What can my flower girl carry?

Should you spend more money on flowers for the flower girls or are there cheap and simple alternatives? Well, the answer is simple: it's up to you. Some brides want to have a mini bride who will carry a bouquet while others want the flower girl to carry a basket full of petals (more fun) and some might even have a flower purse. Check out these ideas below:

All of these flowers are fake and cost $8-11 a piece at http://www.jamaligarden.com/index.php?option=com_products&task=all&mid=17

Boutonnieres

If you opt not to have your arrangements done at a florist, you should know that having boutonnieres done is fairly inexpensive and these are just inspiration ideas. Orchids are beautiful but do not last the full evening and get bruised very easily, I know that firsthand having used them at a wedding...

The fifth design is not real but is just as elegant and best of all can be preserved for a lifetime!

Flowers by season

This is a good guide I found on http://calgaryweddingassistant.wordpress.com/ for flowers by season to help control the cost of arrangements for the most popular wedding months (i.e. May through October)

For more interesting ideas and insights from a lovely wedding planner, check out Veronica King's blog (link above).
Enjoy!

Ceremony flowers

If you are getting married in church, you will need to invest a little more money in flowers or not depending on the church. Most florists will charge you extra and give you a hard time if you want to take your floral from the church to the reception site. If you are planning to reuse the same flowers, opt for something easy to transport and make sure you give enough time to the florists to transport it. Do not try to transport it yourself because a) you might ruin them or b) you might bruise them if they're delicate flowers. I have collected a few ideas on how to save money or how to have something easy to transport.

 

From top to bottom:

1. In the first row, all the flower ball decorations are made with fake flowers and you can get them from some online sites for just $6-8 a piece. Best of all, your flower girl(s) or bridesmaids could keep some after the ceremony. The second row can be achieved by getting a plant from Ikea or Home depot and buying a pot cover-up that is both decorative and goes with your theme. The last arrangement on the right is made with a flower that is both inexpensive but that holds well for a good week; you can just get some decorative perl pins to finish off the look.
2. This picture shows the look that can be achieved with the ideas from the first picture.
3. Baby's breath just look amazing in a ceremony, whether you go for a big arrangement or a small one. The fake or real orchids look the same once submerged. If you're like me and you don't want to spend too much money on the ceremony arrangements, then this look is perfect because they are very easy to transport. The last look uses a simple rose. It's cute and simple and notice that the person who put it together skips a row for the sake of simplicity.

I'll have more posts for the bouquets but I think I might tackle the location first, right?

More flower designs

I have been trying to figure out how to make a nice arrangements without breaking the bank and it seems like there are a lot of flowers that are inexpensive that I could use. To save money, you could fire your florist and head to the flower market where all of them shop, you will see that by doing that you will cut a lot of the labor expenses that make florals expensive. You would still have to look for vases for your arrangements that will fit your style and for that, there's a lot of online resources or Ikea/TJ Maxx. If you fire your florist, prepare yourself for a tiring wedding day. As an alternative, I suggest maybe just opting for cheaper flowers like the Baby's breath or any of the seasonal flowers and have the florist make them for you, that way you could use his/her vases. Consider for instance the flowers that have a full bloom so that you don't have to use as many like carnations, hyacinths, sweet peas, ranunculus, lilac and peonies.

The trick is to stay simple. I went and found a few arrangement ideas to help you with the planning part.

From top to bottom:

1. Different inexpensive flowers bundled together in an elegant tall vase. You can choose to bundle them together with ribbon and pins and leave the stem sticking out and it makes a really easy and elegant arrangement.
2. You could take several types of vases and put in one flower to achieve different heights. Vases are always an elegant touch and best of all, most of them can be rented fairly cheap unless you opt for crystal. You can also improvise with your own vase creation.
3. These are my favorite arrangements and most of all the cheapest flower on the market. You can achieve a very dramatic look by using these flowers. The only thing you need to worry about are the vases.
4. This shows that there are many ways of decorating with calla lilies without going broke. You can opt for one or a dozen based on how full you want the arrangement to be.
5. Get fish bowls from the dollar store and stick some grass and flowers in it and voila! If you ask me, this is the simplest do it yourself arrangement.
6. Playing with different vase shapes in a trio can give you a unique arrangement. I love the lantern vase because you can just buy a plant and stick it in there. I wonder if I could maybe put in a light in there as well...
7. Peonies are the most beautiful flowers out there. You can buy a closed bud or a full bloom depending on how romantic you want your arrangement to look. Best of all, during their season, you can find them at Trader Joe's for cheap.
8. These are different ideas on simple arrangements that I fell in love with. 
9. Use Hyacinths and carnations if you want to save on flowers. They are just simply beautiful.
10. This is a picture of some flowers I fell in love with and I will check the name soon but I think they are full and look beautiful!

More to come...

Part 2. Flower designs

I love flowers but I am a thrifty person, for my wedding, I opted for a dramatic look with tall branches. I wanted to share some inspiration looks that can help you cut your flower budget the same way I did.

From top to bottom:

1. Strictly branches (with pearls or crystal pendants, with candle holders, with a simple leaf)
2. Branches with little flower decoration (some of those designs are ikebana)

I cannot remember the references for some of my images but I do remember snatching a few ideas from Gail's elegant touch decoration website, so check it out for more creative ideas.

Part 1. centerpieces?

Every party planner or bride will ask that question at some point when considering the overall budget. Flowers are a big chunk of the party budget, so I was eager to look for alternative options online. There are ways to save money with a little creativity and patience. Here are a few ideas for centerpieces that I found on several online resources:

From top to bottom:

1. Candles/ candelabra/ Candlesticks/ Moroccan glass votives/ Empty wine bottles
2. Moroccan lanterns/ Birdcage/ Chinese lanterns--Lanterns can usually be rented but you can also find them at TJ Maxx, Pier 1 Imports, Cost Plus or any world market bazaar
3. Ostrich feathers usually set on eiffel vases can easily be rented
4. Submerged flowers (real or artificial)
5. Themed cakes, cupcakes or candies. The cupcakes can be favors but if you opt for a cake, it might be a way to mingle with the guests during cake cutting and your guests can mingle with each other by going to the other tables to try the different cake. It's a great conversation starter
6. Potted plants--Take a trip to your local home depot or Ikea to look for plants or just go to your favorite florist or the flower market to check out all the potted flowers and plants.
7. Other--If you opt for a theme wedding, say a beach wedding, you can get apothecary jars and fill them with sand and coral and you could also give away some sand dollars as your favors with your names and wedding date painted on it.  You could also put those apothecary jars to use for another theme such as Hollywood glam and fill them with perls that you can easily get from Joann's fabrics.

Stay tuned for my next post on flower centerpieces....

Wedding research is overwhelming...

When I was planning my wedding, I found myself extremely overwhelmed with all the options out there. If you just go online and type anything that comes to mind, myriads of resources pop up on your screen. I found that I enjoyed the research part so much that I simply wanted to share the wealth of information in one confined little blog. My wedding day is over but I love parties and decorations, so when my friend announced she was getting married, I was thrilled to be able to share all my pictures. Being one continent apart, it's hard to share images, so what better way than a blog?