The Final Florals

Hive, I've been really psyched about this post.  Flowers used to be totally out of my comfort zone, but then I educated myself by searching through tons and tons of inspiration pictures, and by brainstorming with our florist.  The more knowledgeable I became, the easier it was to choose the right flowers to convey the look I was going for.  If you share my flower personality of romantic and whimsical with a hint of fluffy, I hope you will find the following somewhat educational.

In our case, finalizing the flowers didn't just bring together our style.  It also helped to establish a palette for our wedding.  We had already decided on shamrock green and pool blue, but those two colors are hard to find in flowers.  Sister Lioness also pointed out that those were two "cool" colors.  She thought it would be a good idea to add in an accent color just to brighten things up.  Our florist suggested yellow, and my excitement towards our flowers grew even more.  I love yellow, but with Irish skin and hair, it's not always something I feel I can pull off.  But as an accent to two colors that I know I can pull of?  Sure!  Why the heck not!

Our final palette, courtesy of Color Combos

With that style and palette in mind, we decided on the following:

White Peonies

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Peonies definitely satisfy the "fluffy" criterion.  In fact, they exemplify it.  These things are huge, soft, and sweet.  The downside?  They were actually the most expensive of all the flowers we used...so we didn't end up using a lot of them.  These flowers are most easily available during late spring and early summer.

White Garden Roses

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Garden roses are a bit more offbeat than traditional roses.  They're typically cut and arranged after they've had a chance to bloom a little bit, rather than the tight-knit buds.

White Ranunculus

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I love ranunculus.  Ranunculi?  Ranunculuses?  Anywho.  To me, they look like the quirky cousin of the rose.  Their layers of petals seem to spiral around the center of the bud, creating a sense of whimsy.  The best time of year for them is April or May, so they were perfect for us!  Fun fact: buttercups are members of the ranunculus family.  True story!

Green Hypericum Berries

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Hypericum berries are probably my favorite way to add a touch of color to a mostly-white arrangement.  They're so dainty, but they can add so much contrast.

Blue Thistle

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Okay, this is the part where I start squealing a little bit.  But really, look how cute they are!  They just remind me of "Horton Hears a Who" or something.

Yellow Tea Roses

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Tea roses are similar to the garden roses above, but they're smaller and more delicate.  In yellow, they reminded me of something from "Beauty and the Beast."  (Sorry.  You knew that was going to be in here somewhere.)

Cotton Blooms

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Wanna know the easiest way to save money on flowers?  Don't use flowers!  Seriously though, I've seen so many brides use fabric or paper or brooch bouquets, and it always looks stunning.  One of my new favorite trends is cotton.  It's fluffy and it fills a lot of space.  Best of all, it doesn't matter whether it's real or fake...no one can tell the difference!

Yellow Ranunculus

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I love the pop of color this adds.  I'm especially excited to see it next to the white ranunculus.

Fiddlehead Ferns

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I love this one so much, even the name makes me smile!  I'm so excited to use this on the boutonnieres.  It's whimsy at its finest, in my opinion.

White Hydrangea

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These will only be in our centerpieces, not in the bouquets.  I love hydrangeas, but they are thirsty little devils.  They do not do well outside of a vase for a very long time.  Additionally, they're late-summer/early-fall flowers; so even though you don't need a lot of them to fill space, the fact that they were out of season during our wedding made them too expensive.

Overall, my bouquet will be more colorful than my bridesmaids'.  Most inspiration that I found was the opposite, but I feel like my girls are wearing enough color.  Something simple and mostly white would balance them out nicely.  Conversely, something bright and vivid would contrast well with my dress!

And now, allow me to leave y'all with a few money-saving tips that I picked up during my floral adventures:

1. Buy local. Less travel means less additional expenses.
2. Buy seasonal. If you have your heart set on something that's off-season, that's fine, but I would highly recommend supplementing that feature flower with some complementary seasonal blooms.
3. Size matters. Bigger blooms means fewer blooms!  Sometimes this can look a little funny, but choosing fillers like berries or thistles can help to fill the gaps.
4. Bridesmaids' bouquets don't have to be for the ceremony only.  We're having the girls place them somewhere during the reception.  We haven't decided where yet, but that's one less thing that will need flowers!
5. Mix it up.  My favorite idea that my florist had was to do two different kinds of centerpieces.  Seven tables would have larger centerpieces, and six would have smaller centerpieces.  When looking at the room as a whole, it still looks pretty full.  When looking at it sitting at the table, you don't really notice if your centerpiece is smaller because you're busy eating and talking!  Paying for seven large centerpieces instead of 13 can save you quite a bit.