Floral Ideas and Inspiration Part 1

Let me start out by saying that I wish I had an unlimited budget. lol I am a huge flower lover and if I had no budget I would go crazy with flowers. Unfortunately, I have a budget....and a small one at that compared to most weddings now a days. So getting very creative is a must! My mom is going to play the role of my florist because she actually worked for a florist when she was in college and has some mad skills! So between the two of us, getting extra creative to make a big floral impact without the cost shouldn't be a problem.

First off I will share my bouquet inspiration. I've always known I would want a purple bouquet but wasn't sure which flowers it would include until I saw the following photo over at The Brides Cafe check it out:

(Source)

Love it yet? I fell in love the first time I saw it. The flowers are dark purple Lisianthus. Aren't they stunning? I love how much the color "pops" against the white dress. So this will pretty much be the look of my bouquet with some changes like some grasses over the flowers like in the picture below.

(Source)

For my matron of honor and bridesmaid (yep, only two attendants, more on that at a later date) I want some kind of white bouquet...possibly with a little purple in there too. Why white you ask? Because they will be in dark purple dresses and I want their flowers to show up and not disappear. I am toying with the idea of using silk flowers for their bouquets. Why? Because it would save a lot of money, would be one less thing my mom would have to do the day before/day of the wedding, and would act as a keepsake for my girls. When I was in my best friend Lindsey's (my matron of honor, more on her later) wedding, I wanted to save my bouquet because it was so pretty. However I was unable to do so because it was mostly made up of daisies and they didn't dry well.

Silk flowers have come a longgggg way from what they used to be. If you know where to look, you can find silks that look just like real flowers and sometimes feel just like them. Mom and I are venturing out to Knoxville on Friday after work to hit Michael's and Hobby Lobby in the hopes that we'll be able to get some ideas for the attendants bouquets once we can actually see the silks in person. So this is kind of what I have in mind for them with the possibility of some added purple, White Spider Mums:

(Source)

I love that they aren't too "bride" looking but still beautiful and light and fluffy looking.

Bouts....I am also considering using silk flowers for the guys boutonnieres. My brother got married on the 18th and his bout was smashed to smithereens after hugging so many people. Now there were several factors that helped his bout get so smashed; he's tall so most people he hugged ended up with their face against his bout and it was made of daisies (very fragile flowers.) So those two things certainly weren't working in favor of it lasting and looking beautiful in pictures. It got me thinking though because I certainly don't want my guys' bouts to get all smashed up and look terrible in pictures. (Yes, I really do think about the little details that much.) I will not be using daisies in anything at my wedding so I won't have that to worry about and my man is shorter than my brother so the height factor won't be an issue for the smashing either. But guys just aren't normally delicate with flowers anyways so I don't think I could go wrong with silks. As for the design and look of the bouts...I'll have to get back to you on that one cause I don't have a clue.

Corsages....will be hand made with a combination of silk and real preserved flowers. More on the design of those later.

Ok this is getting long so I'll go into the ceremony and reception floral inspiration and ideas next.