Bright Pink Flowers

Finding the "Perfect Flower" can be difficult...at least we know we are going with the PERFECT FLORIST. Brent and I officially signed the contract with Indigo Floral, and we are stoked. We keep knocking items off of our VERY LONG LIST.

Anyway, even though we talked about using bright pink roses in the Bridesmaid's bouquets, we are still looking for other options. Roses are not my favorite...they are just cost efficient. However, I took the time to look up more examples of BRIGHT Pink Flowers, and here is what I found:

Dianthus Cranberry Ice

Aster - Alma Potschke

Geraniums

Unknown Pink Flower

Pink Dahlia


Pink Lily

I am not sure about all the names of these flowers, or how expensive they are, but it's a start. Anyone know of other BRIGHT PINK Flowers that I could use? I would love the help! :)

Utilizing the Curly Willow

As I said in my last blog, I am planning on using curly willow in my wedding. I LOVE CURLY WILLOW!! It is so unique, however it can be difficult to incorporate on it's own. At first I was thinking of just having curly willow by itself, but I am considering adding some kind of flower as well. Here are some pictures of how curly willow has been used in other weddings...

What do you think? Any other fun ideas? Anyone else use curly willow before?

Meeting with Indigo Floral

(Sorry there have not been any blogs recently...my computer is broken, so I have to rely on school computers...poop)

Today, Brent and I visited Indigo Floral to talk prices and floral arrangements for Dimnent and GHGC. The lady there was nice, and she helped bring all of our ideas to life. She helped me picture what the bouquets and floral arrangements would look like by actually bringing out flowers from the cooler and placing them together. It was nice to be able to get a basic idea of what they would look like. It was a lot of fun and we put together some really neat ideas. Here are our thoughts so far...

Bridal Bouquet - completely white! White Lillies or Orchids, and white stock, and white stephanotis (with pearls in the center). White peacock or ostrich feather coming out.

Pearled Stephanotis

White Lilies

White Stock

White Ostrich Feather

Calla Lilies and Stock (not sure if I would do this one though)

Bridesmaids - White, Bright Pink, and Black! Maybe some white lillies and purple cezanne roses. Possible little black feathers throughout the bouquet.

purple cezanne roses

White lilies

Black feathers

Dimnent - Have two pedestals by the unity candal, with large white vases and white curly willow. Then ferns by the stairway. Curly willow and tule on every 4th pew.

curly willow (would be white though)

I tried to paint in what the stage would look like...kind of poorly done :)

GHGC - Take the large white vases of curly willow and put at ends of head table. Then collect all the pew curly willow, and put into another large white vase to be displayed somewhere in GHGC. Or Brent thought of a cool idea - to somehow have the curly willow surround the four pillars around the dance floor. Bridesmaids would put their bouquets into vases that would sit on the head table. No new flowers would be needed, and we could do it ourselves...unless we want flowers on the cakes. :)

Those were just some ideas we came up with the lady. She priced everything to come out to be a little under $1100 (including the flower choices above). When I met with the guy at Flowers Etc. a couple weeks ago, he approximated everything to be about $1000 (this was the price without specific flowers). So they have similar prices...what do you think mom???

Wedding Wonderfulness!

What a wonderful day! While many Hope students have been quarantined in their room suffering the effects of the norovirus, I have been enjoying a day on the town! Unlike most parents, who canceled there parent's day weekend plans, my parents were not allowed to skip out on this fun-filled weekend. For the past two weeks I have devoted a lot of time to researching local florists and bakeries, and I made sure that I kept this weekend free to dedicate my time to wedding planning. So, my parents HAD to come. :)

We started off the day by eating a hearty breakfast served by Mr. and Mrs. B! We sure needed some food in our stomach because we were about to encounter a very long day.

Our first appointment was at 9am at Eastern Floral. I really enjoyed their shop, and it had a beautiful display of flowers, however, our meeting was not as enjoyable. Since this was my first time talking to a florist, I had no idea what to ask....AND to make things worse, I have not finalized my colors/theme yet. So, although she was nice, the Eastern Floral designer was quiet and did not help me form a clearer picture of what I am looking for.

Since we arrived lated at the first appointment - I lost the car keys - we also showed up late to our second appointment at 10am at Flowers Etc. Craig was very nice, and had a funny sense-of-humor. He was cracking jokes, and having a good time, however their computer crashed recently and they lost most of their pictures of past wedding flowers they have done. I saw a few pictures, but it would have been nice to see more pics of Dimnent and GHGC. However, Craig is one of the only accredited floral designers (meaning he takes classes every three years) and he seemed to have an eye for creativity. He helped me find a few flowers that I like. For example...I really like stephanotis with little pearls in the middle. I also liked his idea of having tea lights all along the front of Dimnent. Since it is such a big stage, it would be nice to try to bring us closer to the crowd.

The we hit up our third florist at 11:15am - Picket Fence Floral. Sarah, the women I met with there was REALLY nice, and super excited about my wedding. She has worked at Dimnent quite a bit and had some suggestions for flower arrangements on the stage. I loved that she was trying to help me form a vision! She also gave me an estimate of how much everything would cost based on what I was interested in. That was nice.

After going non-stop we took a little lunch break, then we rushed over to Second Floor Bakery for a little cake testing. Katie, the business manager and baker, was great! The pictures of the cakes were AMAZING - so creative - and the samples were to die for! She brought out champgne, yellow and chocolate cake samples, and Bavarian creme, strawberry and raspberry filling, and peanut butter, caramel and white frosting. Everything was sooooooo good! I loved the different kinds of flavors. And while talking to her, I got really excited about the possibility of making all the centerpieces at the reception hall 8 inch cakes. How fun would that be to have different kinds of cakes, all decorated differently, at each table?!? Then I would not need to spend millions of dollars on flowers, spend the $2/piece cutting fee, and everyone could serve themselves. It would be creative, and promote mingling from table to table to try the different flavors. Soooo excited!

After falling in love with Second Floor Bakery, I stopped by Indigo Floral on 8th Street. I did not have an appointment but I wanted to see some of their work. I was able to look through the wedding albums, and the pictures were beautiful! Julie - the designer - is VERY creative!! After thinking more about my colors I plan on going back there and talking to her about what she envisions for my wedding. :)

Then I ran across the street for my 3pm appointment at September's Bride and ORDERED my wedding dress...Justin Alexander 8358. I also tried on a teal bridesmaid dress (which unfortunately looks bright blue in pictures) and I went to Diane Keith to try on the B2 bridesmaid dress I like. I am hoping to take some of my bridesmaids out in the next couple weeks to try on a few dresses.

Then we ended our wedding blitz at Creations by Marcia - a local bakery. Marcia, one of the owners, was ADORABLE!! She has been in the wedding cake business for 34 years and works night and day with her husband, and their one other worker. After starting her day at 2am, she made time to meet with me and my parents at 5pm, after her last delivery. She is a VERY busy women, and I can tell why...she is soooo cute and nice to her customers. I asked her how many weddings they do in one weekend, and she said that there was one weekend where they made cakes for 11 weddings!!!! She also explained that there have been nights when her and her husband don't go home at night. She brought out pieces of cake for my parents, Brent and I and little samples of some frosting and fillers. All of the samples were good, but not as high of quality as Second Floor Bakery (in my opinion). So, although I loved her, and her prices were awesome, I was a little worried about being the "11th cake" on my wedding day. I wish I could give her my business, but I think Second Floor Bakery suits me better.

So, as you can see, we kept pretty busy today! After eating so much sugar we hit up applebee's and got some salty chips. Then we hung out at the Boersma's and played Balderdash. It was a lot of fun hanging out with both my parents and Brent's parents. I am sooo excited about all the fun out families are going to share in the next year!!! Until then....I have some more decisions to make... :)