St. Patrick's Day

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day! Traditionally, St. Patrick's Day does not involve green beer. Personally, I prefer stew or potatoes. Celebrate how you like, but since it's a week night, I won't be going out! May the luck of the Irish be with you, and if you catch a leprechaun, he owes you his pot o' gold.

Bells of Ireland Bouquet

Source: www.thebridescafe.com

Flower Inspiration Part 1: Maid of Honour Bouquet

MOH Joce has indicated her favourite flower is carnations. Her bouquet will be all carnations in an orangey-yellow colour:

Grouped together like this:

Source: WeddingBee's Mrs. Flamingo

Source: Martha Stewart

Flowers!

I booked with the florist today. I won't tell you what I'll be carrying - mostly so it's a surprise for family & friends. MOH Jocelyn will carry a bouquet of yellow-orange carnations, which are her favourite flowers. The other bridesmaids will each have a different bouquet of one type of flowers: yellow (with burgundy tips) cymbidium orchids, yellow spider mums and confetti (yellow with red tips) roses. Remember, they're wearing these dresses. (I'm so excited about their bouquets. I picked some of my favourite flowers. The only of my favourites I left out are phalenopsis orchids. The florist told me phalenopsis orchids are "crazy expensive" - I believe those are her exact words. So I nixed that idea and substituted cymbidium orchids. Not a bad substitution, in my opinion!)

Each of the groomsmen will wear silk mini callas, which I posted about here.

My dad, Wade's dad, my grandpa and my brothers will all have matching boutonnieres. My mom, Wade's mom and my grandma will have matching corsages. I won't say what they'll be made of, only because I haven't told them yet!

I had an idea for our pew decorations, but because the pews at the church are not normal pews, to attach anything would be ridiculously expensive! Seriously, it would have almost doubled what I'm now spending on flowers - just for tiny pew decorations. The florist suggested I purchase silk flowers and she could either wire them for the pews, or she could show me how to wire them for the pews. How awesome is that! She'll show me how to do the pew decorations!

All in all, our flowers will cost just over 1/2 of what I'd budgeted, which pleased me. That was largely due to her project suggestion.

DIY Boutonnieres

I took the advice of a couple of you ladies (thanks to everyone who commented, but thanks especially to Blablover5, Bella, Melissa, and The Professional Bridesmaid) suggest I seal the boutonnieres with something weatherproofing. At that suggestion, I wandered in to Michaels (a place I've never been before, heehee) and purchased a waterproofing spray. I picked up a spray that was for a bunch of things, including flowers and fabric. I figured that would be good enough for silk flowers.

Here's how they turned out:


Here's Wade modelling his boutonniere:

Spoiler Warning: Little Centrepieces

Now on to the little centrepieces! I walked into Pier 1 the other day, on a whim because the Boxing Day week sales were still on. And I came across these little Christmas decorations:

There were 15 of them left, so I snatched up all 15!

But my wedding's in June, and these are clearly Christmas ornaments. I did a little deconstruction work by pulling everything out of the styrofoam:

I put the white rose and the plain green leaf back in to each container:

And ended up with this:

By the way, each little rose centrepiece cost:

Can you read that? The tag says $9.00 but they were 75% off: that's $2.25 each! Not too shabby - I couldn't have bought the little containers, styrofoam and silk roses for that price.

Spoiler Warning: Floral Centrepieces 3

There's even less to show you of the final of the tall centrepieces - remember the orchids and hydrangeas? - this one has only one picture.

And this one was almost as easy as the hydrangeas.

I started with:
-3 eiffel vases
-Dozen silk peonies ($6.99 each, I think, but again, I'd have to check)
-2 hangy thingies, each having several hangies (you'll see what I mean in the picture; $9.99 each)

I put the peonies in the vase. I cut the hangy thingies of the branch, and spread them around the peonies.

And I came up with this:

So I call these vases the "peonies with tendrils" because I don't know else to describe them.

What do you think of the "tendrils"?

Spoiler Warning: Centrepieces (Part 2)

In addition to the orchid centrepieces, I made 3 tall white peony centrepieces and 3 tall white hydrangea centrepieces.

For the hydrangea centrepieces, I needed:
-15 silk hydrangea stems ($8.49 and $9.99 at Michaels, all purchased 50% off)
-Glue gun & lots of glue gun glue
-3 tall Effeil vases (will check the price next time I'm at Michael's)

This project was easier than the orchids. I started with the hydrangeas and removed some of the excess stems.

The hydrangeas are on the left in the above photo

The hydrangea centrepiece is on the left (beside an unfinished orchid centrepiece)

So, now I have a question: what do you think? Obviously, the tall centrepieces will be spread out amongst the many short (very short) centrepieces. These centrepieces look very different. Will they look weird or out of place to be in the same room as each other? (They will be long tables)

Spoiler Warning: Centrepieces (Part 1)

I made 4 types of centrepieces. Partially because I couldn't decide between the flowers (I like orchids, hydrangeas, roses and peonies) and partially so the tables won't be too matchy-matchy. I also vary the height of the arrangements. So of the arrangements are gloriously high and others are very short.

I created with the following items:
-3 tall white orchid centrepieces
-3 tall white hydrangea centrepieces
-3 tall white peony centrepieces
-15 short white rose centrepieces
I will also have around 50 frosted tea light holders that I bought super-cheap this summer.

Today, I'm going to review how I made the orchid tall arrangements.

Items you'll need:
-3 Floral balls (um, $3.49, I think, all purchased with a 40% off coupon or a rare 50% off coupon
I chose white floral balls instead of the green ones so that if I didn't cover the entire surface it wouldn't be obvious
-15 (estimated) silk orchid stems ($6.49 at Michaels, all purchased 50% off)
I had lots of orchids, so I just added more and more orchids for a really full floral ball
-Glue gun & lots of glue gun glue
-3 tall Effeil vases (um, not sure the price, I'll check next time I'm at Michael's)

I started by taking the orchids off the stem:

I found leaving about 2" to 3" of stem on the orchid worked well. Then, I used the back of the stem to poke a hole in the styrofoam ball. I took a picture of the ball with the hole, but it didn't turn out so well! After you've poked the hole in the ball, put some glue on the stem of the orchid:

I put the orchid back into the hole I just poked:

Save the stem of the orchids! They will stabilize your floral ball when it's done. I poked some of the balls with the stem as the first step, others I poked the stem into the ball as the last step or near the end. Neither step worked exceedingly better than the other - if you do copy this, play around with the order to find out what order you like best.

When I thought I was done, I wasn't. I decided the orchid balls on their own weren't enough, so I used that elasticky clear necklace material to hang some orchids from the orchid ball. I could have used fishing line (and it would have been even more clear!) but I was too lazy to go get some. Ah well!

The finished product:

What do you think?

... If I could hold a bouquet everyday, I'd be tempted to ...

The first florist, Pam's Flowers, says that they won't be able to get local peonies on our wedding date. I find that confusing, because they will be coming in by that time. Regardless, it's about what their supplier can supply, so there's no sense worrying about it. The shipped peonies, wherever they come from, are smaller than our local peonies. He didn't say why, but I suspect it's because the flowers have to be picked a little earlier in preparation for shipping.

Pam's can also get David Austin roses (also called English roses). I have no idea what variety of Austin roses they would get, but that is an option.

The second florist, Paradiso, can get peonies, but I did not think to ask if they would be as big as the local peonies. They can't get the Austin roses, but for a back-up idea (just in case peonies don't come through), she offered to do clusters of ranunculus (click here or here for images).

While this decision is hard (for me), at least I know that I'll be in good hands regardless of which florist I choose.

Flowers

My mom & I met with the second florist today (called Paradiso). Last week, we went to Pam's Flowers. These are probably the only two florists I'll consider. Paradiso is only a few years old, and the designer there creates some really fun and fresh designs. Pam's Flowers is a very established florist with a solid reputation, but while they are tried & true, they are more traditional in their designs.

I have received a quote from Pam's, and am waiting for the quote from Paradiso. Once I get that, I will mull over my decision. I think I'll have lovely flowers no matter which florist I choose.

I would love to get flowers like this:
but it may not be possible (for a variety of reasons, which I'll discuss later this week).