A Beautiful Wedding with Local Flowers

Three months before your wedding, it seems like a really great idea to do your own flowers. The upsides are that you get what you want, are spending less, and giving friends and family, who want to help out, a job before the ceremony and reception. The downside is that fresh flowers must be prepped just days before the wedding and can be especially stressful on the couple if there is not someone you trust overseeing the process.

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There are so many options for a beautiful and romantic wedding than the obvious roses, eucalyptus and baby's breath. We grow traditional garden flowers such as snapdragons, larkspur, poppies, stock, and delphinium in the spring. Throughout the summer and into the fall, choose from sunflowers, zinnia, dahlia, coneflowers and cosmos. Pull it all together with fillers such as herbs, bells of Ireland, feverfew, gomphrena, celosia, or bupleurum. Everything changes with the seasons. We strive to provide you with fresh and beautiful flowers that will last through your event.

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Some tips to make this a fun and enjoyable process:

• Do your research early and pick designs that can be created in an hour or less. Some options include hand tied bouquets or simple bunches of like flowers tied together with ribbons. Centerpieces can be made from similar arrangements, potted plants, zinnia floating in pie plates or scattered gourds.

• Take a hybrid approach by ordering boutonnières and corsages from a florist and making your own bouquets. Order potted plants from a garden center for your centerpieces.

• Order a practice bucket a couple of weeks before your event and invite your trusted helpers to work out the designs of each element. Take pictures of the final bouquet or arrangement and create an ingredient list for each to help eliminate questions and confusion the day before, or the day of, the wedding. The very first wedding I did, there was no list and all the flowers for the bridal bouquet were used in the table arrangements that were made first. They had to scramble for filler.

• If making boutonnières, corsages or floral crowns, consider recruiting a second team to make them the evening before or the morning of your ceremony. There are technical issues involved, so it is helpful to have a how to video or picture by picture instructions available.

• Order all of your supplies ahead of time so no one has to make a last minute shopping trip. This includes vases, floral tape, sharp scissors or knives, wire, and ribbon. Also include enough buckets to store bouquets in fresh water. Don't forget a fine water mister for the boutonnières, corsages, and crowns.

• Always include extra stems in your order as stems break or a few blossoms are not quite the perfect color. Depending on design, bridal bouquets need 20-40 stems, bridesmaids 10-25, boutonnières 2-4, corsages 3-8, flower crowns 10-25, centerpieces 10-30, and wedding arches 6-12 per foot. We will happily help you break down the number of stems based on focal flowers, accent flowers, fillers and greenery of each bouquet and arrangement.

• Flowers and finished arrangements should be stored in a cool, dark place until the event. Make a transportation plan ahead of time and factor that into the number of pieces you create. If you are counting on your cousin to move the centerpieces in his minivan but he shows up in a convertible, that could be a challenge.

Our aesthetic is bright and happy. We can provide you with traditional garden flowers to create your dream wedding. Betsy is also great at breaking down photos of bouquets into a shopping list. She is available to guide you in planning your DYI wedding including choosing flowers, teaching you how to make bouquets and personals and helping you find flowers. Contact her to talk flowers.