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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Flowers from Heaven!

Our wedding flowers were one of my favorite parts of the whole day. I knew I loved flowers, but they weren't at the top of my priority list. I totally underestimated the visual power that flowers have. They really set the color scheme for the event, and they show up in every photo! Besides the bridesmaids dresses (and I wasn't going to make them wear orange) This is truly one of the most important places to introduce and establish the day's color choices.

I was so very lucky to have my cousin Kim fly in from New York for the wedding. She would have come anyway because she loves me, but I also asked her to do my flowers. She has experience working for Martha Stewart Weddings--and is generally brilliant where all things artsy/craftsy are concerned.

Here's how we did the flowers:
1) We only did attendants flowers, I didn't ask the flower crew to also do alter decs or table centerpieces
2) I did a dry run to the St. Louis wholesale flower mart of Baisch & Skinner, then I ordered $80 worth of roses, fern curls, thai leaves for greenery and billy balls.
3) The remaining flowers--80% of the total flowers--came from my mom's amazing garden.
4) Kim had an awesome floral crew of her mom, Susan, and my dear friend and high school art teacher Barb Peck.
5)The day of the wedding, they went out into the yard and cut away. I really didn't see a whole lot of the process, but according to my Mom, Kim kept sending Susan out into the yard to get just the perfect bloom for the spot she was working on. This is where Kim and I depart ways--I don't possess the capacity to be a perfectionist like that. It paid off!
6) I chose some ribbons to hang off the bottom of the bouquets because I like the blowing in the wind effect--and because I'm tall I did everything I could to LENGTHEN. and Kim picked up some great ribbon in NYC for the boutennieres.

So from my mom's garden, we knew that we wanted TONS of zinnias--they're one of my favorite flowers, in all the right colors, and they are easy to grow in great quantity.

But Mom also had lots of other plants just because she likes them, and I don't even know what all got cut and put into bouquets--goldenrod, hosta leaves, pincushion (those little purple balls) and who knows what. We save thousands of dollars by doing things this way!

I was just thrilled with the flowers all day long, and especially looking back on the photos of the day. They were totally the focal point of the wedding attire!

I know I could never have found such a talented florist anywhere in Mid-Missouri, but besides that, I feel so blessed that people I love made the flowers that day. I felt so loved and taken care of. I told you---acts of service!