In an attempt to get back on schedule, today is again
Wedding Wednesday! Flowers are in bloom
here at the Bear Necessities!
When Mr. Bear and I got married, we knew we wanted to get
married at the same location as our reception.
The caveat was that we wanted the ceremony space to be outdoors and
beautiful. We ended up getting married
on the grounds of an old Tudor mansion turned B&B/social club. We spent more than I had originally budgeted
for the total venue cost, but I quickly realized that I could easily cut my
floral budget.
Since we were getting married in a garden space on the
grounds, it drastically cut the amount of flowers needed to make the space
beautiful. For the ceremony, we ended up
with 3 potted flowering plants and some rose petals down the aisle.
The ceremony flowers were pretty easy to pull together. We found 2 white bougainvillea plants at our
local grocery store as part of a hanging basket set. The potted plant at the altar was a white
flowering plant my mom already had in her house.
The other flower arrangements we decided to DIY since we
could cut costs.
**WARNING** If you decide to arrange your own flowers, make
sure you know what you are getting yourself into. Do research, make up some samples a few
months before ordering your flowers, get the right supplies, and make sure you
leave yourself enough time.
Arrangements my mom and I put together:
Bride’s bouquet
Bridesmaids’ bouquets
Groom’s boutonniere
Groomsmen boutonnieres
Moms' Corsages
Dads' boutonnieres
Cocktail hour table arrangements
(unfortunately no one captured any pictures of these)
Reception table arrangements
Cake topper floral arrangement (you'll notice the cake was leaning...the heat made it begin to melt)
We ordered nearly all of our flowers from a wonderful
wholesaler in Maryland called Potomac Floral Wholesaler. They have samples of flowers that are
available online, but we actually called them directly and spoke to one of their sales
associates. We told him what we were
looking for (types of flowers, colors and sizes) and he helped us figure out
how man, which flowers, and what greenery to order.
Things we needed in addition to the flowers/greenery:
- Flower shears
- Green floral tape
- Floral wire
- Ribbons for covering the bouquet base
- MANY buckets for revitalizing the flowers once they arrive from the floral wholesaler
- A LOT of refrigerator space (We bought 3 wine fridges to store the flowers in all forms) also coolers to transport the flowers
- Thorn Stripper if you are using roses
- Corsage bracelets
- Cake topper floral form
- Tons of vases
- Boutonniere pins
Tips:
1. Be sure to have your flowers arrive several days in advance. You have to revitalize them when they arrive, particularly roses. Roses will come in tight buds. If you are looking for a fuller look, you need to give them time to open. Additionally, you want to give yourself a few days in the event some of the flowers come damaged.2. Leave yourself plenty of time to arrange and rearrange. We started the day before the wedding. If you have hearty flowers, start earlier. We were rushing to finish the reception and cocktail decor at the venue the morning of the wedding.
3. If you have white or ivory roses, water on the petals will turn them brown, as will frost so don't overcrowd your refrigerators.
4. Above all, make sure you do a few test runs on bouquets, boutonnieres, and tablescapes before ordering your flowers. This will give you time to find a professional if you don't think you will be able to actually get the look you want.
It was a lot of hard work, but they ended up looking wonderful and we saved more than 50% on our flowers. I don't recommend this if you have very complex arrangements in mind, however, if you are going simple, this is a great way to save money. Another option is to have the bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres done by a professional while doing the rest of the flowers yourself.
-Danielle
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