Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

I never saw myself as a florist.  I never knew what it would be like to create bouquets, flower arrangements, centerpieces, or any of that.  I figured it couldn't be that hard, and what I discovered after 2 weddings is that it really isn't.  I did all of the flowers for my wedding and my sister's wedding.  The one thing that I will say honestly, and I am sure many have heard this before, is that it is very time consuming and a bit stressful to do your own flowers.  Many wedding "experts" tell you to not even try it.  I would agree that trying to do ALL of your flowers is a lot, and it was kind of crazy to do them all myself (with some help, but let's be honest, I am a control freak and took on most of it myself).  However, if you want to save a LOT of money and have everything look exactly the way you want it, do it yourself. 

If anything, do the bouquets yourself.  I promise that it is actually really simple, if you have any craft ability whatsoever.  I watched a lot of tutorials online (some of which I will post) and spent some time practicing.  And I spent a LOT of time surfing the web and researching to find exactly what I wanted my flowers to look like and which flowers would be best to use.  We ordered flowers from wholesalers and then I worked my magic.  Below are some photos of the bouquets and flower arrangements from my wedding.  In future posts I will explain in more detail how I did this all!

My bouquet which included white roses, purple roses, white alstroemeria (my new favorite flower), purple lisianthus, purple limonium, and lemon leaf.  It was hand-tied and wrapped in a white fabric stem cover with some jewels.

Another view of my beautiful bouquet!

All of our lovely bouquets- each bridesmaid's bouquet was unique and each girl got to pick her favorite as her own!

Close-up of a bridesmaid's bouquet- each included purple & white roses, purple & white alstroemeria, purple limonium, dark purple lisanthus, and lemon leaf.

I made 2 of these for the ceremony at the church.  We found the urns at Michael's and used floral foam to create the sprays.  Each included gladiolas, roses, alstroemeria, and limonium.

This arrangement I made for the altar, and it was the beginning of the aisle runner.  I used a long block of floral foam and the same flowers as in the other arrangements, as well as a lot of greenery (some from my parent's backyard!)

When You Love Something...

I love planning weddings.  I love designing, I love creating, I love searching the internet for hours in order to find the perfect inspiration.  I planned my first wedding (my own) over a year ago now, and though it was a tad-bit stressful, I loved it.  When my sister and her now husband set their wedding date, I started actively helping her plan her big day, and I loved it.  After her wedding, I realized that even though I wasn't able to plan a wedding for myself anymore, and I had no more sisters to help plan weddings for, I didn't want to stop.

Hence the blog.  I hope to share some of my inspirations, some things that I have done, and some things that I would do if I were to have another wedding (though I don't anticipate it!). 

I always tell people that my next career will be wedding planning, and though I love what I currently do (teaching social studies to middle/high schoolers), I hope that one day I will be able to live my other dream.  I hope that you enjoy my blog and perhaps find some inspiration of your own.  And who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to help you plan your special day.

Christie