Manolo for the Brides

I love that inspiration can come from anywhere, anything, or anyone. Just yesterday, The Beard and I were at one of our local beaches, swimming, soaking up the sun, and looking for beach glass. Amid the sea junk, The Beard found a mussel shell that was a vivid blue outside and a beautiful silver on the inside. After inspecting it for a bit, he said — and I was so damn proud at that moment — “Wouldn’t these make great wedding colors?”

To The Beard I say, “Here you are, my dear.”

Moving clockwise-ish from the top left, there is a Nicole Miller stretch taffeta dress, the Amaya pump from LAUREN by Ralph Lauren, a blue chalcedony sterling silver ring from Overstock.com, an invitation from Leigh’s Wishing Well, a JS Boutique cutaway shoulder gown, a hydrangea centerpiece, a deep blue aisle runner, and a hydrangea bouquet.

A lovely combo, yes?

The superbly lovely Kate wrote to ask:

I’m a regular reader of your blog and was wondering if you could help me out. I’m getting married at the end of September and want to wear a cream-colored “flower” in my hair, to match my dress. Problem is, what I find is either something from the WIC that’s eighty bucks, or a shoddy-looking fake “silk” blossom that is 1.99 at the craft store. Can you help me find a pretty off-white fake flower for my hair, for less than forty dollars? My hairdresser says it doesn’t have to have a barrette - if it has a stem, she can weave it in.

I feel Kate’s pain, even though I when I was getting married it wasn’t flowers but rather hair gems I sought. Everything truly elegant was way out of my price range, and everything in my price range looked like it had come from a girls bracelet making kit from the Toys ‘R’ Us. Eventually, I let my hair stand on its own, which was more than fine because my stylist was truly a wizard.

Now, anyone looking for faux blooms should learn a little background and a little lingo before hitting the shops. Today’s silk flowers typically aren’t actually made of silk…except when they are, in which case they may cost you a pretty penny. The reason so many fakies look so awful is that they’re made of cheap polyester. Even worse, they are sometimes embellished with things like rhinestones and plastic water droplets.

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A blog called It’s a Wonderful World turned me onto bouquets weirder and wackier than any I came across when writing iDo. In the floral chapter of my book, I bring up cascade bouquets, arm sheaves, pomanders, hand tieds, crescents, composites, wristlets, trails, teardrops, tussie-mussies, ballerina bouquets, and floral scepters! I obviously know a little something about bouquets.

Thus I must surmise that I can’t possibly be the only one who was a little taken aback by the ring bouquet:

Does this concoction of water iris leaves and small spray roses make anyone else think of goatse.cx (extreeeeeeemely NSFW)? Because I know that I and my sillier guests would be taking some pseudonaughty snapshots if the bride ever left her bouquet unattended.

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I’ve seen autumn leaves on table displays and scattered around plates, and I’ve even seen them incorporated into floral arrangements, but I’ve never seen them used quite like this! This maple leaf bouquet was created by a certain Natalie, who posted her masterpiece on a site called LOBZIK.

She posted a a tutorial that makes the mechanics of these “flowers” pretty clear. Luckily, her tutorial is picture heavy, seeing as that I don’t read Cyrillic. If you do, please translate a bit of the how-to for us.

It looks fairly simple, though you may want to incorporate some floral tape or florists’ pins. I’m not saying you’ll make perfect maple leaf roses right away, but you should be whipping them out fairly competently with a little practice. Too bad it’s only July!

When I was choosing my wedding colors, green scared me. It seemed too bright for my daytime outdoor wedding in the height of summertime. Now I’m seeing all of these wonderful green, black, and white inspiration boards on the other wedding blogs, and said green is beautifully vivid and not garish at all.

I’ve come to realize that I shouldn’t have been afraid of green. After all, I love all green flowers without exception and almost anything limey or appley is all right with me!

So here I am posting my own floral inspiration board with images from The Art of Flower and Old Town Florist in the hopes that it will perhaps inspire some of you.

And for the record, let me also say that you shouldn’t ever fear color. I mean any color! The blue-jay blue, hot cherry red, or Sunkist orange you’re picturing in your mind may seem like too much for a wedding, but don’t discount it until you’ve done your homework. I’d wager that there are at least some pictures of weddings employing said hues out there in Internetland. You may just discover it’s everything you’re hoping for and more!

Here are four cool alternatives to fresh flowers, all of which can be found on Etsy. They’re all over the map when it comes to prices, from perhaps excessively expensive to entirely reasonable.

I’m curious to know where you think each bouquet belongs on the price continum. Is the crystal bouquet the most expensive? Do the paper blooms fall squarely in the middle? Give us your guesses in the comments!

If you want to check your answers, you can find the bead bouquet here, the crystal bouquet here, the hand-shaped claycraft bouquet here, and the paper bouquet here.

The world outside my office is absolutely lovely today. The temperature is just about perfect, the sun is shining, and the scent of flowers wafting in through my window is divine. You might just say I have blooms on the brain.

You know who else occasionally has blooms on the brain? Bareheaded brides, that’s who — except the blooms and brains in this case are separated by a nice layer of living organic matter. Done right, wearing a rose in one’s hair like the Andalusian girls used can look smashing.

Your chosen flora can even serve as a symbol of your your heritage if you choose blossoms native to your ancestral lands or wear the same type that your mother, grandmother, or great grandmother carried in her wedding day bouquet.

Perhaps, however, you’d prefer floral headgear that’s less likely to attract insect life at your outdoor wedding or wilt in the sun as you make your way from the air conditioned ceremony to the air conditioned reception? In such a case, I’d recommend flower hair pins…but NOT those nasty rhinestone-encrusted monstrosities you find in shops like Claire’s.

These silver-plated hairpins from Ben & Oliver are long, sturdy, and as pretty as a perfect summer’s day. The vintage floral cabochons and glass stones the seller uses are small but striking, and the perfect accompaniment to a elaborate updo. Plus, at less than seven bucks a pop, they’re probably one of the least expensive accessories you’ll buy!

Martha Stewart — or one of her many clones — popularized tea tin centerpieces ages and ages ago, and people jumped on the idea. By people, of course, I mean bloggers and writers, because the only place I’ve seen ‘em is on blogs and in the pages of magazines

I’m not sure I get why. These centerpieces are so easy — loose, unpolished arrangements tend to look better — and you can coordinate without being too matchy-matchy by buying teas that come in tins that compliment your wedding colors. I’ve seen mismatched Mason jar vases and glittery pop bottle vases at actual weddings, but never tins.

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One piece of advice brides hear over and over again is that choosing flowers that are local and in season is a great way to save money on your florist’s bill. That’s very true. Having orchids flown in from halfway across the globe or insisting on the most delicate of summer blooms in the middle of a stormy winter is going to cost you extra.

But what to do if you don’t know what’s in season in your area? Well, a good place to start is right here. This interactive tool allows you to give a very general idea of time of year, region of the US (sorry, non-USian readers, but I’ll be on the lookout for something that covers other parts of the world, too, because it’s fun) where your wedding will be held, or even what color the bridesmaid’s dresses are. It then spits out a list of flowers that match your criteria, with links to pictures of said flowers. As I said, it’s not the be-all and end-all, but it’s a good place to start if you can’t tell a hyacinth from a hydrangea or aren’t certain if iris grows in your area near your wedding date.

Another fabulous way of saving cash on flowers is to do very simple arrangements yourself with a bit of help from handy friends and family members. Real Simple has a great feature showing you how to make beautiful bouquets from grocery store flowers. The one piece of advice I would add to their ideas is that if there’s an open-to-the-public florist’s supply within a reasonable distance, you can get a greater variety of higher-quality flowers without having to pay the middle men. If you need a lot of a particular flower, it also means you’re far more likely to be able to get precisely what you want in the amounts you need.

Still, the tying instructions are clear and simple to follow. Besides, who would ever have thought baby’s breath could look this spectacular?