The Flowers
Remeber how I mentioned I'd pictured the wedding with flowers all around? Well, I guess that's why I took the wedding outside. Instead of buying all the flowers, I opted for the Garden Wedding! We all know that flowers are one of the prettiest accessories for a wedding but wedding flowers cost SO much! An average cost for flowers (which includes all bouquets, boutiniers and corsages is about $1,200. So I decided to go with silk. I know you can't smell the wonderful scent of flowers from silk, but I had to work with my budget.
The Successes...
The silk flowers were beautiful. People thought they were real and we all came out with a wonderful keepsake. It was nice that I didn't have to spend any money on flash freezing or a drying process to be able to keep my bouquet. They even used a few freeze dried flowers in the corsages to make the mother's & grandmother's flowers a little more special. I was fortunate to get a great vendor that had the same ideals that I did. It also helped that I had great pictures from Martha Stewart magazines, that had just what I wanted. The bouquets were cheaper than ones you see put together at most craft specialty stores like Michael's and in my opinion much more realistic and beautiful.
Jennifer, and her aunt (sorry, I forgot your name!) from the Enchanted Forest in Highland, IN (my plug for them) worked hard trying to pick out the right shade of heather for the ribbon and the right contrast in flowers to show up against the Bridesmaid's dresses. People don't realize how important it is that the flowers don't get lost in the colors of the dresses until after the wedding pictures. They also custom built a large pomander for the flower girl, because I didn't want to use a basket. I was lucky that they thought to consult everything with me before finishing the entire order. They had sample of the flowers and everything before they put it together. Not only that, the flowers were ready extremely early, so we could use then during our dress fittings. It makes for a really pretty picture. I was really fortunate to work with these people because they actually cared about their work and knew the importance of budget. They also have great accessories to rent and to buy. I had them decorate items I already had to match the accessories I bought from them: my wishing well & guestbook, & bought cake cutters, ring pillow, garter (which turned out ABSOLUTELY beautiful with the matching ribbons), short veil (for the reception) and candle centerpieces.
The Glitch...
The Enchantd Forest had so many great accessories, I spent about the same amount there as I would've on real flowers. I got cought up in the "fluff"! Actually, I spent more on accessories like candle-lit centerpieces and buffet decorations than bridal florals. The Bridal party flowers were much, MUCH cheaper than real. But I went overboard with the extras. Luckily, I resisted the hand-beaded headpieces, the fluffy pen, the bridal hankie (what's the use in buying your own?) the deorated "comfy" shoes and a plethera of other accessories to chose from. We weren't having a religious ceremony, so we didn't have a cord & veil (or lasso) and didn't have the Unity candle. However, I chose to have centerpieces on the tables with 3-wick candles with silk flowers surrounding each, and a set of 3, white votives surrounding the wine bucket centerpieces (we used tin paint buckets for that). For the buffet, I had a pair of worught iron votive holders decorated with florals, that held 3 votives a piece. I also bought a large, decorated, eucalytus wreath that we put on the tree to represent the "alter". I still have my wreath, flowers and a few of the candle centerpieces, and most of the votives (which is great for a romantic dinner at home- imagine 50 voitves around the house!) I gave some of the 3-wick centerpieces & floral rings to my cousin, aunts & in-laws who traveled a long way just for the wedding, so it wasn't a total waste.
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