Weddingbee Blog

Yes, that’s right. Flower fear. I’m such a big wimp that I was terrified of picking out flowers.

Let me remind you that I am a complete flower idiot. I know nothing (NOTHING) about flowers. And I’m perfectly content to keep things that way… except there’s this whole wedding thing, and it usually involves flowers and me having to actually pick them out.

To be honest, the original plan was to only have flowers for our bouquets. I didn’t want to have to worry about picking flowers out for the centerpieces because I was terrified it would turn out looking ridiculous. Plus, flowers are expensive, right? So I figured the best plan was to just skip them except for where absolutely necessary, and call it a day. I even had a great plan for centerpieces - the cute little balls! But, we all know how that turned out. Major fail.

So then, I spent hours upon hours researching different ideas for non-floral centerpieces. Martha Stewart’s website got an embarrassing amount of visits from me in the weeks I was trying to figure out the centerpiece situation. The only problem was, I just wasn’t loving anything I saw. Candles are gorgeous, but are a bit formal for our fun and funky affair. Fruit is adorable, but it just didn’t get me very excited. I considered paper flowers, but with all the other DIY projects I am tackling it just seemed ridiculous - plus, I know I could never make something that I was really happy with, and I’d just stress myself out over it.

So, non-floral centerpieces just weren’t making my heart all a-flutter. But you know what did? Pictures like this:

(Source)

and this:

(Source)

and this (!!!)

(Source)

Drool.

Swoon.

So. Even though I know absolutely nothing about flowers, they still make my heart beat a little faster. And even though I figured these arrangements were entirely out of our budget, I couldn’t help but daydream about them. Plus, the thought of floral centerpieces was becoming much more appealing to me - I don’t have to do any extra work, I just have to show up and admire how pretty they look! And they smell nice! And they’re SO DAMN PRETTY!

But, alas. The price. So, I talked to my mom’s friend who is really good at working with silk flowers, and she was going to help me out. I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed, because I felt like I was settling for silk flowers. But honestly, I was so fed up thinking about centerpieces that I was ready to just make a decision and be done with it already! So we were all set to visit Garden Ridge with my mom’s friend to pick out some silk flowers, and I was just crossing my fingers that I could find something I liked.

Then. (There’s always a “then,” isn’t there?)

I contacted a florist about our bouquets, because I needed to cross florist off my to-do list. And just for the hell of it, I decided to ask her about the cost of centerpieces.

Y’all. I still feel like maybe I’m missing out on something, because the price is insane. In a really, really good way. I don’t know if I hit the holy grail of awesome florists or what, but I still haven’t picked my jaw up off the floor at how great the price was. And her reviews on every website I’ve seen are nothing but glowing. I was immediately sold, and just like that, we decided to have real flowers for our centerpieces!

So, what will they look like?

Well, half of them will have three of these lovely little vases:

(Source)

There will be a different type of flower in each, similar to the second inspiration photo above. What will be in them?

Spider Mums

Button Poms

Solidago

and of course

Craspedia

And then the OTHER half of the centerpieces will have a larger milk glass vase, with an arrangement that is sort of a mix between the first and third inspiration photos. These arrangements will include:

Hydrangeas as a base

Dusty miller as an accent (Note: It’s not as green as it looks here, it’s more gray. This is what’s used in the first inspiration photo above)

And then there will be some more craspedia (of course), spider mums, and button poms (in both yellow and white).

Turns out, I didn’t need to know much about flowers to be able to have them in my wedding. I simply showed my florist some photos, explained we were on a budget, and talked with her about what I liked. She was great about working with us, and I think she really gets what we’re looking for. I kept telling her that I want the flowers to look like you just went out into your garden, threw them in a vase, and they just so happened to end up looking fabulous.

I’m so incredibly relieved to finally have our centerpieces all planned out, and it’s nice that my florist was willing to get so detailed in explaining what flowers she’d use - I needed to go home and Google all of them to see if I’d like them!

Next up, I’ll talk about our bouquets and boutonnieres.

Was your florist as detailed with you as mine was? Did you find that flowers weren’t nearly as expensive as you were expecting them to be?