There’s still something off-putting about the Internet where brides are concerned. Sure, they read the bridal blogs – and thank goodness for that! – and use Google to find all of the reception sites in and around their zip codes, but plenty of brides still balk when it comes to buying certain things online. Wedding gowns, for one, which I can totally understand, though at the same time, many brides who wouldn’t buy their wedding dress online totally ask their bridesmaids to buy their dresses online.

Another area where brides tend to shy away from buying online is wedding flowers. Part of that, I’d wager, is that there’s not a zillion shops selling wedding flowers by mail. Favors online? No problem, you have an almost infinite number of choices. Wedding shoes online? The sky is the limit! Bulk fresh flowers online? Even then it’s no problem – there’s Fifty Flowers, for example, and Grower’s Box (a personal favorite of mine). Most of the sites selling bulk flowers don’t, however, arrange them for you, so unless you’re keen on giving DIY wedding flowers a go, you’re mostly out of luck.

…but not entirely out of luck!

(more…)

You have your black and white weddings, black and lime and white weddings, pink and black and white weddings, and pink and green weddings. Less common are wedding palettes featuring pink, green, black, and white where the white isn’t just an incidental addition in the form of floral fillers, blank spaces on wedding stationery, or candles. The more colors you add to your wedding color scheme, the more likely it is that you’ll have trouble finding stuff that features all of your hues together. Luckily, you don’t have to have every color on every little thing. Observe:

Featured on this pink, green, black, and white inspiration board are damask border table numbers from Papeterie; pink, green, and white bridesmaids bouquets by Pure Joy carried by bridesmaids in black; pink, green, and white favor cards; a pink, green, and black button bouquet from the amazing Princess Lasertron; adorable bridesmaids in green with black sweaters and pink scarves; a sweet table by Ravishing Radish featuring a cake by Tallant House; a chic and blingy wedding cake from a dessert table designed by Couture Cakery; and finally, a floral centerpiece that features almost all the colors in this scheme (even if you can’t see them).

Alternative bridal bouquets… sometimes sweet, sometimes tacky, but always fun to post about! In the past I’ve featured bouquets made of feathers and ribbons (which are beautiful and old fashioned), balloons (which are rather terrible), Claycraft (which can look a lot like the real thing if done right), maple leaves (which resemble… maple leaves), wire (très moderne!), and lots of other interesting and unexpected things.

Now there’s a whole new option created by Amanda Heer of Fantasy Floral Designs: the vintage brooch bridal bouquet!

Isn’t that just gorgeous? I love how colorful and cheerful it is, not to mention how it incorporates every color of the rainbow without looking at all garish or clashy. I probably say this all the time about so many things, but Heer’s brooch bridal bouquets make me want to get married all over again!

The base price for one of these sweet bouquets is $300, keeping in mind that this is one would hope a bouquet one kept for a long, long time. Especially considering that the bride can have Heer choose each vintage brooch or provide them herself, perhaps after on gram’s jewelry box.

(spied on Junebug Weddings; photos via Alice Hu Photography; Studio del Fiore is another source for brooch bridal bouquets)

When I was small, grape hyacinths were my absolute favorite flower. They grew in abundance in our neighborhood, and I routinely found myself in trouble for picking them in neighbors’ yards. As tiny as grape hyacinth blossoms are, I never really considered how they might be used in wedding flowers like bridal bouquets and reception centerpiece arrangements. Until, that is, I came across a beautiful photo of a grape hyacinth and paperwhite bouquet created by Flowers by Paula Cosgrove in the hands of a bride.

Pretty sweet, yeah? I love the delicacy of the flowers in the bouquet, and especially how they contrast with the thickness of the base of the bouquet. I was inspired to look for more grape hyacinths being used in weddings and, while there’s not much out there in terms of photographs from real weddings (since it’s not the most popular choice), I did find some imagines that you may find inspirational.

What do we have here? Have a look (in a clockwise direction):

1. Grape hyacinths in a recycled clementine container from Real Simple – this would be such an easy DIY centerpiece at a semi-rustic wedding!
2. Grape hyacinth invites from The Botanical Concept
3. A bouquet of naught but grape hyacinth In Style Weddings
4. A bright and colorful grape hyacinth centerpiece in tin from BHG
5. Grape hyacinth boutonnieres by Belle Fleur of New York
6. And grape hyacinth wedding favors laid out on table settings

Brides who are bored with the usual bouquets and boutonnieres and reception table centerpieces should think large and loose with lots of unusual greenery and even berries (as opposed to structured bunches of roses or daises). For inspiration, I looked to the Brooklyn-based full-service floral design studio Saipua. They’re happy to venture outside of the five boroughs for weddings, provided brides and grooms are willing to order packages totaling at least $6,000. Worth it? Maybe, depending on how much you like flowers.

Unfortunately, Saipua doesn’t ship as they prefer to think of themselves as full-service florists. For that price, they better be. Those of us who are already married and those who can’t justify devoting that much of a wedding budget to florals can at least look and drool and find inspiration in their bigger, bushier bouquets. Note: There’s plenty of sweet bridal bouquet porn under the cut!

(more…)

I’m a bit of a sucker for Lily of the Valley. It was Christian Dior’s favorite flower, you know, and I’m fond of classics. Of late, though, Lily of the Valley doesn’t get used as often as its distant cousin the cala lily. Not for me. I’ve frankly never cared much for calas. Part of it may be the association in my mind with funerals. When I was a girl, calas were for mourning, not celebration.

But sweet, simple, pretty lily of the valley always struck me as a most cheerful flower. They are far better suited in general to a less formal setting, at least by themselves, but when combined with other flowers that stand more on their own dignity, they can be quite charming as a filler:
as you can see here.

But what about lily of the valley on its own? Take a look below the cut and see.
(more…)

Everywhere I look lately I’m seeing carnations being used in weddings… more and more often, carnations are appearing in ceremony decor, reception table centerpieces, bridal bouquets, and elsewhere. Truth be told, once upon a time I might have been surprised. Carnations, to me, were the flowers one finds in the cheap corsage the senior prom date purchases minutes before picking up his date or the bouquet hastily bought at the gas station to apologize for some misdeed. But done right, carnations in weddings are beautiful and shockingly elegant.

Far from being just a filler flower, carnations have the most impact when used as the sole bloom in a wedding arrangement. Because of the way their petals are formed, carnations are best used in a big bunch, like in these carnation wedding topiaries from PD Bloom. But that’s not all!

(more…)