DIY flowers: I did it!

At 9:30 in the morning the FedEx guy wished me a happy marriage. He left three boxes; two deceptively narrow, one the size of a small coffin.

Thirteen hours later...
(There are a few more pieces, including one big mama of a bouquet for me.) I'll tell you all about it in a week or so. I'm off to get married! I have had such a good time at EAD, getting advice about veils and family struggles and enjoying all of your ideas. After 21 months of I have an idea and I think I could make that, it's all happening!

Although, at the moment I am most excited about handing my bouquet to Katie so I can hold DJ's hands. Walking back down the aisle together. Sneaking glances at his hand with a ring on it. Doing the stand-and-sway to a sappy song. Celebrating a life ten years in the making, and worth every minute.

yes, we have no bananas

This morning I was wide awake at 5:30. Like a kid on Christmas. I must be excited about today - hair trial (still seems funny to have a test run for hair), last dress fitting, and tonight is my bachelorette party!

I was dressed and ready to go by 6:15, with two hours to kill before leaving. So I cleaned the kitchen, top to bottom, and I have my eye on dusting the living room next. I could really use some of this productivity in my everyday life.

There was a minor hitch in the plan this week, when I found out that the garden roses I ordered from Fifty Flowers aren't available this week. The same thing happened to Abbie, I believe - probably the same roses, too. Flowers are always iffy, so I wasn't really surprised. They offered me my pick of the other flowers, and when I couldn't decide between two varieties, they split my order into half of each kind. Which was nice of them.

I care less about the substitution than how difficult it was to get an answer - it took about two hours on hold, four separate calls, two e-mails, and over 24 hours to find out whether my second choices were available. Maybe not their fault, but it was frustrating. All will be forgiven if the flowers show up on time and pretty, though.

flower power

A few days ago I did a little math to see how many flowers I might need to fill all the silvers and make bouquets and whatnot.

Ho-leeeey cats, as my spin instructor says. Does 500-ish* sound like a lot to you? It does to me. I've budgeted 14 hours for flower arranging. That sounded excessive a while ago, but maybe not?

Better question: what kind of shape will my hands be in after trimming and arranging? I think I need to add garden gloves to my list of supplies.

*This from a girl who once professed not to care a bit about flowers. Ha.

sentimental fool

Not Quite a Bride and I were chatting a few days ago about lace bouquet wraps. While sorting through my files I found these, saved from an Elizabeth Anne Designs post. That satin ribbon is positively delicious.

I'm thinking of using some Alencon lace this way, inherited from my grandma's stash. I've already used the tiny bits for the non-floral buttonholes, and I really don't want to cut into what's left. Which I suppose is how it came to be vintage in the first place.

everyone wants a rose

Sometimes I ask DJ if he has an opinion just in case. Sometimes I ask because I need a fresh perspective, and sometimes I want to know what a guy thinks about rose varieties because it amuses me.

Artfool did this arrangement, which I'm not planning on copying literally (couldn't even if I wanted), just borrowing inspiration for what looks good with vintage silver.

I love love love garden roses. They're enormous, fragrant, and heavy on the nostalgia. You can hardly find them anywhere, unless you have old plants in your garden. This one is a "Jeanne Moreau."

I'd like a little something else in there, and I'm not a big fan of greenery. (Is that a mistake?) So I asked DJ which pale pink rose he liked better of these two. Oh yes I did.

"Livia"

"Trust"

DJ voted for Livia. I didn't offer the option of filler because I'm not sure I'm artistic enough to do it well, but I suppose that could change if I found something that made sense to me.

this old thing?

So, hey. I fell under a rock there for a few days. Believe it or not, I took these photos on Thanksgiving afternoon, just before DJ's parents arrived. Time flies when your job is exploding.

I took the opportunity (guests, holiday dinner) to do a sort of floral dry run. These aren't the actual flowers we'll have for the eventual wedding, but they are flowers. They were what Trader Joe's had at 4 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving, but aren't they pretty? I still say it's hard to make flowers look bad.

I think they came together very nicely, in an assortment of thrifted silver things. Later I served coffee from a fancy silver coffee and tea set, more from the floral container collection. I'll have my use out of these babies by the time the wedding comes around.

Here are those prints I was hyping a while ago, hung neatly on level by my very handy guy. He also makes fantastic mashed potatoes, vacuums, and scrubs the nasty dishes. No, you may not have him.

silver baron

Still life: silver with dog.

curtain of flowers

(via The Bride's Cafe)

This is a great idea, stringing flower heads on fishing line. It looks like these are under a huppah, and real flowers. These were probably strung on-site by the florist then anchored with a bit of hot glue. If I were going to do exactly this, it would need to be done the day of. Gorgeous, but not practical at all for this girl, sans florist. I can't add even one thing that must be done by me on the day of.

(credit: me!)

This is our ceremony space. Nice caution tape, eh? I've had a hard time thinking of how to delineate the top of the aisle, without an arbor or altar or , you know, aisle. But I think that this flower idea could work. If I use silk flowers, they can be pre-strung. Probably no one will notice.

DJ suggested stringing them horizontally instead of vertically, so that they can be stretched between the two trees. And instead of anchoring directly to the trees, tying the monofilament to dowel rods which can be attached with bungee cords to the trees. The bungees can be covered by wreaths or ribbon or something. Easy up, easy down. I can picture it, kind of - a loose curtain of flowers spanning the gap between those trees. Maybe tighter in the center and diffusing at the edges.

I like this idea. I think I'm going to add it to my project list. Should I write a how-to, or is it pretty self-explanatory?

non-florals

I'm planning on "doing" the flowers myself, you know. Myself plus help, probably. Four bouquets, a whole lot of centerpieces and one or two corsages. None of those things worry me. Bouttonnieres worried me. There's so much wiring and wrapping and proportion, it seems like that might actually take some skill. For a while I thought my mom would help (she worked in a floral shop years ago) but that's not going to work, so I worried.

I asked DJ if he'd be willing to consider a non-floral bouttonniere option, and in his typical laid-back way he said he would.
I bought some feathers and millinery leaves and spent an afternoon wiring and wrapping. I also used some vintage buttons and a few precious inches of Alencon lace from my grandma's collection. None of them are the same, because, well, that's just how I do things. My mind could always change, but now if nothing else we have a backup plan for wilty blooms.

You wouldn't think I'd need eight for a smallish wedding, would you. One groom, three groomsmen, three ushers and a dad = 8. It's nice to have that many people willing to wear feathers and lace for you.

mixed media

As long as I'm coveting flowers, here's the lady I'd hire if I were in Portland. I first read her blog, Housemartin, which is a lovely source of lifestyle inspiration sprinkled with breathtaking florals she designs herself. She's recently opened a brick and mortar shop, Ink & Peat.

There's so much life and imagination in her arrangements - every new post assures me that yes, this takes talent.Apples and fiddlehead ferns! Lovely!

I would love to see this on a holiday table, with the berries and pale colors and silver ornaments.

shiny shiny

I'd love to hire Artfool to do our wedding flowers, but there are two little problems with that.
One, they're in New York. Two, I think they're worth whatever they might charge, which is undoubtedly more than I would or could spend on flowers.
My flowers in silver things won't be anywhere near this artistic or elegant. But I still say you can't make pretty flowers look ugly, especially in pretty containers like these.

Two more silver things came in the mail today... this is so much fun!

you got the silver

DJ and I did a little thrifting last weekend, and I did a little auction sniping, and what do you know. I found some silver things. They are not all very nice, because I am being very cheap. Most of them need polishing. I feel like a magpie, building my shiny nest of castoffs.

garden roses

While flipping through old photos tonight I found this one. Somewhat more than a year ago, DJ brought home a dozen roses for our anniversary. I clipped the stems and put them in a bubbled aqua glass jar, leaves and all. Here are the colors of everything eventual-wedding-related: ivory, dark green, and aqua. Add a metallic, any metallic. Silver, bronze, pewter - they'll all be there.

With all the lovely flowers out there, what I like the best are ivory roses. Big, blown-out ivory garden roses. With the leaves on, tossed in a vase. This sort of thing gives me (false?) confidence that I can arrange my own wedding flowers. Because I like these, just like this.