{Wedding Wednesday} The Flowers

Remember how I got married six months ago and promised to post photos? Yeah, it's about time to make good on that promise. Since there are so many details to share, and we took so much care in picking elements that were thoughtful and budget-friendly, I'm going to share some snippets of our Big Day in installments.

Today, we talk flowers. The flowers were a big deal to me because I love, love, love beautiful blooms, but I also didn't want to spend a gazillion dollars on something that would perish shortly after. It just didn't make sense. So I splurged on just a few of them (literally, like four flowers), and went spend-savvy on the rest.

Gardenias are a treasured flower in our family. (They were Mom's favorites.) This was my main floral splurge. I got a few blooms to incorporate into my (insane gorge) bouquet, and one to wear in my hair. (I wore my hair down for my bridals, and in a romantic up-do for the wedding, so I got the best of both worlds. I am a big fan of doing this if you're torn as far as hair style.)

Oh, my bouquet. It was silly how pretty this thing was. Even though I commissioned it, I can't even begin to take credit for the floral genius. I said, "Let's do white, lots of texture, some gray, gardenias, hydrangeas (but not too many!), fressia, and wrap it in this here burlap." The dried bouquet now sits on our bookshelf, and it's still pretty as all get out. (We made a small toss bouquet from our bulk flowers, so we still got to honor the single ladies and I got to keep this lovely.) 

So, you want to know where I scored this beauty? Central Market. That's right, a grocery story. A bougie grocery store, yes, but nevertheless, a supermarket. I had them do the flowers for my Mom's wedding, and they blew me away, so they were my absolute first choice for the big spend items (bridal bouquet, M's bout) and the few exotics we got (gardenias, orchids for the cake). I highly recommend considering CM if you are fortunate enough to have one in your neighborhood, and don't hesitate to take lots of reference images. (And not just for flowers. Let them get a feel for the whole vibe of your special event. You're in the details, so let them see that and be inspired.)

My bouquet was wrapped with burlap to compliment the romantic, rustic feel of our wedding, and I layered on that a Christening bonnet that was given to a dear friend of mine in NJ by my mother when said friend was a baby. (She held on to it all this time, as my mom told her that the bonnet could later be used around her wedding bouquet. My friend saw fit to give this precious gift to me as a shower present. I'm seriously tearing up again just thinking about it.) And the final flourish was the breast cancer awareness pin that my dear mother had carried pinned to her own bridal bouquet in June 2008. 

 M made the elegant choice of freesia for his boutonniere. (The man's got taste, let me just say.) Central Market once again delivered more than we expected. It was so handsome and complimented his gray Wang suit beautifully.

We spent about the same amount on our "special" blooms as we did for all the other flowers for the wedding, which I share more to speak to the value of getting flowers in bulk and asking (very, very nicely) for your insanely talented friends to make them look amazing. We bought many, many buckets of flowers from Costco, and they were fantastic to work with. We stuck with white hydrangeas, white stock, and baby's breath. (That's right, I'm bringing back baby's breath, y'all!) The gal at Costco even made sure to hand-pick our lot before we picked them up to ensure we had the prettiest flowers, and that they were all as pure white as they had available.  

Our gorgeous bridesmaids carried bouquets of hydrangeas, stock and BB, all wrapped with burlap and prepped the morning of. (These girls were seriously like floral ninjas, you guys. The bouquets were so, so lovely, and I know it was not an easy task. I really should have bought them more champagne...)

The groomsmen wore boutonnieres made of burlap, which I found from an awesome seller on Etsy. (There will be a lot of shout outs to Etsy sellers in the series, let me just tell you that now.) They were one less live thing to worry about, and brought a sweet rustic touch to the black Vera Wang suits they sported. Plus, it was a neat keepsake. (I even ordered an extra for M to have.)

The flower girls. My very own little pixies. So dang cute. For them, we purchased a dozen white roses from Costco. The floral ninjas decorated their basket with BB before dropping in the petals, and it was such a simple, inexpensive way to pave the way for my walk down the isle.

You'll see more flowers pop up as I share details on the tablescape and cake, etc. Mmmm, cake. 

Hope y'all enjoyed this first installment, and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions! I had such a blast planning this event with M, and would be happy to offer whatever advice or references I can.

All photos by: Kim Hayes Photography (DFW)

Bridal bouquet and groom's boutinerre: Central Market Floral Department (Fort Worth)

Bulk flowers: Costco Floral Department (Fort Worth)

Location: Private residence in Grandbury, TX

If you feel moved to Pin any of these images, please be so kind as to link back to this site, or at the very least credit Kim Hayes for the photography. She's so talented and these images should carry her with them.