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I love purple statice. I thought I was getting purple status, but after looking at the picture from before (and a quick Google search to confirm), I was actually getting purple statice. This is an amazing flower. They’re so bright and vibrant. And it’s a sturdy flower, which is great because I really like to run my hand over it again and again. I can’t help it because it feels like a lei.
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| Image via FlowerShop Network |
And his name is Dusty. Dusty Miller.
Image via flowershopnetwork.com
Looking at this picture, I’m not sure why I love this plant. There is nothing particularly appealing about it when it is all alone. BUT…add in some gorgeous peonies and a few garden roses, and my heart starts pitter pattering out of my chest!
I’ve been pretty nonchalant about wedding flowers and bouquets throughout most of my planning. It’s really a direct result of not having a very big budget, so florals were placed under the importance of food, beer and music. And, my wedding dress.
I’m drawn to the more expensive bouquets consisting of succulents, and bigger blooms like peonies. If I couldn’t have what I wanted, then I just didn’t care that much. As snooty as that sounds, it was more that I just accepted that our flowers weren’t going to be my dream flowers. I was perfectly content going to the local grocer and buying whatever flowers were available and arranging our own bouquets the night before the wedding. Mama Honey and MOH Stac, however, weren’t having it. They envisioned more perfect flowers for our wedding day.
A long, long time ago I fell in love with this shoot featured on Style Me Pretty. I adored all the elements but what really caught my eye were the flowers; I had never seen them before. Suddenly I was enamored with anemones.
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Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Jessica Claire / Styled by Jesi Haack |
After ditching my initial wedding inspiration, I had a new-found determination to define a style that fit me and Mr. Hawk. Not long after beginning my search, I fell in love again. Lightning had struck twice. This time, though, it didn’t feel forced. (I swear, it felt like the skies parted and the wedding gods smiled upon me.)
Image via The Zella Guide / Photo by Stephanie Williams Photography
I ADORED the simplicity and classic beauty of antique blue Mason jar arrangements, and it wasn’t just because they were “pretty.” To top it off, they were the most amazing backdrop for yellow flowers. (See what I saying about the wedding gods?) The only thing holding me back from proclaiming full-on victory was cost. After some research, I found that those antiques were a bit pricey. That’s when I found a DIY tutorial from Bridal Buzz.
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
After sharing my inspiration for a bridal bouquet, I got a little distracted by the completion of our save-the-dates (okay, I confess that not all of them are addressed yet, but they are all assembled!), but it’s time now to get back to pretty, colorful flowers!
The package we have selected from our venue includes 3 bridesmaids bouquets. Now, you may recall that I have 4 lovely bridesmaids. Luckily, our venue was willing to accommodate this and told us that they could make 4 bouquets, they would just have to be on the small side. We’ll take it!
I didn’t want to deny my bridesmaids of beautiful bouquets, but the more I looked at inspiration pictures, the more I realized that size doesn’t matter (insert inappropriate joke/comment of your choice here). Look at these darling bouquets that are small in size and huge in charm:
| Image via WeddingChicks / Photo by Damaris Mia / Flowers by Bella Bloom |
Obviously, I am counting my table numbers…duh! I’ve gone through a lot of ideas about what to do to number our tables. My favorite idea has pretty much always been the ever popular frame-with-fabric-and-glued-on-wooden-number dealio.
Image via Elizabeth Ann Designs / Photo by Diana Lupu
Unfortunately, I was unable to find beautiful frames that didn’t cost an arm and leg, and so I decided to explore other options for table numbers. Then one day the fabulously famous Hobby Lobby opened near my house, and I decided to explore; and I had a moment of genius!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I’ll be honest with you, hive: I was extremely nervous about ordering wholesale flowers online and going the DIY route. You may remember my post on deciding to do my own flowers and how that decision came about. I was confident in my ability to arrange the bouquets, but scared about what sort of quality the flowers would arrive in. There are so many mixed reviews floating around the blogosphere and plenty of horror stories that would probably scare away a lot of DIY brides. It was motivating, however, that with the bad stories there were even more success stories of happy brides who saved lots of money and had beautiful flowers.
Here is a little about my experience with ordering wholesale flowers and going the DIY route using Fifty Flowers.
1. I chose to go with Fifty Flowers mainly because of their 100% wedding day guarantee. I also really liked the fact that their customer service was always very friendly and helpful in answering the million questions that I had about the whole process and about various flowers. They were knowledgeable about their products and always willing to give pointers on caring for the flowers. I really liked using the chat feature on their website because each time I finished a chat, I always saved the conversation to my email so that I could go back and refer to the advice and answers that they had given.
2. When choosing the type of flowers that I wanted, I did so with these things in mind:
Read more…
One of my very first posts was on New Year’s Eve inspiration, and in that post, I shared this photo:
Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Scott Lawrence Photographs
I finally got my butt in gear and started the boutonnières using this picture as a reference. Now that the stores are already filling their shelves with Christmas items and Macy’s on State in Chicago is cranking out the Christmas tunes, it is much easier to find holiday appropriate items. MOB recently found a bag of blowouts in colors that would match the wedding.
There were what I felt like huge parts of my life going unrepresented in our wedding. After thinking, thinking, and thinking some more of how to tie in all the small odds and ends, it came to me. Simply do that—tie ‘em together!
When I walk down the aisle, not only will I be arm and arm with Mr. Raccoon, I’ll be holding a beautiful bouquet that highlights my interests, shows support from my family, and serves as a remembrance of the ones that are no longer able to be with us. It’s important for me to have this, but in a way that won’t put a damper on the day. Hey, we’re planning a joyous occasion here!
The time is almost here! No, not the wedding. That is still 6+ months away. But our initial planning meeting is rapidly approaching! This meeting is with our venue, but since our venue is all inclusive, it is also a meeting with our florist. Please excuse my giddiness that it is time to start talking flowers.
Not to be self-centered, but let’s start with the bridal bouquet. I think this is a very good place to start—after all, there are boatloads of phenomenal inspiration pics.
Here is the first stunner that I came across:
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| Image via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Krystal Mann / Flowers by Cedarwood Weddings |
Are you itching for more? I hope so, because here it is!
I struggled a lot with this one, guys. Flowers, oh how I love them, oh how their price tags do not fit into my nicely divided budget no matter how I play with the percentages. (Thanks, Google Docs!)
After investigating a few florists in the area, I knew this was going to be a do-it-yourself kind of project. I’m going to order white roses in bulk from Costco online. I was able to find 100 stems for $80 including shipping. All the reviews say to have them delivered about two days before the event so you can get them into water and looking beautiful again.
On top of this steal, I might have found the best little-known invention. It’s called Easy Arranger and is sold by Annabelle Noel. For $12 I got a four pack of patterns, insurance I’ll call it, so that the bouquets look right. Want to know what else is awesome about these? They’re bendable, reusable, and coated so they won’t rust!
You just stick your flowers through the holes. It looks foolproof, right?
Hi again! I’ve accidentally (and temporarily) turned into a Weddingbee reader instead of a blogger lately but I’m sure you all haven’t noticed because there have been an influx of SERIOUSLY amazing new bees.
Here is why: soon after we got married, Mr. Crepe landed a great job in San Francisco! We are incredibly grateful for this one, especially with the economy the way it is and starting our lives together with a bit of stability is wonderful. There have been a few rough years in the past, career wise, for both of us, and that had contributed to our extended long distance relationship. It is so gratifying for me to see the mister going to a job he loves, with super cool coworkers who he respects and who respect him. Go Mr. Crepe!
So on top of the transition of getting married and living together for the first time, we have also been dealing with the task of moving cross country. It’s been a monster. (For those of you who have to do this too, I do have a GREAT car shipping company to recommend! A whole lot of research and breath holding went into this, believe you me.) This has plunged us back into long distance but after 6 years of it, 2 months is totally small beans.
One of the reasons why I stayed behind was to attend a few close friends’ weddings. I wanted to share a detail from one of the weddings here; it was so simple but absolutely beautiful.
First in our final series of pre-wedding appointments was our florist. I knew that I was going to be beyond happy that we’d gone with a professional, and the particular florist we did. I’d heard nothing but great reviews, and could handle the price point. They have been nothing but sweethearts to work with, and have clearly understood my vision. I am completely comfortable letting them do whatever they want within a certain constraint.
That being said, I couldn’t have prepared for how excited the final floral consultation went. I met our designer, Stephanie, and administrative assistant, Collette, at their newly opened studio a few blocks from where I work, and brought them my collection of bottles, jars and vases. They were super stoked, which was a big relief because in the back of my mind, I was worried there weren’t enough, they wouldn’t be able to work with them, whatever. Not the case!
Much of what we’d originally agreed upon was the same, with the addition of some elements. And I can’t even describe how exciting it was to see and hear the FINAL FLOWER order and know that everything would be so beautiful the day of!
I have heard of cotton balls. I have heard of cotton dresses. I have heard of cotton candy. I have heard of Mrs. Cotton Candy. But cotton bouquets? This was something that took me by surprise!
What a pleasant surprise it was! I was instantly enamored with how soft and natural they look, and I love how they are so unique yet still carry the shape of a classic bouquet. Don’t you just want to rub it against your cheek? Nope, just me?
Here are a couple more cheek-rubbing-worthy bouquets:
Trolling Etsy as I’m now prone to do, I found so many boutonnière ideas. I was really looking for something other than fresh flowers so we could have one more thing done and out of the way early.
Etsy seller whichgoose
$20/Bout
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