it is now just over 2 months till our wedding. 11 weeks to be exact. i have been thinking about it a lot this month, mostly because there are admin things that have to be sorted out – stuff i haven’t had to give any thought to because they weren’t pressing, until now. i can’t get away with the “oh, but the wedding is months away!” excuse anymore. classic procrastinator.
one of those things is the flowers. we decided right in the beginning that we are not involving a florist – partly to save money, partly to avoid having yet another person in the wedding brigade (and trying to avoid a wedding brigade altogether), and because we want to keep things simple. drawing from the hopeful attitude that we can do things ourselves & it’ll work out okay.
i do believe it will work out okay! mostly because you can’t really go wrong with flowers. if you know what you like, and don’t like, it is just a matter of picking blooms that are in season, roping in some friends & family who are good with flower arranging, and making your tables as pretty as you can.
to be honest, i cannot think back to a single wedding i have been to and remember what the flower arrangements were or what the tables looked like. i DO remember how much i danced and how great it was celebrating with people i loved and rolling into bed knowing i was totally going to pay for it the next day – i remember that WELL. that’s why weddings are awesome. i just have to keep reminding myself of that fact when i start stressing about whether or not ranunculus will be in season (they are though, i have already checked).
photo by Color Me Rad via Elizabeth Anne Designs
left: photo by Steve Steinhardt | right: photo by Line Klein via Emmas Designblogg
photo by Mieke Willems
photos by Erin + Tara via Ruffled
photo by Jose Villa via Once Wed
left: Everyday Needs | right: vtwonen
courtesy of Rachel Craven (whose linens are on the table)
left: floral arrangement + photo by Kim Ludy | right: floral design by Amy Merrick
floral design by Nicolette Camille
left: photo by Laure Joliet | right: photo by Cramer Photo via Style Me Pretty
photo by Tanja Lippert via Style Me Pretty
Love the flowers in the amber bottles by Steve Steinhardt – such a nice pop of color against the table cloth! Good luck getting everything together for the big day!
Gorgeous table :)
Flowers are never wrong…
Exciting that the wedding is only 11 weeks away! I love putting flowers in unusual “vases” and mixing them up. Like mason jars and swing-tops. It always seems both elegant and crafty.
So happy you don’t care so much for all the preparation (and don’t write about it all the time). I think a wedding has to be a nice party and not a completely perfect organised thing.
Ranunculus in jam jars are perfect just like that. Mrs Balls chutney jars work particularly well for them!
11 weeks! It will go by in a flash! Happy planning! I too am partial to the amber bottles – that aid, we used various size blue bottles that we collected over a season from Etsy and local flower remedy vendors. We opted for simple cream and moroccan orange roses and used every size bottle, from bud vase to very large, for our arrangements.
Whatever you opt for, it will be perfect!
exploit the humble penny gum! handsome & easy-going .
You’re getting married in early-spring which is when the *best* flowers are in season ..small meadow/fynbos/heathery flowers, wax flowers (the best), tuber roses, ranunculus, those big yellow pompom flowers (billybuttons I think?), freesias, stocks, cow parsley, poppies, daffodils and lots of small sweet daisy looking flowers! We got married on 18 September and I went to my local fav flower shop in Johannesburg and ordered a few big bucketfuls and we made lots of wonderful posies and small arrangements the day before. Also had the florist make a simple white flower crown out of delphiniums which I wore and loved. Had a few tuber roses in my bouquet and their heady smell will now always remind me of that special joyous day. The flowers at your friend Jessica’s wedding were also so beautiful. Can’t wait for spring! Good luck Miss Moss x
well this is the best time to get parried! And I’m loving all these pretty blooms – the lighting in the photos is perfection. Good luck planning!
xo,
Brighton
http://www.brightontheday.com
As a flower-lover, I’m going to have to say: I do remember the flowers from most weddings I’ve been to! Maybe not in detail now, but certainly parts. I think DIY flowers will be great. It’s what my sister in law did.
I wanted a huge, trailing 20s-style bouqet. It cost. To save dollars we actually didn’t have any flowers at the reception. We just put candles in jars down the long tables, and put the bouquets in a few vases. I like to think it didn’t matter. Oh, and the church was exquisitely minimalist. I’d been to weddings there before and never felt that the flowers added to the space (though they’re lovely). So just buttonholes and bouquets for us.
I wish we could get coffee in person and wedding gab :) I think yours must be the weekend after me! Anyway, the first paragraph was like, YES!
I collected 180 bottles (currently taking up half my apartment) and am just going to the flower market the day before and ordering ranunculus wholesale online because they always suck at the flower market. And then I’m just sticking random wildflower looking things in the bottles without much arrangement-like planning ahead of time. That second photograph on the left is sort of what’s in my head.
And then candles, lots and lots of candles as they are so cheap!!
:)
So many beautiful arrangements! Unlike the others, I dont like the amber vases. Too much contrast with the lightness of everything else. Congratulations & good luck!
Do you have time to order Heritage Collection Blue Mason Jars from BALL? They’re pretty spectacular.
it wouldn’t make sense for me to order anything from the US, btu we have similar jars here in SA :)
It kind of feels like it is hard to make flowers look bad. I mean, they’re so beautiful to begin with!
I just got married and I, too, decided to pass on a traditional florist. I’m quite lucky as a good friend of mine is a flower genius and is even doing a PhD on English gardens and so I gave her free reigns. The day before the wedding, we went together to a small flower shop (we let them know before that we were coming, ordered a bunch of peonies and dahlias as a start) and then bought whatever we liked (pretty much half the store). It was so, so much fun! When else do you have the chance to buy out a flower store?
More than just fun, the flowers felt much more personal and they cost pretty much nothing compared to what a florist would charge for arrangements. In other words, good choice and have lots of fun with those flowers!
You and your friends and family can do this easily a night or two before the event and even have a pizza party while. You will want to store the arrangements in a dark, cool place. Flowers uptake water in the dark. Here are some tips:
http://makezine.com/craft/make_cut_flowers_a_part/
How can you even pick!? They all look so good.
I did all my own flowers for wedding in may, and I loved how it turned out. Simple and eclectic, perfect for our day. I actually had our local greenhouse order the flowers in and bought them at cost and then arranged them all the night before at the reception. I did have them make my bouquet (pale pink peonies) and my 10 bridesmaids (white sweet pea) so I didn’t have to stress over them. But I provided the ribbon to tie them with. Instead of corsages all of the guys wore pin back buttons we had made. It saved us a ton of money!
Here are a few pictures of the array http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0098009/photos/whatannaloves/sets/72157634770289124/
Gorgeous arrangements. I just shot a wedding yesterday where they had tall rectangle vases that had water and fish in them. Of course everyone wanted to take them. Sadly one was slippery and the guest dropped it and cut her hand open. It was pretty gruesome to watch. Ok, done with that tangent!
Brittanny // http://brittannytaylor.com/blog