my day: the flowers

Flowers. They were the one thing that I had no desire to DIY.

I wanted to have all of my projects (and there were a lot of them) done a week prior to the big day. Flowers… well they have to be done the day or two before. And then there was the question of where would we put them all? And did I even trust my arranging capabilities? And then who would set them all up (remember our morning was packed full to the brim already)?

However, I also knew that spending upwards of $2,000 was not an option. Bryan’s parents were gracious enough to pay for the flowers, but I didn’t want to make them pay a ton of money just because that was the one thing I didn’t want to do. Luckily for me, I found Christa. Well actually, Christa’s grandma found me. Christa is the grand daughter of our churches wedding coordinator, Eloise. So one night on the phone I was being told by Eloise that there were no flowers allowed on the pews and no throwing flower petals and oh by the way my grand daughter is a florist and here is her number. Well I called, and thank God I did because it was one of the best decisions we made. We met for the first time at Starbucks, talked over things and she got to it. Of course, we met waaay before the wedding, because I am a planner like that, so we had lots of time to shoot ideas back and forth… which worked out because one day I decided I wanted to add pinks and one day she asked if I knew what a Billy Ball was and the end result was perfect!

For the boys (look familiar?!):

For the flower girls:

For my bridesmaids:

For the tables:

And for me:

Like I said, gorgeous! And isn’t that blue cameo amazing? It was my grandmas, she passed away last year and it meant so much to me to be able to carry a little piece of her down the aisle with me as my something blue.

Tips/Details: If you are like me and have a budget but just can’t bring yourself to DIY your flowers, I recommend finding someone who does flowers on the side, or someone who is fresh out of college, or Christa, if you are in the LA/OC/SD areas. We got all of those flowers (which included like 30 centerpeices) for about $900. That was a steal! Yes, it was much more than if I would have gone to the farmers market the morning of or day before, but again, it was worth my sanity to pay this money.

We provided the antique mason jars, most of which were from my moms collection, and then we supplemented that with some off ebay and from local antique shops. We may sell some of them since we don’t need 30+ mason jars, but I love having a few around the house!

The flowers also doubled as favors (which really made that $900 count), but that is for another post!

Another money/time/sanity saving thing was we had Christa be our set up person. I knew I needed someone to set the reception site up (kids table, cake table, hanging balls…) but wasn’t sure who I could get to do it. I asked Christa if she knew of anyone and she offered to do it for me for a small fee of $200. Maybe $100… I can’t remember. Whatever it was, it was worth it! She was a rock star and I can’t say enough good things about her! If you are in need of a florist and are getting married in Southern California, contact Christa, you won’t regret it!

All images by Studio 7 Photographers.