My favorite wedding post

More than two years after the wedding, the thing that stands out to me most among all of the small details (and posts about those things) was my bouquet.  Learning that making bouquets is really easy was a big stress-reliever, and I was really proud of how everything turned out.

Not only was I pleased with how it turned out on that day, but I've since gone on to make bouquets for the weddings of both of my brothers.  The time spent with each of my sister-in-laws the day before their weddings was truly special.  And my bouquet making skills, as you can see, improved with each.

K wanted her bridesmaids to have very colorful bouquets, so we took all the flowers that looked good from the North Market and Whole Foods to come up with these:

I absolutely adored the bride's bouquet: hydrangea and calla lilies.  Gorgeous!

R wanted garden roses and hypericum berries, and arranged via a mail order supplier to get all of the flowers she needed.  These turned out the best yet. 













Absolutely stunning.

Bouquets are an easy thing to spend a lot of money on, but you don't need to.  And the alternatives can be pretty aesthetically pleasing, if I do say so myself.

Making Bouquets Is Really Easy, or It's Damn Near Impossible to Make Flowers Look Bad

By popular demand (and at the special request of soontobemrsc, ambrosia and wondermart, who is making her bouquet this weekend), I present to you the making of the bouquets. (For you monkey lovers, tomorrow's post will be filled with pictures and video of the Monkey Forest.)

Around 8:45am on Friday, the day before the wedding, I headed out with a carload of helpers in search of flowers. I could have contacted a distributor (or at least the manager of Trader Joe's and Costco) about ordering specific flowers, but that required a little more coordination than I was able to handle in the month before the wedding. Besides, it seemed like it would be a lot more fun to not know exactly what flowers I would get. My only requirements were red flowers for the bridesmaids, and white/cream flowers for me. In my ideal world, I would be able to include stock and hydrangeas, which are my two favorite flowers.

The first stop was Cleveland's West Side Market. Disappointingly, there was only one flower vendor at the market that morning. Fortunately, the vendor had an abundance of red and white flowers in large quantities. There we gathered together about $70 worth of mums, tulips, stock(!) and assorted other appropriately colored flowers. Having cleaned out the stand, I was still looking for a little bit more variety for my bouquet.

From there we headed back across town to Trader Joe's. (Both the market and TJ's are within 20 minutes of my parents' house. In opposite directions. Which meant we spent well over an hour just driving to get the flowers.) Another $50 or so (which includes money spent picking up a small number of groceries and flowers for my mom, as well as hydrangeas(!)), we proceeded to check out. When I very gleefully told the cashier that these were the flowers for my bridal bouquet, he talked with one of the other associates who then came bounding over with a dozen hot pick roses for me, as a congratulations from the store. (It was a thoughtful gesture, although hot pink is not a color I especially like, nor am I a big fan of roses.)

Once back home, the group (which at this point consisted of my maid of honor, her boyfriend, and me) set about to unwrapping the bouquets and pulling the leaves off of the flowers.

Note the lone dozen hot pink roses in the background.
The rest of the flowers

Following what seemed to work well when I gave it a try back in April, I started to arrange the bouquets. (Much thanks to Autumn who gave me instructions on how to use floral tape. Tape turned out to be much easier than wire.) When they flowers were arranged, I wrapped and secured ribbon around each of the bouquets (for mine, I used fabric that matched my dress.) I then trimmed the stems so that they were even, and set each bouquet in a mason jar with about an inch of water. (The mason jars were my mom's storage suggestion. They worked absolutely perfectly.)

As we got done a little bit later than I had anticipated (mostly because we got off to a later start than planned), I didn't take any pictures of the completed bouquets that day.

But I do have some non-pro pics of the bouquets in action at the wedding:

The bouquets, with me and the flower girl.

Note the stock pot used to transport the bouquets in their mason jars.

Some last minute arranging. Turns out the tulips in the bouquets each grew about an inch overnight, making the bouquets look a bit like aliens.

Bridesmaid and flower girl bouquets in action

Up close and personal with my bouquet (that's my youngest brother's hands in the background)

Would I do it again? Absolutely. I really enjoyed arranging the flowers, and didn't really find it very stressful at all. And it's really hard to make flowers look bad, since they are pretty to begin with. Bouquets were not a high priority for me at all, and since I wasn't seeking perfection (if you are, I highly recommend going with a florist), it didn't really bother me that a very small number of flowers in the bouquet looked slightly wilted the day of the wedding.

Total costs (in time and dollars):
Time: 4.75 hours (2.25 for purchasing; 2.5 for prepping/arranging)
Total money spent on flowers and supplies for 5 bouquets: about $110

Lessons Learned:
-It was really helpful to have other people stripping off the leaves.
-If we had used roses, it would have taken substantially longer to prepare and arrange the flowers as they would have needed to be dethorned.
-Tulips, while beautiful, will grow quite a bit overnight. This can leave your bouquet looking like it has alien antennas.
-Assuming you are after "good enough" and not "perfection", plan to allot about a half hour per bouquet. Perfection will take substantially longer.
-Spider mums photograph somewhat strangely.
-The best workspace is a large table or counter
-Have a compost or garbage bag ready for all of the leaves and stems
-Mason jars make great storage vases for the bouquets.
-Some flowers will break when you are prepping/arranging them, so it is best to generously estimate how many flowers you need.

unexpected success (or flowers are so #$%* expensive!)

The one thing that I have cared the least about in the process of planning has turned out to be one of the (relatively) bigger headaches. We shopped around and spoke with no fewer than seven (7!) florists before settling with our current florist, who is familiar with both the church and the reception venue.

Early on, I had decided that I didn't want to have bouquets. When Calvin's mom asked me if I would change my mind, my response was, "Then I'll go to Trader Joe's the day before the wedding and buy myself a bouquet." But upon reflection, I decided that I actually did want a bouquet.

However, the florist quote came back, and including bouquets for myself and the three bridesmaids put us at about $400 over budget. And it included roses, which I specifically requested not to have. In a fit of frustration, I thought that I'd see what happened if I tried to make a bouquet for myself, with the following hypothesis: Flowers are pretty. A group of pretty things together will look pretty. Therefore, a group of flowers bunched together will look pretty.

The test:

$20 worth of flowers from Trader Joe's. From top to bottom:white ranunculus, a bouquet of white and green flowers, and cream/pink calla lilies.

Supplies:
flower tape (~$1.50 at Joann Fabric's)
flower wire ($.25 on clearance at Joann's)
ribbon (~$2.30 at Joann's)
white pearl pins (~$4.50 at Joann's)

Following the guidelines suggested here, I figured out that arranging flowers for a bouquet is really easy. The only trick is to wire the stems of heavy flowers (like ranunculus or gerbera daisies) to help support the head. This really sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

With the flowers above, in the next half hour I pulled the leaves off of the stems, trimmed the stems, wired the heavier flowers, and arranged them. Take a couple of flowers, wrap them in tape or wire. Add a couple more, tape/wire. Repeat until the bouquet is done. (Partway through I found that the floral tape was not holding so well, so I switched to wire.)

Calvin graciously holding the bouquet

Closeup
For a finishing touch, I wrapped the stems in ribbon and secured it with the white pearl pins.


A little lumpy because the wire wasn't pulled too tight.

Closer shot of the handle.

Believe it or not, arranging the flowers was actually relaxing. So I'm planning on arranging the bouquets the morning before the wedding. (A day later, my sample bouquet looked just fine.) And unlike centerpieces, no one needs to be around to set up the bouquets, as they will be totally set to go the day before. My mom said that she's happy to bring them to the church before the ceremony.

Where have you found unexpected success planning your wedding?