Flowers

Ok, this blogging thing would seriously be easier if I had a camera that works. Our one has gone nuts - you put batteries in, take five photos, and then they're dead. Needless to say, we don't keep buying batteries every five photos...so right now there are none. So I can't show you my favours...which aren't complete anyway, though they really should be! So maybe it's just as well.

I realised that I never really posted about the flowers I finally chose for the bouqets and centrepieces. To be honest, they're ever-so-slightly up in the air until the Day Of, because I told the florist just to get what's available in the right colour for the centrepieces, in order of preference: Lilies, tulips, peonies......and waaaay last, roses. Reason is, my friend Henni (her brother) is paying for my flowers, and I don't want to overload him and make him pay for more expensive lilues, say, when peonies will do just fine. Or whatever. As long as the look and feel is there, I don't mind! This is the look I finally chose:

Except that I felt it was just a little too much going on for one table, not to mention a few too many vases and flowers expense-wise, so I trimmed it down to this bit:
Except you need to ignore the green mums in the left corner. What I decided for the second vase, which in this pic has what looks like twisty twigs in it, is to fill it with a couple of white flowers submerged in the water. That way I satiate my desire for submerged blooms (oh, how I love them!) without going overboard like THIS pic would entail:

It's nuts. But gorgeous nuts!

I think one vase of red flowers and another with some submerged flowers inside and a floating candle on top is plenty, right? There will be candles scattered around them and I'm getting a round mirror-base to reflect some pretty, romantic glow into the room, so I think that's plenty per table. And in the end, it doesn't matter if it's lilies or tulips or whatever.

My bouquet, however, is another story. I know dang well what I want, and it WILL be that. The end. Except I can't find the perfect picture! But it will be these lilies:


But in a style more like THIS bouquet (only without the greenery):

So I think it'll be pretty...interesting (and let's just hope not disappointing) to see what she comes up with there. I know that the deep red ones aren't as big as the purple ones, so they might not work in that style...I'll just have to trust her florist judgement! The black satin ribbon I'm using for everything will be around the stems with little diamante pins. Mmm.

The two bridesmaids' bouquets will be like these:
With the same black ribbon. Nothing startling or difficult there, hopefully.

And, finally, the men's buttonholes will be white lilies for the groomsmen and Dads, like this:

And Mr Slippers' will be a red lily to match my bouquet, something like this without the extraneous white flower:

I've met with Jenny (the florist) twice, and she SEEMS to be on top of things. I just hope it all looks as pretty in real life as it does in my head!

Free stuff...yeah baby!

I love candles. I want a ton of them at my reception, on every table, reflected in mirrors, lining the walkway, the whole shebang. But, well, they're pricey. And essentially I wanted them to be in little glass votives or big hurricane lamps, because I love the look of a flame in glass, and it's safter that way anyway. But those are even MORE expensive! So the week before last I was chatting to this lady at work about candles, and I mentioned that it might be cheaper if I just bought el cheapo candles and melted them down and set them in little glass holders, rather than BUYING them like that, and she said, "Oh, I have a bunch of half-burnt candles from my daughter's wedding; do you want those?" So I said yes please, of course! Duuuh. But what was great was that when she brought them most of them were barely burnt down at all! Seriously, once they're lit you won't even notice that they aren't new. So I'm just going to use them like that, none of this melting and setting nonsense :-) Three green shopping bags full! I have candles coming out the wazoo.

I could do this on every table if I wanted! Only not in the glass holders...

Then (I love this lady) we got talking about petticoats, and how Bride & Co wants R500 for a petticoat (daylight robbery), and she immediately offered to lend me her daughter's one too! I tried it on the other day and it's perfect! So whoohoo, freebies on two pretty big items (you know, not big like photography or food, but big enough for me to be thrilled!) Anyone else get some awesome free gifts or loans for their wedding?

Centrepiece woes...

Who knew centrepieces could be so complicated? Probably everyone except me…it’s just, in the old days (you know, like the eighties!) everyone had these big floral arrangements on their tables, the kind that were poofy (to match the sleeves on the wedding dress), and so huge you couldn’t see five people on the other side of the table. Not me, I decided, I’m going to have something simple and elegant and (ahem) cheaper...


Definitely don’t want this…

BLECH.

Anyway, so I’ve narrowed my idea of simple and elegant and inexpensive down to about fifty. Just kidding. I’ve got it down to forty-seven now. :-)


These are some pictures I love. I just don’t know how to decide which one to go with! I feel like the submerged flower idea, while stunning if it’s pulled off correctly, can end up looking really shoddy if done badly. At this point I should say that I’m not having a florist decorate the tables, because a friend of mine is paying for the flowers as his wedding gift (isn’t he the best?) but another friend of mine - and possibly me, depending on time and stress - is going to pull the decor together. So it CAN’T be too complex!




LOVE the elegance of this..but it’s too tall.

This is pretty and romantic…but too plain?

This is stunning…but it’s more daytime and summery than my wedding…

Just love this one too, but is it too many littles vases of stuff? Can we say "Complex and time-consuming?"

Yeah, so basically I don’t have a CLUE what I want. How on earth do I combine all the elements I like from all these photos, while doing the whole thing kind of DIY?

Oh, and did I mention I also don’t want my poor friend who is PAYING for all of this to fall over in shock. And then never speak to me again!

Flowers are a pain. Pity I like them so much! It would be so much easier with just candles.