The Bachelorette Festivities: Relaxation, excitement, and slight panic sets in

After a day at the aquarium followed by a night on the town, the bridesmaids and I decided that the next day would be one of relaxation. Well, sort of! We slept in a little later than usual, then quickly dressed and ran out the door to get to the nail salon.

We picked up some sustenance in the form of Panera sandwiches and coffee, and proceeded to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures. It was definitely nice to sit in a comfy massage chair for an hour or so...with the hustle and bustle of pre-wedding excitement, it can sometimes be difficult to take a moment to relax and take everything in. However, I highly recommend taking some time to yourself before your wedding day if at all possible!

After the nail salon, the bridesmaids and I headed over to my parents' house. Some of my relatives had arrived the previous afternoon, and I was eager to say "hello!" Do you remember how I mentioned that I had committed my relatives to slave labor on my behalf? Well, my mom, both my grandmothers, my aunt, AND my grandfather had been hard at work on our favors into the wee hours of the night. They must love me...

They look happy enough, right?

The idea for our favor came up randomly one night. I was at dinner with my parents, and we were discussing some wedding details. My mom and I were commiserating about the situation. The original idea was to bag up some yummy key lime cookies from a local bakery. However, something about it was just not exciting us. Then, out of nowhere, my dad came up with a brilliant idea! If you recall, Justin and I met because of our pups. When I was a kid, my mom used to make a delicious snack called "puppy chow" all the time - a combo of Crispix cereal, peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar. Why not bag up some "puppy chow" for our guests as a nod to the furry friends that brought us together? The decision was made on the spot. So, a few days before the wedding, my family members were wrangled into melting peanut butter and chocolate, shaking bags filled with powdered sugar, and portioning each treat into white coffee bags that I had affixed monogrammed stickers to.

Things were incredibly busy at our household when we arrived; bags had to be packed, supplies had to be delivered, and we still had an important appointment to go to that afternoon! Do you remember how I said my florist would give me a flower preview? It was time for mine! When we walked into my appointment, I was bracing myself...even though I knew that Debbie had a firm grasp on my vision, I was very anxious to see if it was realized!

Oh boy, was I ever excited! As soon as my eyes landed on our flowers, a huge grin spread across my face. They were perfect. No, more than perfect, if that is even possible! Ok, so I am going to go ahead and spoil my pro pics by showing you my flowers now...but I just can't help myself! Can you see why I was about ready to jump for joy?

Fun fact: I don't know that we ever discussed the size of my bouquet in our meetings. My bridal bouquet was LARGE and IN CHARGE! Seriously: look at it next to me!

However, it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The peonies and cabbage roses looked stunning together, especially with the seeded eucalyptus.

Debbie even added sprigs of rosemary, as it is a calming herb (and what bride doesn't need a little bit of calm on her wedding day?). The bridesmaids' bouquets turned out beautifully as well; they were created with cabbage roses, creamy stock, lisianthus, white cymbidium orchids, and seeded eucalyptus.

Gorgeous. I pretty much did not want to leave my flowers at that point; I was infatuated. But alas, there were things to do and people to see, so BM L, A, and I headed back to Clearwater. Bye bye my lovelies...

On the way back to the beach house, I took BM L and A through some back roads near the water. It was a lovely scenic drive. I also wanted to point out to them where our rehearsal dinner was going to take place the following evening. When we drove through downtown Clearwater, I saw the restaurant up ahead. As we passed by, I made a comment that something looked strange...but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Little did I know what was to come...

I'm in love...with our florist

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I'm totally in love with our florist! Wait, correction...BOTH my mom and I are in love!

After I won $500 in flowers from another florist, I was feeling a little pressured to book them for the wedding day. However, something just wasn't clicking completely, and I couldn't figure out what it was (well, that and the fact that the store reneged on their $500 prize because I wanted to purchase bulk flowers and arrange them myself...ugh, but that is another story for another day). So, I decided to at least look into a few other options before I made my final decision. I found The Bride's Bouquet on Carlouel's preferred vendor list, and I gave them a call. Thankfully, they were still available for our wedding date, so I set up a meeting. Mom and I met up with Debbie and we talked flowers for an hour or two. She was SO nice, very knowledgeable, and had a ton of ideas to help with my vision. She really "got" the vision/theme that I am hoping to achieve for the wedding.

And...do you want to know my absolute FAVORITE thing about Debbie? The flower contract includes a flower preview! On Friday afternoon before the wedding, I will be able to drive to her shop to see all of our bouquets, boutonnieres, etc. all ready to go! It will also allow for changes to be made/ rearranging to occur. And, I will be able to have peace of mind knowing that everything will be gorgeous for the big day! Woo hoo! In the end, after taking a look at her price quotes, we quickly realized that The Bride's Bouquet was extremely reasonable. We booked Debbie as our florist on the spot!

Last week, we all got together again to go over our order/fine tune the details. I can't wait to see everything! Here's a little sneak preview of what will be included in our flowers:

• The mantle where we will be having our ceremony in front of will be filled with blush pink peonies and garden roses, as well as greenery and large white pillar candles. The other two mantles in the club will be filled with greenery and the large white pillar candles

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• The curly willow branches hanging in the dining room will be filled with small poufs of baby's breath throughout
• For the ceremony set up, every third chair on each side of the aisle will be tied with a pouf of baby's breath
  

Ruffled

• Bride's bouquet: blush pink peonies, blush pink garden roses, and coral bell foliage (similar to this photo)

The Knot

• Bridesmaid bouquets: Originally, I wanted to recreate these bouquets:
  

The Knot

I was obsessed with the pink anemones (aren't they pretty?). Then, my beautiful friend and fellow bride K (aka kjpugs) got married in March. Her bouquet was stunning, wasn't it?

Oh, and it is unrelated, but seriously...how freaking CUTE are these photos? Ok...I digress...

Erin Hession

However, she did show/tell me that her anemones completely wilted over the course of the day. Ouch! Debbie assured me that this would not happen with my flowers, but in order to ease my mind, I decided to eliminate them. So, the bridesmaids will be carrying a similar bouquet containing blush pink garden roses, pink lisianthus, some cymbidium orchids, seeded eucalyptus, and some creamy colored stock.

• Boutonnieres: single ivory ranunculus (Mr. Buttons will have 2)
  

The Knot

• Mom will carry a small tussy mussy filled with ivory ranunculus
• Corsages for MIL/grandmothers: these will vary to match their dresses
• Cocktail hour: tables outside will be set with a wine carafe filled with blush pink garden roses and greenery

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• Reception tables: each table will have 2-3 vases filled with poufs of baby's breath. After hearing Debbie's extremely reasonable quote, we decided to forego the DIY centerpieces. We will be delivering the vases to her, and she will make them beautiful. AND Mommy Buttons won't be stressed out. Win-win!

I am literally about to burst with excitement at the prospect of seeing my wedding day flowers! Thankfully, I only have a short amount of time to wait!

Were you in love with your florist/flowers/etc?

Figuring out the flowers

You guys are going to start thinking that I am a spaz. Yep. I am indecisive- very much so!

When I started planning (back in August 2009), my original inspiration for flowers involved an all white bouquet for myself, and green bouquets for my bridesmaids. The florist had suggested green hydrangeas...like this:

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But, as you might recall, my love for hydrangeas faltered. And, as the decision to create our own centerpieces with baby's breath came into play, the vision for the bridal party flowers did as well. Over time, the idea of white and green flowers became less and less desirable to me...I was hungry for some color!

So, I searched high and low across the Internet for some new floral inspiration. Surprisingly, I found myself drawn to a color I would have never expected: pink! Normally, I am not a huge fan of pink. I like it, but you won't find it in my wardrobe (except for a pair of shoes) or in other aspects of my life. But, there is something so romantic about soft pink flowers, and I was sucked in! Here is some of the inspiration I culled from The Knot:

Armed with my new inspiration photos, I selected my favorites and placed them in an inspiration board:

Left to right (clockwise): Bouquet - The Knot, bouquet - The Knot, shoes - personal photo, dress - personal photo, bridesmaid dress - J Crew, shoes - Nordstrom

I love how the two inspiration bouquets are similar, yet different enough that they will stand apart from each other! The bridesmaids will have a slightly lighter colored bouquet, and I will carry one with a pop of pink peonies and garden roses.

And what about the boys?

I'm loving the idea of ivory ranunculus boutonnieres for the men. Mr. Buttons will wear one like this, with two flowers:

The Knot

The groomsmen and other men will wear ones with only one bud.

And guess what? I made a discovery in the baby's breath department! Who knew that there were different types of baby's breath? I discovered a type called "over time," which has much larger buds than the typical "million stars" variety. They almost remind me of really tiny carnations, rather than baby's breath. I also think that it looks a little less "weedy" than the million stars. So, we are going to make sure to purchase this variety of baby's breath for our centerpieces!

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So...there you have it! My new floral inspiration...hope you like it!

Did you find yourself changing any of your original ideas/inspiration in your wedding planning?

Creating the Centerpieces

So, if you’ve been following along, you know that I decided on using baby’s breath for my DIY centerpieces, and that I scoured the stores to find a plethora of vintage-y vases.

Now, it is time to take them on a test run (please try to ignore my end-of-day nasty hair-do if you can)!

I purchased 3 small bunches of baby’s breath from Publix (they sell 3 bunches for $10). Each bunch included 3 stems. First, I cut the stems down (each stem has a number of smaller “branches” splitting off on each side), and then simply placed them in a vase until I achieved something that looked like this:

So simple, yet so pretty! Each vase requires an average of about 3 stems of baby’s breath. I was pleasantly surprised to see how full the vases looked with what seemed like 3 measly stems when I started!

But, we decided that we needed to make the process even easier, since we will have to assemble them ourselves on the day of the wedding. We tried out the method of securing the stems with a twist tie. Easy! We arranged the stems into a “pouf,” wrapped them with a twist tie, and then dropped them into the vase. This will work out well we hope! The plan is to assemble the poufs the night before/the morning of the wedding. We are starting to collect wine cases; each pouf (and its matching vase) will be placed in a slot for easy travel.

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Then, we will simply have to place each pouf into its vase when we arrive at the venue. Hopefully, this will save us time, as we won’t have to hang around the venue to assemble flowers the entire morning!

Did you take on a DIY with flowers? How did you go about transporting/arranging them on the day of the wedding?

Don't forget to enter to win 100 custom postcards!

A Breath of Fresh Air...

Have you ever had a point in your wedding planning when you suddenly changed direction? I think I’m having that moment…let me explain…

To be fair, in regards to the florals involved in the wedding, I never really had the “perfect” idea. I see flowers…I think they are pretty…but nothing has essentially jumped out at me as being the flowers I MUST see on our tables or in bouquets.

Here was the original plan:

Hydrangeas, hydrangeas, hydrangeas.

I was drawn by the “poofy-ness” of them, if you will. Oh no, wait…the florist suggested these…I more or less agreed. Don’t get me wrong, I think they are beautiful…but…

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my DIY’ing…my mother and I have decided that we are going to tackle the centerpieces ourselves. And I am a nit-pick. Hydrangeas are known to be delicate, and die quickly. I’m starting to worry about a wedding day hydrangea catastrophe. I can’t have partially brown flowers on our tables. I’d die.

Then comes the issue of price. Thankfully, with a DIY option, we can purchase flowers in bulk and save money by arranging them ourselves. However, flowers are still expensive…

***Screaming angrily in frustration***

But then…I stumbled upon some amazing inspiration, and I’m hooked. And it is by the most unexpected flower imaginable.

Baby’s breath.

Oh my gosh…that’s right. I said it! For years I have despised baby’s breath…the extra little filler that they shove in bouquets…who needs it?!?!

But seeing these photos changed my mind…

Style Me Pretty

This wedding in Aspen featured puffs of baby’s breath hanging from the ceiling! Gorgeous!

Style Me Pretty

Even bouquets look gorgeous, and simple! I’m thinking that my bridesmaids might have to be carrying these bad boys! Poofy and full and beautiful!

Following images from: Sedona Bride

This wedding was literally styled from top to bottom in baby’s breath! I’m in love…

I LOVE her bouquet...so romantic!

Following images from: Weddingbee

Mrs. Lemonade’s wedding also featured beautiful baby’s breath décor!

The little "bombs" are adorable!

So…what do I love about baby’s breath? It is cost-friendly (and I like to get a lot of bang for a buck), and I’m pretty sure that they will match my décor/theme well (birds, trees, whimsical, lighthearted…). Plus, I am hoping that it will be relatively easy and quick to set up as a centerpiece; score!

What do you think about using “filler flowers” as a part of your main décor?