Epic Love

My friends “M & J” had known of each other for years, but had never really “met” till two and a half years ago when a mutual high school friend of theirs formally introduced them. Well, guess what? They ended up getting hitched!

I got a text message from the bride-to-be about 6 months ago, asking if I’d be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and also if I’d do the flowers for the bridal party. I said “yes” to both accounts, and we started to brainstorm about colors and textures for her arrangements. She was going with a Spanish theme and her colors were red and black. Don’t worry; it wasn’t a goth wedding…

On a crisp Saturday morning in May, the lovebirds met me at the SF Flower market where we walked around pricing flowers and getting a feel for the textures that “M” had in mind for her arrangements. After a couple of hours we had the floral list: Red Roses (Freedom), Red Freesia, Black Schwartz Calla lilies, and Red Aranda Orchids. This selection would give us great rich colors, and really soft/lush textures.

Once we were set on the floral palette, I got to designing and decided that the bridal bouquet would be the main focus with the most color and texture; the groom’s and fathers’ boutonnières would be constructed of one Calla Lily with a fiddle stick accent; the mother’s corsages would be one Red Rose bloom with some accent greenery; and finally the bridesmaids would have simple bouquets of red roses.

About two weeks before the wedding, I got a text from “M” asking if there was anything I could do to help make the fountain in the courtyard where their ceremony was being held look pretty. She sent along a photo of what the Spanish-style fountain looked like and a photo of a decorated fountain she had seen somewhere else. After consulting with my CIO (Chief Inspiration Office – AKA: Mom), it seemed like the best course of action was going to be green garland with white floral accents. We had a vendor at the flower market hand make some fresh green garland for us at 3 dollars a linear foot and we bought some white Freesia that we assembled in bundles and attached to the garland as accent:

Let’s get down to numbers! “M&J” had a firm original budget of $500.00 set which I was able to meet in raw materials cost for all bridal party flowers, in addition to rose petals for her aisle and all the tables. After “M” decided on a few frills for the fountain, we had to add on another $120.00 for a grand total of $620.00! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is possible to do wedding flowers for under $1000.00 and also have them look great!

I wish my dear friends “M & J” the best in their “Epic Love” and hope that it leads them onto an even more “Epic Life”! Love you both! Congratulations!!!!

Tip: Brides-to-be; make sure you have a tossing bouquet that is separate from the bouquet you walk with down the aisle. This way you can dry/preserve your original bouquet as a keepsake from your special day.

The Color Purple

No, No, not the movie. The Color purple is the favorite color of the birthday lady that I was commissioned to do a surprise bouquet for. Since its summer time, purple flowers are all over the place, and in fact I had so many species to choose from, I didn’t know which to pick!!!! I finally settled on some really pretty and fragrant purple Butterfly Bush flowers (Buddleia ‘Purple Emperor’), deep purple (almost black) Schwartz Mini Calla Lilies, variegated cream and purple Mini Calla Lilies, and white Hydrangeas.

Tools: White floral mesh, purple and white wired ribbon, scissors, rubber bands.

I decided that the bouquet is going to be round and plump, so I started by placing flowers from the inside out making sure that I distributed the different flowers evenly to get a good array of textures and tones. I also made sure that I kept all the flower stems at their original length until I was ready to trim them for their final length.

Once the bouquet was complete, I secured the stems together with a rubber band then proceed to wrap them in white floral mesh, and topped off the arrangement with a striped white and purple bow.