Florist....check!

Probably my least favorite part of wedding planning thus far has been meeting with florists. Over the past several months, we have met with six(!) floral designers. This is especially ridiculous to me, since flowers are a lower priority for us, and at one point in time talked about not even having any flowers. This is more than the total number of vendors that we met with for all the other elements of wedding planning combined. Calvin, being intimately involved with every single wedding planning decision, was eager to join in the fun.

When meeting with florists, we had a sense of what we wanted. We knew that we wanted some mixture of high and low centerpieces, and did not want peonies or roses. We knew that we wanted something wonderful altar arrangements for the church. We wanted reds. And both of us really liked the look of tightly bunched carnations (ala Mrs. Lime, but a darker colored carnation), and we liked branches.

This posed a challenge to many florists. Yes, we know we are getting married in May. Yes, we know that pinks and yellows are abundant during that time. Yes, we know that dark red is not much of a spring-y color, nor is it readily available. But if we had our first choice, we'd be getting married in the winter. But that's not how my funding worked out, so May it is. May with deep red flowers :-)

There was one florist who rose to the top of the list. His ideas were extremely creative, and not only did he have a "vision" for the reception, he had brilliant ideas for the church as well. (One of the things that bothered us about the other florists was that not a single one spent much time discussing arrangements for the church. While the reception will be fun, there wouldn't be a reception without the ceremony.) As an added bonus, he was the only florist with whom we met who had worked at both the church and the reception venue before.

Our florist had the brilliant idea to combine both carnations and branches. But not just any branches- no, he will be incorporating red dogwood branches into both our low and high centerpieces.

Red dogwood growing naturally- image found here

In a vase- image found here

Both of us thought that it would be very cool, very modern, and very red, as did my mom. A nice variation from the various branch-style centerpieces. We were sold- so the deposit was sent in last week.

Both of us are very relieved that the florist is booked. Although it was fun to hear all of the different ideas that each florist had, it was significantly more exhausting than any other part of the vendor search, and it was frustrating to go to so many fruitless meetings.

What has been the most frustrating part of wedding planning for you? How have you handled it?

(And for those of you that are more DIY inclined, red dogwood branches are available from Nettleton Hollows.)