we need to decide, but there are just too many choices out there! On top of choosing what flowers, there is the DIY vs Florist choice to make. I’ve seen Bees and Brides in the hive make beautiful bouquets themselves and save lots of $$ doing so. Here are a few homemade bunches from the WB gallery:

To Hold? : wedding flowers 2147di

Another from the Gallery

To Hold? : wedding flowers 25164454 860422688995 12400872 48214174 74jpgresize

Good job ladies! At first, I was taken by hydrangeas and did extensive research to find a bulk supplier, thinking it would be so easy to bunch a few of those together and make bouquets. Wedding Hydrangea Flowers, a supplier, even tells you how to DIY them on their site to make arrangements like this:

To Hold? : wedding flowers Bltable (Source)

I then saw these posts by Mrs. Cherry Pie. Her flowers. are. beautiful. I started noticing dahlias all over the internet and I thought great, found the flower I want! So I made an inspiration board to convey my idea to a local florist. The flowers in the center are leftovers from another idea.

To Hold? : wedding flowers Flower

(So u r c e, top left and center left, So u r c e bottom left, bottom center, and right center, Source center, and Source, bottom and top right)

While in PA, we visited a florist — inspiration board in hand. Sadly, I was told they wouldn’t work with dahlias because they aren’t good bouquet flowers. What?! I see them all over the place in bouquets. Slightly deterred but still determined, I asked another florist in Pittsburgh who turned out to be booked and never mentioned if my flower idea was even possible. I contacted a third, but haven’t heard back. So I thought I could DIY with dahlias and looked for growers online. I found a few, but many won’t ship dahlias. I ask you - where are all the brides getting these flowers then!? Are they getting married next to a dahlia farm? Feeling sad, with my to-do list glaring up at me, I finally had a positive response!

To Hold? : wedding flowers The Farm Field

(Source)

Lynch Creek Farms grows and sells dahlia tubers and had tons of varieties listed - many sold out for 2009. I decided to contact them about cut flowers even though there is no mention of them on their website. I am happy to report that they do sell cut flowers! In fact, all varieties were available cut! Like a kid in a candy shop, my eyes couldn’t get enough of their online collection, and now it could be just a matter of color scheme! Of course, it would still be great to find a florist to take the creative guesswork out of making bouquets. I thought to myself while staring at my to-do list - florist box get ready to be checked. Then I saw black and white anemones. They just had to stir the pot.

Did you have trouble picking out flowers for your wedding? Or are you letting your florist have creative freedom and forgoing having to decide on the exact flowers?

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26 Responses to “To Hold?”

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Member

ejs4y8 (message) 14,581 posts, Bee Keeper

Oooo how pretty! I just went to Michaels when they were having an “all silks 50% off sale” in January and bought what blended well with our colors (shades of blush, some richer pink, mostly creams) and winged it. I love real ones, but I have some beastly allergies!

7/26/09 @ 10:21 am (reply)

Guest

eileen

Easy peasy-we preordered red & cream roses from Costco & picked up a couple of other mixed bunches while we were there-voila! 6 bouquets & A LOT of boutonnieres & corsages all hand-crafted by my BFF/BM who had never arranged flowers in her life. Pew decor was baby’s breath & centerpieces were potted Home Depot orchids. Big impact-little dinero. Be wary of ordering flowers online–I splurged on my own bouquet (Lily of the Valley that we hand-tied). We paid over $100 for 20 tiny stems, & they just didn’t look that great. My toss bouquet looked much better! I have pics of everything if you want to PM me. I think we spent ~$500 TOTAL on all flowers.

7/26/09 @ 10:34 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Bear Cub (message) 1,566 posts, Bumble bee

omg anemonies are so beautiful! If you end up finding them for your september wedding, I’m all ears! I think they’re out of season, though

7/26/09 @ 10:51 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Star (message) 2,057 posts, Buzzing bee

Don’t stress! I juuuuust booked our florist this week. I was worried about how long I’d been procrastinating on it, too, but it turned out fine! Your flower ideas are gorgeous!

7/26/09 @ 11:25 am (reply)

Guest

myfavoriteplace

I love all the same flowers as you do! We ended up buying all our flowers from a local farmer and then my BMs did all the arranging - he had snapdragons, ranaculus, and irises freshly cut. In my search I found another great option - http://www.californiaorganicflowers.com - they sell a dahlia party mix box, through september

7/26/09 @ 11:39 am (reply)

Guest

Sarah

I was just discussing flowers with my mom the other day, and she said that dahlias spoil very quickly, so we will be picking them and putting them into bouquets right before the wedding. Luckily my parents own a garden center (and my mom worked at a florist shop for years) so it will (*crossing fingers*) be pretty easy for us, but that might be why you’ve had trouble finding a florist/supplier that would work. My ma specifically said if we cut them Thursday they won’t last well until Saturday.

I do loooooooove dahlias though and will probably be using them myself (as long as they are blooming)! Good luck!

7/26/09 @ 11:40 am (reply)

Member

Ferris Wheel (message) 224 posts, Helper bee

Wow, I was thinking of using dahlias, too, but I didn’t know they aren’t good bouquet flowers! I’ve probably changed my mind about flowers 700 times. I’m DIY-ing and I can’t wait to go look at Lynch Creek Farms’ website. Grower’s Box and Fifty Flowers also sell dahlias.

7/26/09 @ 11:58 am (reply)

Member

Kalibali (message) 272 posts, Helper bee

i am not looking forward to the flower/florist decisions either!

7/26/09 @ 12:03 pm (reply)

Member

Irishker03 (message) 571 posts, Busy bee

That’s awesome you found the cut dahlias! I think we’re going to try to do some trial runs of fake but we’re not totally sure yet. We also might do a paper flower bouquet and then centerpieces also…so many decisions to still be made!

7/26/09 @ 12:12 pm (reply)

10.

Member

Mrs Swordfish (message) 4 posts, Wannabee

Oh Miss Sunbeam, what a sweet surprise to find my bouquet here! I am glad you like it I was very determined on using dahlias in my bouquet - they are my favourite flowers by far and so the choice was obvious. At the moment, dahlias start to pop up in flower shops around here again and every time I see them I get this little happy feeling and thing of my wedding day

7/26/09 @ 1:19 pm (reply)

11.

Member

St. Patrick (message) 64 posts, Worker bee

I am really nervous about my flower options, because my wedding is in February. I’ve always wanted to DIY my bouquet by cutting the flowers myself, but alas.

7/26/09 @ 2:29 pm (reply)

12.

Bee

Miss Thimble (message) 797 posts, Busy bee

I’ve been in love with dahilas ever since I walked through a farmers market when visiting my (now) fiance at Penn State. Some local growers- I think they were PA Deutch- were selling all kinds of Dahlias including HUGE oversized beauties! You can probably find a more local Dahlia farmer in PA a little further out of the city, but it’s great that you found Lynch Creek farms too. The world is getting smaller- it’s so cool you can order cut flowers from Washington!

7/26/09 @ 2:41 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Sunbeam (message) 545 posts, Busy bee

@St. Patrick: If you contact the folks at fifty flowers . com, they are really helpful in letting you know which flowers they can get for you - might be worth looking into if you really want to DIY

@Miss Bear Cub: email fifty flowers . com - they said they would be able to get them for me if I wanted them!

@Mrs Swordfish: You did a great job with your flowers

@Miss Star: I am so glad you said that! I felt like such a BAD bride not getting the flowers sorted out till now (literally yesterday!)

7/26/09 @ 2:44 pm (reply)

14.

Guest

miss bliss

You need to check out Toy’s Flower shop in Kittanning or Anderson’s Greenhouse in Franklin… They both have great floral designers without the big city price tag!

7/26/09 @ 4:29 pm (reply)

15.

Member

SummerLinds (message) 29 posts, Newbee

i love dahlias! very textural. i would probably try to DIY my wedding flowers, but FMIL is a florist…so…that idea never really made it off the ground. so which flowers did you decide to use?

7/26/09 @ 7:31 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Miss Sprinkle (message) 545 posts, Busy bee

i wouldn’t stress about it, i am 7 weeks out and have made absolutely no flower decisions. i keep telling myself “things will magically fall into place” at some point!

7/26/09 @ 7:49 pm (reply)

17.

Member

Miss Bianca (message) 85 posts, Worker bee

i love flowers and i am having a hard time figuring out which ones to go with, yet i enjoyed this!

7/26/09 @ 7:55 pm (reply)

18.

Member

Champagne Wishes (message) 1,187 posts, Bumble bee

I am buying in bulk from Wegmans and assembling myself but I am leaving my bouquet to the pros… I will have enough to worry about that morning.

7/26/09 @ 9:36 pm (reply)

19.

Bee

Miss Paisley (message) 243 posts, Helper bee

Martha Stewart’s flower guide says anemonies are one of those flowers that are always in season. My guess? Because they are bulbs and can be forced. I want to DIY my flowers, too. I found this site for black and white anemonies: http://www.fiftyflowers.com/product/White-Fresh-Cut-Anemones_264.htm But you have to order 75 (that’s a lota black and white beauties!) Does anyone have experience with this? I’m going to try to order a “sample” from this company by calling, but I’m doubtful. I might be better off just going to a large flower market (like the one in S.F.) two days before the wedding to hand select some anemonies. BUT I don’t even know if they’ll be in season/available then. Does anyone else know if anemonies will be avail. in S.F. in late June???

7/27/09 @ 2:26 am (reply)

20.

Bee

Miss Bruschetta (message) 5,565 posts, Bee Keeper

Love the cute little blue and green arrangment above! Our florist was open to hearing specific ideas — but we turned to her for info on particular flowers (since I don’t know too many varieties) including what would be in our budget and stay looking pretty all day even if it’s HOT at the end of August.

7/27/09 @ 8:36 am (reply)

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