Manolo for the Brides

You may not know this, but it’s ridiculously easy to find fresh bulk flowers and greens online, and you can save plenty of money on your wedding flowers by buying them… if, that is, you’re ready to whip up your own bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets, and centerpieces. It’s not quite as easy to find already made wedding flowers online because searching for wedding flowers or bridal bouquets nets results that are either local florists’ web sites or silk bouquet sellers.

BrideDesign is one of the few wedding flower specialists on the web — at their site, you can order all-inclusive packages containing all of the florals you need. There aren’t many opportunities for customization on the site, but they do offer free consultations so you can speak to someone about the individual packages they offer.

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Today’s Inspiration for Ashley is all about flowers, specifically Gerbera daisies, since Ashley seems partial to them.

The flowers will be BIG and BOLD and in many shades of shocking pink, hot orange, red, yellow, and purple. I want it wild and uncoordinated and OMG LOOK AT ALL THAT COLOR I COULD JUST DIE FROM IT ALL. I am thinking Gerbera daisies for a start, but I don’t know where the finish will be.

Easy enough, since Gerbera daisy bridal bouquets and centerpieces abound. Though bridal bouquets featuring one or two colors of daisy seem to be more common, multicolor examples in line with what Ashley wants can be found. Here is one example in a photo taken by Kellie McCann Photography:

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The creatrix behind Refinerii uses salvaged metals and found industrial objects as the raw materials with which she crafts unique works of art like this wire bridal bouquet.

She can even create a custom bouquet made with your choice of colors using salvaged aluminum wire, Swarovski crystals, freshwater or crystal pearls, glass beads, and other bits of sparkle. Intriguing, no? While we’ve delved deeply into alternative bridal bouquets and wedding flowers here at the blog in the past, this is the first time I’ve come across a bridal bouquet that is so… industrial. I think I like it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I love it!

What say you?

Word in my inbox is that bouquet jewelry will be the hot new thing in the upcoming months, but I am taking this revelation with a grain of rice seeing as that it comes from a retailer who sells bouquet jewelry. Integrating gems and pearls into bridal bouquets is nothing new, after all, though I haven’t seen many monogram jewels for bouquets other than in shop windows.

Still, said retailer (specifically USA Bride) does claim that sales of bouquet jewelry in 2009 are up 34% over 2008, so who knows… if you’re a bride keen to jump on the bouquet jewelry trend, USA Bride is having a bit of a sale. Should you buy a bit of bouquet bling — or anything else, as far as I can tell — use promo code saving10.

Want to join the navy, by which I mean the bevy of brides choosing this elegant wedding color over robin’s egg and Tiffany and baby blues.

How about navy blue engagement announcements from My Good Greetings… a chunky cocktail ring from Rumour makes a great bridesmaid gift… and for the groomsmen, navy monogram cufflinks from Eternally Linked… navy blue monogrammed postage from Zazzle is one way to personalize mass market wedding stationery… you can save money on your bridal shoes with feminine flats from Old Navy (of all places)… navy blue bridesmaids’ dresses complement an Oscar de la Renta grosgrain gown in navy and white, while deep blue florals and an almost nautical reception table tie it all together.

Where do I sign up?

Weddings can be so wasteful. Much of the waste is a product of the desire to have things be just right. When ten wedding guests haven’t RSVP’ed and it’s two weeks before the big day, it’s often easier to order extra food and extra wedding favors that may or may not get eaten and taken. If you’re a DIY bride, having more supplies than you need can prevent future disasters. And most wedding gowns are worn only once.

I was incredibly lucky when it came to my own wedding leftovers because I have a grandmother who has a finger in just about every local church and charity. My wedding gown? It was given to the family house of worship so a future bride could wear it. The extra DIY supplies and favors? That same church has an active community theatre, so problem solved. And the massive quantities of leftover food went to a local halfway house that accepts perishables. By the time my wedding day was over, almost everything had been distributed or delivered to the appropriate recipients thanks to gram.

Not every bride has such a thoughtful relative to turn to, however. We’ve discussed wedding gown donation in the past, and it’s pretty easy to unload DIY supplies (think Craiglist or Freecycle), but what about food? The sad fact of the matter is that tons of uneaten yummies from wedding receptions goes into landfills each year because many — if not most — charities do not accept donations of perishable foodstuffs. If you don’t have enough local relatives to ensure that everything goes home with someone who owns a deep freeze, it’s almost guaranteed that perfectly good canapes, entrees, and desserts are going to land in the trash.

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The always handsome mkb sent me a link to this exceedingly cool wedding photo:

And when I say cool, I mean cold.

After being pronounced husband and wife, Michael and Sigret Cook — they’re the ones in the wedding finery, obviously — exit the ice chapel custom built for their wedding on Christmas Day in Fairbanks, Alaska. That’s right, they had an entire ice chapel built just for the wedding.

The temperatures outside were hovering below zero - it wasn’t much warmer inside - but it was the perfect culmination to a whirlwind, Florida-to-Fairbanks romance that was sparked by a chance meeting on the Internet.

Ball had asked Cook to build her an ice chapel for their wedding “Lots of people get married in chapels. I will be the only one married in this chapel,” Ball said.

The chapel occasionally emitted groaning noises during the wedding, making some of the guests nervous. Terry Martin, who officiated the wedding, reassured the guests that the ice structure was sturdy as he led the wedding ceremony.

No one built me an ice chapel for my wedding (I didn’t even get a regular chapel!) but after reading about the groaning of the ice, I’m not sure I would have really enjoyed the experience.

Wedding decor is overwhelmingly bright and vivid. Whether you’re choosing bridesmaids’ dresses, wedding favors, a wedding cake, or your bridal accessories, you’re bound to see a whole lot of shocking pinks, sly blues, eye-catching blacks and whites, amazing yellows, and even some electrifying purples. What you don’t see a lot of when shopping for a wedding are earth tones and muted colors inspired by nature. Luckily, if it’s inspiration in this particular area that you’re looking for, Rebecca Thuss has you covered.

Thuss is an award winning photo-stylist, a creative director, wedding designer and crafter who survived Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Currently, she and her husband are partners in a multidisciplinary photography and graphic design firm. I’m just glad she keeps a selection of her work up in her online portfolio so you and I can learn exactly what can be done with a few bunches of flowers, some felt, and a handful of twigs. Wedding decor looks so easy when I put it that way, no?

(To those wondering where this post went…well, I have no idea. It was on the blog when I left the house, and when I got home, it was gone. It’s back now and hopefully here to stay!)

Flowers for grooms have typically been limited to boutonnières, but with gay marriage once again hitting the news, I’m actually hoping for a surge in nicely arranged wedding flowers designed specifically for men. I’m not suggesting, of course, that all gay grooms will opt to carry a bouquet, but I’ve seen enough videos of happy flower-friendly men tossing their bouquets to know that some do. Nor am I suggesting that straight grooms can’t carry wedding bouquets if they want to — the standard ‘to each their own’ disclaimer always applies at Manolo for the Brides.

Bouquets for men…what would they look like…

I’m envisioning plenty of greenery and maybe even some grains, like these bouquets from Petals With Love. Darker colors, with more bronzes and deep purples come to mind, though there’s no reason why a groom marrying a groom couldn’t carry pink or yellow wedding flowers if he wanted to. Finally, I imagine the groom’s bouquet would be rather smallish, or at least not as big as some of the larger bridal bouquets.

How do you envision the groom’s bouquet?