Wedding Recap: Flowers

There were 3 things Scott and I were dead set on to book for our wedding day: quality flowers, unique catering, and a great photographer to capture them both.

*All photos used in this and all wedding related posts are from Elegant Imagery.

Flowers

When choosing a florist, I knew from the very beginning that Lee Forrest Designs was the way to go.  The owner – Lee Forrest – is creative, efficient, goes above and beyond expectations, and did my bridesmaid Brittany’s wedding – which was gorgeous.

We met with two different florist companies, and by the time we met Lee it was like a breath of fresh air.  He got us.

An exciting part of getting ready with my bridesmaids on my wedding day was seeing the flowers arrive and take over the bridal suite!

Every bouquet was absolutely beautiful, turning out even better than I’d hoped.

When selecting our bouquet flowers, we had a few requests: hydrangeas (extremely budget friendly), lime and pink roses, green orchids, mini pink calla lilies, and mums.  We gave Lee the freedom to pick out the rest of the fillers and he did a great job of sticking to our budget.

For the girls, we decided on one large hydrangea, a few pink calla lilies, mums and whatever else he saw fit.

I LOVED the pink wiring he put around every girl’s bouquet.  That simple addition gave it a modern touch, and matched the bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

*Advice: When picking out your bridesmaid dresses, get a few extra swatches of the color and give one to some of your vendors.  I gave one to our florist, cake baker, and caterer for linens.

For our mothers, we had the choice of mini bouquets they hold, or corsages.  To stick with the more modern approach, we decided on mini bouquets.

The same went for our flowermaid, Kayla.  For the groomsmen, we wanted something simple and different – shocker.  Lee suggested using a pink calla lily and accenting it with green for Scott.

Perfect.  Just like the bridesmaids, the groomsmen and fathers had a bit of a smaller boutonniere, wrapped in the pink wiring.

If you’ve never planned a wedding before – YES there are this many decisions to make.

Like I mentioned in my first recap post, I had Lee make a live floral piece for my hair.

*Advice: If using loose flowers in your hair, it isn’t a bad idea to have an extra set on hand.  Lee suggested us having a back-up, just in case mine fell out or wilted.  By the time half of the reception was over, I should have changed it out, but I completely forgot.  I was more concerned with dancing my booty off… 😉

As we were all getting dressed, I hadn’t even taken a second to look at my bouquet.  I wanted to save that moment for right when I was about to walk downstairs – as if I wasn’t emotional enough.

And there she was.

I didn’t know what to expect, but she was perfect.

I named her Lola <— my “go to name” for anything fabulous.

While browsing online for pink and green bouquet ideas, I found one wrapped in two layers of different colored ribbon, and had to replicate it.

One last request was to discretely place some kind of blue in my bouquet.

Scott and I met working for the Orlando Magic together, and since the blue team is what brought us together he had 2 sapphires placed at the bottom of my engagement ring.  We showed this to Lee and Scott had a great idea to place 2 blue pins in the wrap of every floral piece.

It’s little things no else will notice, that are there to simply make you smile.

For the ceremony, we had silk flower petals framing each side of the runner.  Some venues require you to use silk for any flowers touching the floor, and our church was no exception.

If you ask me, I think it looked just as good, and even saved us some money.

For months, my mom collected 20% off coupons for Michaels and picked up a box here and there until we got 10.

The only other flowers used in the ceremony were two large arrangements set on each side of the altar.

*Advice: Get the most use out of your flowers by asking your florist to transfer your large arrangements to the reception venue/location during cocktail hour.  Both of these beauties accented both sides of our sweetheart table – where Scott and I sat – at the reception.

Speaking of the reception… I can’t show you too much without giving all of the details away, but let’s just say both Scott and I were blown away with the floral arrangements, centerpieces, and elements Lee created for it.

I’ll give you three glances.

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To be continued next Wedding Wednesday…

In the mean time, see what recaps are coming up on the Wedding Page!