Spring Inspired!

If you don't know by now, I love, love, love bridal bouquets loaded with personality! There are TOO many possibilities with flowers for brides to carry contrived bouquets that have been done over and over again. I love bouquets where lots of thought and attention is given to texture, color and fabric to REALLY reflect the bride's style. That said, here are a few uber-inspired arrangements I've snagged lately. And enjoy!

Katie Elfers

The pop of ZEBRA and texture in this one is ridiculously yummy!!!!

Simple hydrangeas made STUNNING with thoughtful paper/fabric printed wraps.

Bella Design Studio

Tidbit: Bouquet Wraps

Sometimes I come across random things that seem to not be worthy of a full post but inspire me still. So I'll share!
Creative and pretty bouquet stem wraps-- one done in vintage buttons with ballet style wrap and the other done in a gorgeous jacquard fabric over satin with bling! Enjoy!


This one is done in silk voile with ivory cord binding

credit: Flower Design UK

Getting Creative With Carnations

There are lots of old posts in Savvy blog about carnations (we were ahead of this trend!)--namely about how I really love this forsaken flower when it's arranged right! So, of course I enjoyed the visuals of a recent Hostess blog post on carns!

And last but not least, my own reception centers!

Be Savvy: "Details Please!": On Floral Proposals...

The writer of one of the wedding blogs I love to follow, destination planner Kelly McWilliams (Weddings by Socialites), has a recent (very useful) blog post on the importance of detailed floral proposals which really got me thinking.

In her post, she discusses why thorough proposals from your florist are essential so that there are NO surprises on your wedding day and so you know exactly what you're getting--down to the kind of ribbon and wrap for bouquets and even what type of alternate flowers may be used in the case a promised flower is not available.

But another really great reason to request such detailed proposals is to know exactly what you are paying for--and to be able to decide if there are things in the proposal you may forgo, do cheaper or that your wedding planner can do for you. This is where a wedding planner can really help out!

One of the things I do as a planner is review all of the contracts--and proposals--that my brides and grooms receive from vendors. I look at them for any gaps, unanswered questions or red flags....

But it's also REALLY important for me to be able to see where I may help my couples save money! And to be sure we stay within budget. Normally, there will be things I can flag in a floral proposal that are not necessary or that we can downgrade or negotiate for budget purposes. And because I talk to and deal with vendors often, I can immediately see when something may be done in a more budget-friendly manner. 

The best floral proposals are those that go into detail about each aspect of the floral--i.e. personal flowers, ceremony and reception flowers, cake table flowers etc.--AND that include itemized pricing for each piece--e.g. 6 boutonnieres at $7 each to be made of X-type of blooms in Y-color and to be wrapped in Z-kind of ribbon...)

Hopefully this is helpful in terms of figuring out your floral and in seeing one way in which a wedding consultant may help save you money!

Flower Trial: DIY Bridesmaid Bouquet

This was my very first time making a bouquet, and for a "first time", I'm pleased with the results and confident I can make my bridesmaid's bouquets for the wedding! I will save a good amount of money doing this!

For the mock-up I just bought some roses from a downtown street vendor plus some other cheap flowers to work with. For the real bouquets, I plan to use all premium roses from Global Rose in shades of pink and no filler.

Florist Mock-Up

One thing I really love about our florist is that she is very patient and willing to work with me and change things until it is perfectly what I have in mind. This is a reason I highly suggest brides-to-be do mock-ups/trial runs of their floral components with their florists well in advance of the big day.

In the case of my trial run, I loved the mock centerpieces she made except for a few minor changes. The floral for the ceremony, however, was not what I had in mind. But that's ok. Because we have plenty of time to fix it and after the trial I really feel like we are on the same page.

So in the name of NOT divulging entirely too much, here is a sneak peak at one of our floral elements....I won't even say what it is, and I've majorly cropped the photo. But suffice to say we HAVE decided to use carns as part of our decor.

Exquisite Fabrics

For my bouquet, I have decided to carry fair bianca garden roses and ivory/cream orchids. The pics below are my 'inspiration photos':  

pics probably from The Knot and House Martin

I've been thinking about what I want to wrap the stems in (I know I only want the stems wrapped half-way)...

So, a good thing about my recent office move is that I am now just steps away from the Washington fabric store Exquisite Fabrics, which lives up to its name indeed!  So I skipped lunch and spent one lunch hour browsing for something pretty and embellished to use as a bouquet wrap.

I decided on one yard of this:

wrapped around a diet pepsi bottle!

As usual, photos don't do the fabric justice.
Of course, I couldn't be shopping without thinking of my lovely bridesmaids. So in keeping with the lace thing, I also picked up a yard of pretty ruffled black lace that we may use to wrap their flowers--shades of darker pink roses and other flowers, something like this:

I'm taking this to my florist next weekend to see if she thinks it will work.