hot pink and lime green flowers

Talk about bright summer colors!  Hot pink stock and godetia with kermit mums bring a big splash of color.  Simple, but very fun.

hot pink and lime green bouquet with hot pink ribbon

boutonniere

pin-on corsage

centerpieces in bud vases - alternating designs down the middle of a long (buffet type) table - a fun alternative to typical round tables

yellow and white wedding

This was the first wedding I did since having my baby, and it was so fun to be designing again!  The bride was really easy-going and wonderful to work with.  And she made her own wedding dress, which is incredibly impressive!  I'm bummed that the only picture I got of her and the groom turned out blurry... hopefully I'll get some from the photographer soon.

The colors were black and white and yellow, so we went with a mixture of white and yellow flowers with some black accents in the ribbon.  We definitely wanted to avoid looking like a bumble bee, and I think we pulled it off, keeping it beautiful and elegant.

The bride's bouquet - yellow and white roses and calla lilies, with some freesia and lisianthus, and a yellow and black ballet wrap

The groom's boutonniere - a yellow calla lily

The boutonnieres for the fathers - white roses with solidago

The mother's pin-on corsages - yellow spray roses and solidago

The toss bouquet - a smaller version of the bride's bouquet, with white and yellow roses, calla lilies, freesia, and lisianthus

And last (and probably least because I did a terrible job on this photo!) is the aforementioned blurry picture of the happy couple.  I couldn't help but include it because they look so happy even through the blur.  Congratulations!

saturday savings - what's in season?

The biggest expense when dealing with wedding flowers is, of course, the actual flowers.  So one of the easiest ways to keep your budget down is to use flowers that are less expensive.  One way to do this is to go with flowers that are in season.  Many flowers you can get year-round (they're grown in green houses or shipped from other places, etc.) but they may be more expensive if that's the case.

So here are some suggestions for seasonal flowers.  Names of flowers correspond with pictures, left-right and top-bottom.

Spring:  tulips, ranunculus, sweet peas, heather, iris, peonies (late spring- early summer), hyacinth, ranunculus again, peonies again, lilacs

Tulips you can usually get year-round, but you'll probably get a better price in the spring.  Many of these others just aren't available when they're not in season.
*sweet pea and pink peony pictures from countryliving.com

Summer:  bright summer mix (lilies, mums, asters, etc.), roses (although you can get them any time), delphinium, cornflower, lilies, lisianthus, chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, stock (late spring- early summer), chrysanthemums (fuji mums), asters, sunflowers (late summer)

Fall: dahlias, chrysanthemums (pom-pom and fuji), sunflowers, dahlias again, sunflowers again, scabiosa pods, asters, chrysanthemums again.

Dried flowers or foliage are also commonly used in fall arrangements.
*red dahlia boutonniere and orange dahlia bouquets from theknot.com

Winter: amaryllis, sweet peas (late winter), anemones (though really, these are available most of the year except the middle of summer), green holly, poinsettias, camellias, red holly berries, pine/cedar greens

Winter weddings don't just have to be Christmasy!  :)  

*green holly boutonniere from theknot.com

While this list is by no means comprehensive, it does include a lot of my favorites, and a lot of the more popular choices.  Not surprisingly, summer is when the most flowers are in season, so you'll have the greatest variety to choose from.  But you're definitely not limited to just roses or carnations other times of the year.  And if you're looking to save a bit, try to go with something that's in season!

wildflowers

I have this problem - when I see wildflowers, I really want to pick them.  Even if they're growing on the side of the freeway.  Luckily, I do have enough sense to not actually stop and get them there... but when I saw a bunch growing in a field near my parents' house, I couldn't help myself.  And this (along with a few pokes from the thistles and sticky fingers from some sap) was the result: