I looked at a tutorial on YouTube, because I'd never done one before and was relieved to see that it was not complicated at all. Saturday morning, I took the holder with oasis that had been soaking in water (perhaps a tad too long?), and began to form the shape of the cascade with greens.
I realized quickly that I under bought the greens and flowers. Lesson learned: buy more than you think you'll need! However, we have some lovely boxwoods so I sent Tim out to snip some and it was the perfect filler!
I get her bouquet done and make two hand tied bouquets for the bridesmaids. Luckily my Mom arrived and was able to help me finish the boutonnières. I get dressed and Tim and I with Sarah's help gather the bouquets to take them 30 seconds up the road to Kay's house.
Flowers from her bouquet start falling out. What??!!!
On the video tutorial, the florist had mentioned that gravity does tend to want to pull the flowers out, and that they make a handy dandy floral glue that you spray on the base after the flowers are in. She did NOT say this was absolutely essential, however!
And trying to pop them back into the holder was not working well as the oasis was starting to fall apart. Tim grabbed another holder that had been soaking just as long as the one I used, and off we went to Kay's.
I literally put her bouquet together in the new holder in less than 5 minutes! Good thing as we were about 15 minutes away from the start of the wedding! It looked a little different, but I actually thought it looked better overall.
Several lessons learned.
1. Next time, I will do the flowers a day ahead. I waited purposely because I really didn't have a space to put them and keep the fresh, but next time, I'll find a way. For Lindsay's wedding my friend Susan put the flowers together and she was able to use the refrigerator at the church to hold the bouquets.
2. Calla Lily stems are soft, and do not like to go into the oasis. I need to research this a bit and see what florists do. The dark red Calla's were the one flower Kay really wanted in her bouquet.
3. Dahlias. Beautiful, but I wouldn't buy them more than a day before I need them. The other flowers were just fine sitting in water buckets for a few days. The dahlia's, not so much.
Kay loved her bouquet and that is what matters to me. My goal was to give her the wedding of her dreams, even though we had a small budget.
I'm thankful we were able to pull that off, with lots of help and God's grace.
Sorry this post is so late being posted. Lindsay has been trying to send me a few photos and they still haven't arrived in my email so I will try to post them tomorrow!
10 comments:
golly! and through all this the bouquet turned out absolutely gorgeous. big hug.
It is beautiful !
Oh my. I was getting nervous just reading about it...even though I knew it had turned out to be gorgeous!!
Whew! That was a white-knuckle moment! :O
It really WAS a large undertaking! You have a great eye for color/balance, etc.
It is beautiful! I am sorry about the frustrations, though. No one needs added stress just before a big, celebratory event. (Thank goodness, Kayleigh wasn't creating her own bouquet.)
Wow! What a story!
You'd never know looking at it that there was flower trouble!! I did my own flowers for my wedding, and I remember the stress! ;) ~Stephanie
What a story. Glad the ending was a happy one. The bouquet is beautiful.
Love that bouquet! Great work my friend, made with love:) Have a blessed day, HUGS!
Both of my kid's weddings were DIY although Melissa's flowers were done by a close friend as her gift. So much work but each wedding was beautiful and on a budget. Even I had to rest awhile! M's mom had a home school graduation open house for another daughter the very next week!
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