When All Hell Broke Loose Part 1

So we still don't have all of our professional pictures yet. And it pains me to say that I have no idea when we will be able to afford the image CD. So in the meantime, I thought I might as well start a few recaps of things that happened before the wedding.

As you might guess from the title of this post, not everything went smoothly leading up to the wedding day. I knew things could and would most likely go wrong but it all seemed to happen in a three day window right before the wedding and that stressed me out majorly! I didn't expect it to all happen at once!

My mom and I had been working closely with the Food City floral department manager Olivia (she's amazing by the way and works at the Sevierville location). I went in knowing what I wanted, a deep yet bright purple carnation. I had seen some in an arrangement in a local restaurant and she said she had placed the order for them and knew exactly what I was talking about! Still to be sure, we had her order a few stems so that I could be 100% positive that it was in fact the correct color purple. The stems we ordered came in and they were PERFECT!!! I was sooo happy...you have no idea. So we placed an order with her for the number of stems we needed for my bouquet.

On Wednesday the 28th of April, my mom and I were to pick up the flowers for my bouquet at Food City. When we arrived and the worker pulled the carnations out of the cooler I almost cried. They were absolutely without a doubt not the right color! They looked maroon, not purple!! I was beginning to freak out. The wedding was Saturday, what would we do!? Olivia wasn't there that evening and the lady that was working didn't know anything about the order because Olivia had handled it all from the beginning. She was so sweet and so worried and offered to do anything she possibly could to help.

Since my mom had worked in a floral shop when she was younger, she knew there was little possibility that the carnations could change so drastically in color and become the correct color. But we had to try it. So my mom requested that the stems be freshly cut and placed in warm water to make the blooms open faster. We were to go back in the following morning while on our way to Knoxville to pick up the cake.

To our astonishment, the carnations did open up more and change into the correct color! It was amazing, my mom had never seen or heard of flowers changing so much in color....especially overnight, neither had Olivia. I was sooooo relieved!!! As were my mom and Olivia. Poor Olivia was stressing about it as much as I was, she's so sweet! So all was again well with the flowers and the panic attack I was about to have vanished.

Here are some pictures my Aunt got of my mom making my bouquet and the toss bouquet. Making my bouquet turned out to be a two person effort that kept us up until about 2am the night before the wedding!!! I was so tired, as you can see from the pictures. It had been a very long day for me. My mom was up even later than I was working on the bouts for the guys. She's amazing I tell ya!!

The darker carnations are for my bouquet and the boutonnieres. The lighter shade of purple carnations were used for the toss bouquet. We ended up getting that bunch for free because they weren't very fresh. But for the toss bouquet, that didn't really matter. The baby's breath was also originally only for the toss but I loved what my mom was doing with it so much that I wanted the baby's breath in my bouquet as well. We also purchased a Peace Lily from Food City for $9.99 and used the leaves from the plant to frame the bouquets.

My amazing mom making the toss bouquet.
Mom and I working on my bouquet.
The finished product!! It was everything and more that I wanted in a bouquet!! Purple, full and absolutely stunning!! I even took it on our honeymoon in a cylinder vase so I could enjoy it even more! I tried to dry it but unfortunately because the flowers were so tightly packed, it began to mold and I had to throw it away.
My bouquet in action! More pictures to come when we can get the image CD! (Source)
Charles's bout also made by my mom. She made I think around 8-10 bouts. She used one large carnation, some baby's breath and some english ivy leaves from our backyard. They all looked awesome and held up very well throughout the day! (Source)

Next up we head to Sam's Club in Knoxville to pick up the cake and cupcakes!

Flower Porn

Oh my goodness, I just stumbled across some of the most gorgeous and unique wedding floral designs! If you're looking for wedding floral inspiration from bouquets, bouts, centerpieces, flower girl headpieces, ring bearer pillows, etc or you just love beautiful flowers you have got to go check out this girls flickr photos! Her work is incredible! From very complicated and elaborate to simple and chic, she has it all. She also has some very unique color combinations I've never seen before. I just spent about an hour going through all her pictures and it is so worth it! She has lots of simple yet stunning centerpiece ideas that could easily be DIY projects. Here's a few of her photos I snagged for inspiration for my bouquet and the guys bouts.

I am loving the silver spray painted fiddlehead ferns! (All photos Source)

The bouquets for my girls are almost complete! Over the weekend, mom worked on them and I am loving them. Although....they are completely different from what I had originally envisioned. They're really unique and one-of-a-kind since mom hand made them both. I'll get pictures as soon as I can so I can share them with you!

Have you found awesome floral inspiration when you weren't looking for it?

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.