Flowers & Centerpieces

It's hard to imagine how stressful these things really are... You set aside a certain amount of money for flowers and realize the actual cost could be up to 3x as much! I want the wedding to be simple and elegant. I imagined simple wildflowers in 1 jar at the center of each table for a simple yet rustic feel. It suddenly becomes so much more complicated...

I visited a florist near Norcross, a name given to me by the venue in fact. The florist was known for providing fresh, lively flowers. The store was elegant as well, however I knew nothing about flowers. What was in season, what was cost effective, or even the general names of some flowers would have been very helpful. She was kind enough to show me examples of various flowers but I did feel like she was taking advantage of me. She would bring out some beautiful blooms and I had no idea how much the flowers cost. Generally the florists gather an idea of what you want then out together a quote for you based on the flowers and how hard it is to put the arrangements together. I was surprised I did not faint on the spot with the cost!

I decided to try a different florist. The second time around I took mrs. Shearon with me. Working in landscape, I knew she would be knowledgeable of the plants the florist was showing me. We started from scratch and I told the florist from the start I was on a lower budget. The florist was very responsive and only showed me things that would be more cost effective. We had decided to go with a garden bouquet, with a variety of flowers rather than only two or three varieties. The colors consisting of white, pale blue, and green. We got a much lower quote however the quote was still a few hundred over the original budgeted amount.

I went home disheartened about what to do. I talked to my mom and my aunt (who had flown in for a couple days to help with some of the wedding planning) about the situation and they came up with some great ideas that would lessen the cost and would still be in the same boat as what I imagined. The flowers were not only to be used for the bouquets and boutonnieres, they would be used for decoration on the cake and for centerpieces. Without giving too much away... we're sticking to a smaller variety of flowers, continuing with the simple but elegant look. Imagine this... you enter the room and see tables in navy blue linens, the lights turned down, light classical guitar playing, candles gleaming in the corner of your site, jars with flowers, and jars with (oops I can't tell you, that part it's a surprise!). Anyway the point is we came up with a game plan! It was 3 days of intense frustration and lack of willingness to work things out but we were finally able to come up with a plan. :)