The story of the flowers

 

  

 When I started gathering ideas and dreaming about our wedding, I immediately thought of dahlias and peonies. Beautiful, full, lush flowers that somehow are both romantic and modern, in my head. When I worked at a hotel in Oregon, we would get a delivery of dahlias every week in the summer from a local dahlia farm. I loved all the different varities and and textures of them.       

Fastforward to actual wedding planning and a wedding in November. Peonies are a summer flower, and dahlias a slightly later summer flower. November does not equal summer,  even in Oregon. sad face. sigh. So I started gathering other flower ideas that kept that same textural, vibrant feeling I loved about dahlias.           

Tulips, carnations, gerbera daisies. I left the rest up to my husband’s aunt, who graciously stepped in and did everything. She took my ideas and made them amazing and coherent. We did end up with some pinky roses not at all what we ordered, but she even made that work.         

Here are the flowers in full swing!         

 

 

My lovely maid of honor

my sister hugging me right after the ceremony

my awesome bouquet

handsome groom

my lovely mom and i

   

Update – Veggie Vases

I thought I would finally start the posts on how the wedding went. After all, we’ve been married nine months now, probably high time to begin the recaps.   

My husband’s aunt did all of the flowers for us. We bought them through a wholesaler and she spent the day after Thanksgiving making flower magic in my parents’ garage (so the flowers would stay cool and happy). 

My dad helped with the butternut squash vases – he drilled out the inside with some large bit. The squash just twirled out the top while he worked!    

Photos by lovely friends at the wedding.      

Asparagus vase - photo by Steve

          

Veggie vase - Photo by Steve

   

Asparagus vase - Photo by Krindee

          

Flower musings

I’m gathering ideas and inspiration for flowers. I love the colors or textures in these, maybe not the exact bouquet, but more the feel of them. Does anyone know if Pike’s Place still has flowers to sell in late November? All of the following are from http://www.katieelfers.com/Blog/blog.html.

I love how the orange and red pop!

  

I love the texture and edges of these white flowers.

 

different flowers for each - but I like the monochromatic look for them

I like the textures of the different reds.

love the clean simplicity of the ruffly flower

Summer in winter – veggie vases

It looks like my summer heart will be getting married in the winter – which means I get to be more creative. These vegetable vases are just awesome!

from http://blog.1800flowers.com/julie/?p=117

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

They look so easy – and simple to bring a pop of color and energy into the decor. 🙂

Here are a couple more.

 

Orange crush? oh yeah!

I just found the ceh-utest thing to go over my wedding dress. The back of the dress to the waist is very plain and very simple, and we’ve been toying with the idea of adding some flowy capelet from the shoulders back. But check this out – isn’t the color fantastic? And yeah, I know have an orange crush. 🙂

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31688993

sigh. isn’t it pretty? what do you think?

Specific flower wishes

 

My specific flower wishes. I might not be able to get all the flowers I would love in late November, but this may give my wedding helpers visuals and ideas.

I love the bright colors and the textures of these flowers.  

orange dahlia

 

 

Dahlias – love the spiky ends and layers.

 Ranunculus – Great layers and texture.

 

http://bp1.blogger.com/_YWCCyCX1xEw/RunzYpDo6BI/AAAAAAAAAOE/U12APxxEsno/s1600-h/trends07_orange_190.jpg

 Orange carnations – cheap flower, but stunning all together like that.

Breaking up with the printer

I had to send an email this morning that I felt terrible about. I had to break up with my printing company, and I feel like such a Bridezilla doing it. My reason? They couldn’t print on the paper I wanted. My invitiations would have been done by a local business, (we’re trying to use as many local places for the wedding as possible), but they would have been on shiny, glossy paper – not at all the textured classic feel I was going for. I knew that every time I sat down to write a thank-you card, I would feel that glossy paper and kick myself for not putting my foot and saying no thanks. So I decided to say no, as gently and gracefully as I could.

But saying no is so difficult for me. These people worked very hard to answer all my questions, and kindly let me blather on to them. And I know I’m doing what I need to do by going with another awesome printer with the paper I want, but I just feel bad. So yeah, breaking up with your printer is hard to do.

Invitation proofs

I’m in the final throes of proofing my invitations. My poor designer! I feel like the pickiest person on the planet, with my “please add a hyphen” and “can a couple kernels of space between added before this letter.” Goodness, I think my editing classes are showing through.

My mom sent me a ton of emails about the invites last night – so nice that her brain is an editor’s brain like mine. I think she and I are doing a good balance of bride/mother-of-the-bride discourse – at by that, I mean we’re making a good team. I think and plan about invites and guests and such, and then panic and run to her wanting immediate advice. Lucky for me, she’s been there to answer and calm me down. Thanks Mom! 🙂

I’ll post a photo of the invites once they’re done.

 

yet more color musings

It’s cool when the things bouncing around inside my head are put into reality by random other people. I’ve been pondering my autumn/harvesty colors and wondering how to keep it chipper and fun while holding on to modern and clean. These wonderful posts have done my thinking for me! – add a touch of gray.

I love the sunset colors of this one – http://100layercake.com/blog/archives/1692 and the pop of orange in this one –http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/2009/08/board-422-graphite-tangerine.html.

It also reminds me of the day the Mister and I went “sunset chasing.” We couldn’t help ourselves, but luckily ended with this fantastic picture.

Let me know what you think! Have you ever thought of incorporating orange?

the ring shot

Here’s the ring story. I saw this ring on www.etsy.com a long time ago, and fell in love with this ring by anne kiel –  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15822979 . It’s sterling silver with little gold bumps, all recycled metals, and I’m supporting a small business. oh yeah 🙂  I asked for it to be a little wider, and here it is! the bottom one is from our engagement session.

it's so pretty!