Tossing my bouquet out the window...

Well. I spoke to my florist today, and guess what? There is a strong possibility that the lilies I want so badly for my bouquet are going to be unavailable in sixteen days. Which, you know, is when we're getting married. In case you didn't remember.

So much for being easygoing about the flowers. The centrepieces? As long as they're somewhere between dark red and black-red, I don't care. Lilies, peonies, tulips, roses, whatever. Boutonnieres? Corages? Whatever you think looks nice. Bridesmaid's bouquets? White lilies...or white tulips, white anything except roses, please. I was making it easy for the florist to be creative and spend less, especially since her brother, my friend Henni, is paying for the damn things. But the one thing I really want, that I've been visualising for months (since the beginning, in fact), that still makes me go "OOh, it's like mine!" when I see it on photo blogs, is, in all likelihood, not going to happen. I could cry. And it's so stupid - I mean, really, it's a bouquet, it's a bunch of flowers, for goodness' sakes. It will look pretty no matter what's in there, because that's what flowers DO. And no one will know what it was supposed to look like, and they won't care anyway. They won't even remember what my bouquet looked like.

But I will. It'll be in the photos. And I know me, I'll keep going, "Man, I wish I'd been able to get those crimson lilies." For years. Because I get a touch obsessive over things. Blech.

What crimson lilies, you ask? THESE:






Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant! Waaaaa!!!

I'll keep you posted. I asked her what we could do for a backup, and she said not to worry about that just yet. Hmm. I can't decide if that's good, or that's her placating me.

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!

Old Hollywood Inspiration

Well, at the rate I am chopping and changing with this wedding theme & decor stuff, I will probably change my mind the night before. My latest inspiration is Old Hollywood Glamour. I adore old classic films - give me Bette, Judy, Katharine, Cary, Fred and Ginger and I’m in heaven. (That’s Davis, Garland, Hepburn, Grant, Astaire and Rogers for the uninitiated).


Anyway, I luuurve the look and feel of this theme. I’ve also recently discovered inspiration boards on some wedding blogs (as if I wasn’t spending enough time on wedding websites). So I thought I’d try my hand at my own “Old Hollywood” inspiration board! This is what I came up with:

To be honest, I’m not sure where I got all those pics from. I never thought, when I started collecting ideas and inpirations, that I might need a record of where I found them! Line 2 pic 2 is a still from the film “Swing Time”, and the last pics on lines 3 and 4 are from a real wedding you can see here.

I'm loving the idea of feathers in my bouquet, as in the last pic on line 2. How vintage and romantic! Just scrumptious. Look at these other beautiful ones I found:

(Photo by Jennifer Skog)

Another suggestion I've heard is to have a classic romance playing on a big screen (silently, one assumes!) during the reception. While I like the idea in theory, in practical terms it would be too much of a hassle to set up and play, too much of an unnecessary expense, and too much of a distraction for the guests, who will probably sit and stare blankly at it instead of enjoying the damn party I'm throwing for them! So.... no classic movie in the background, much as I love the idea of sharing my obsession with everyone!