Weddingbee Blog

I know I haven’t really talked about it much yet, but we’re not having floral centerpieces. I think flowers are absolutely gorgeous and love having them in our apartment, but I couldn’t justify the expense of centerpieces. At any rate, I’ll talk about what we did decide to do for that later.

As you know, we’re having silkies for bouts because I thought I could pull that off, but I wasn’t so sure I could handle arranging the ladies’ bouquets. Plus, I think my bridesmaids and I will really appreciate the fragrance and luxury of having real flowers, whereas the groomsmen expressed that they couldn’t care less whether or not their bouts were silk. So, I decided to go for the gold and get gorgeous bouquets for the ladies, since we’re not having a florist do flowers for anything else. I’m pretty sure the bouquets will end up displayed somehow at the reception, too, just to have those pricey beauties do double-duty.

So, I needed some floral inspiration. I didn’t really have a clear idea of exactly what I wanted, only that it needed to fit into our color scheme and be as much on the unique side as possible. With that in mind, I scoured the internet and came up with these:

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This bouquet from The Knot is really beautiful. I love how the colors pop because they contrast with each other and that the purple flowers chosen aren’t too pastel-y. There’s a fine line to walk with purple wedding anything — it’s really easy to cross over from purple to lavender.  I had originally wanted to do dark purple flowers to avoid this, but two different florists advised against it, given the fact that the bridesmaids are in dark purple.

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This bouquet was uploaded to the gallery by reader Loralie! I love bouquets with texture and ones that have several different kinds of flowers for visual interest.

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I plucked this gem off of the internet so that my florist and I could get a visual on the elusive white camellia flower. Camellia flowers are apparently rare to find in bouquets, despite the fact that their leaves are frequently used as green filler around the outside edges of bouquets. I had my heart set on having at least a few camellias in my bouquet because of a show I was in my senior year of college, Camille. The experience of working on that production meant a lot to me and it was also what I was performing in the same week that we got engaged! You might remember that the play is also one of our table numbers. My florist tells me that camellias are very fragile and that he’ll be ordering them and doing his best to include them in my bouquet, but that he can’t guarantee that he won’t have to replace them if they look droopy. *Fingers crossed!*

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I chose this picture because the bouquets are lovely and I thought it was a good indication of the sizes that I wanted the bouquets to be. I wanted to make it clear that I don’t want a 40-pound monster to hold. I’ve been in weddings before and heavy bouquets are a drag!

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This bouquet I loved because, even though I don’t want a totally all-white bouquet, the texture and variation of flowers makes it absolutely dreamy. For the white flowers that are in my bouquet, this is how I want them to work together.

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This bouquet is stunning. I chose it simply to show my florist what I meant by having fiddlehead ferns in my bouquet. I’m in love with the little spirals poking out and hope they look as awesome in my bouquet as in this one!56

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Reader Cranley04 uploaded this gem to the gallery. Again, I love the texture. And I love the dark purple in the lisianthus (holy cow, I’m learning flower names…). This is similar to how I picture my bridesmaids’ bouquets, only minus the green and adding a little bit of white.

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And then — the crowning glory of my floral inspiration. This bouquet literally makes my heart skip a beat every time I look at it. I have a definite crush on the style of whoever’s wedding this came from. Much like Miss Sunbeam, I fell in love with anemones because of this picture. Aren’t they perfect for a polka-dotted wedding? I have no pink in my bouquet, nor do I have beautiful ranunculus or peonies due to the season, but this is definitely the feel that I’m going for.

WARNING: ALL BRIDESMAIDS, STOP READING! Thanks, ladies!

I also swung by a jewelry store and picked up different charms for each of my ladies to have on their bouquets, just to add a little sentimental something special for each of them. For example, Sassy Bridesmaid and I have our favorite little Chinese place down in Chinatown that we love to go to together, so I got her a little Chinese dumpling charm. My MOH and I spent three weeks backpacking through France together, so hers is a little Eiffel Tower charm… and so on. I think it’ll be a little sweet and unexpected thoughtfulness for them that day.

I’ve done my best to make each aspect of our wedding really personal and meaningful, because Mr. Star and I are saps that way! How are you making your flowers mean something special to you, and your family and friends?