Hello y’all, happy weekend! Hope your coffee has been strong and your stress levels minimal. This past weekend was incredibly busy, but absolutely amazing. Our sweet friends Jason and Taylor got married! The venue was beautiful, the weather perfect (and our NC version of fall) the color palette was gorgeous and the pampas grass was dramatic. It was such a sweet and romantic night for a sweet and amazing couple. They both looked incredible, and despite not feeling her absolute best that day, Taylor was a gorgeous bride with a smile that lit up even the outside. I was grateful to be a part of their day! (Blog post of the wedding to come!)

This week we’re going to dive into all things floral and hopefully shed some light on this super important (and potentially expensive) vendor for your event.  If you’re anything like me, when you picture your wedding flowers you see gorgeous blooms cascading, greenery and blooms perfectly placed around tables and filling in little gaps and negative spaces, complementing colors, added freshness and richness…..ok, as my mother in law and my wife like to say, I’m bougie! Maybe not everyone thinks of their flowers that way, but I sure do! I love a good luxurious display of florals.  Because I knew that about myself, going into planning our wedding florals I was prepped and ready to hold the reins steady on myself.  I love flowers, but I was NOT willing to lose my whole wedding budget to them.  So I dug deep and forced myself to find some dang self control! Of course, I had to do my research first cause that’s just who I am as a human.  But I definitely found some helpful little tidbits on the ole internet to help me keep perspective and make smart choices in my florals.  

One of the main things to think about right away is what season are you getting married? Spring, of course, is overflowing with many flower options; so is summer for that matter. Fall has some beautiful blooms to offer, and winter…well, winter has some options too, albeit a little more narrow! Of course, depending on the budget, you can get many blooms year round: but depending on the type, you will pay a pretty penny per stem. If huge over the top flower arrangements are your thing, you might want to plan for a spring/summer date. Of course, there’s so much to be said for some amazing live fall blooms with dried grasses! Don’t count out a good fall/winter date if you’re willing to be creative and work with the blooms of those seasons. Our spring wedding was the perfect time to get all those beautiful Southern garden party vibes from our florals. We opted for lots of white: hydrangeas, snap dragons, garden roses, brought in some pink hues with blush garden roses, eucalyptus and magnolia leaves for greenery, and my splurge bloom that I just HAD to have: white anemones with their beautiful dark blue centers! My approach to keeping myself within my budget, but still getting the floral punch that I wanted was to pick blooms in my season that I loved and were well priced, and then give myself one splurge bloom that I REALLY loved that would add the pop I needed. I can’t say enough about how much I love an anemone 🙂 I used them heavily in the wedding party florals and they were sprinkled throughout the arrangements as well.

The season of your wedding and the budget are pretty closely intertwined.  Realistically, wedding season and peak floral season overlap, which means a couple of things for the budget.  One, everything is more expensive during wedding season than the off season: wedding season (depending on your area) runs from around May-October.  For your floral budget specifically though, it can open up more bloom options at better prices.  Ultimately, price differences across multiple vendors balance the scales so to speak between wedding season and off season.  Really, it’s you who controls the budget: you can spend just as much on an off season event as a peak season one.  It’s all in where you put your money.  

Speaking of where you put your money: where should it be going with florals?? Let’s go through a breakdown of the basic arrangements you’ll need, give or take a few! We’ll start with the wedding party: of course you’ll have the bride’s bouquet (or two, if two brides and y’all both want bouquets), then a bouquet for each of your bridesmaids. Your groom/partner will have a boutonniere, each of the groomsmen, ushers, and men of the immediate families such as grandparents, brothers, father of each partner: all of the women of the immediate families get corsages. Next, any tables that provide seating and any cocktail tables will need centerpieces. It’s important to note, to me, that centerpieces do not have to be florals. If you want to do something different, do it! I’m a big floral kinda girl, so I opted for blooms in my centerpieces! Whatever you decide to get married in front of, like the arch or arbor, the focal point of the ceremony, is a good place for florals. We chose a tall triangle wood arch with one medium size floral arrangement and one large size arrangement offset to frame our ceremony space. Going down the aisle, we lined every other chair set with a hanging mason jar of blooms: 6 on each side. Its always a smart place for decor to add something to your aisles, but again, it doesn’t HAVE to be florals! We had a big arrangement for our welcome sign, and a couple of other medium sized arrangements that were placed with the food. All of our other tables like the cake, our Sweetheart table, favors and sparklers, photo guestbook and wishing well table, all had greenery draped around with blooms tucked in. The cake was simple with blooms on top, and the bar had a few blooms too! Whew. I clearly really like flowers! They really added so much to the vibe of the space, and they brought my vision to life in a way that just wouldn’t have been the same without them. It really felt like Gatsby meets Southern garden party. ::sigh::

So after that massive list of florals, it seems like a good time to re-mention a little tidbit from a previous blog.  Flowers are really NOT the best pick for the DIY project.  It’s a lot.  Even if you do less arrangements, the effect is much less dramatic, and the work/stress level is still super high.  If you’re picky about your flowers, have specific blooms/colors in mind, DIY is also definitely not the way to go.  You’re more likely to have to go with the flow and take what blooms are available in the days before your wedding, and, oh yeah, all that work has to be done RIGHT before the big day so that the blooms look their best.  Not like you’re going to be doing a million other things right before the big day…right?! It’s really one that’s best left to a trusted vendor who can execute the vision and take the stress off of you that day.  You will have enough on your plate, I promise! 

As with any of the other main vendors for your day, a well-laid plan of attack does wonders.  Do your research and have some ideas going in to meet with florists: talk about your vision with your top few vendor choices and go with whom you feel is going to best fit your vision and your budget.  Knowing your vision will really help you narrow down which vendor is going to be the best fit for you.  Flowers add so much in color and texture; these are definitely some of the fun choices you get to make! Do your research, know your vision, know your budget, and find that florist! 

Happy planning y’all!

Holly