Wedding flowers

Might I rant about flowers? A trip to three florists the other day has it on my brain. I am booked in for an appointment on Saturday morning to ‘discuss’ further ideas.

Firstly, I have decided against trying to do them myself despite it being the far cheaper options.

Fact: flowers are living things and they die if you keep them too long. I do not want to be mucking around with trying to get things right for me and 4 bridesmaids the night before or the morning of the wedding. We are cutting costs elsewhere. This is my justification and it aint going to change.

Tell me why people find the following flowers attractive, particularly in weddings?

Lilies
I don’t get it! Big showy spikey things. Colour is the only thing that saves many from looking like they belong in funerals – but even then they don’t work.

A prime example of lillies being used in the most hideous sense.

Let me now express my dislike of trailing bouquets. Give me a round maybe even slightly disorganized bouquet, but not something that looks like it belongs at Niagra. None of this cascading crap. (Alliteration is the only reason I’m using the word crap here, I have seen a few bouquets like this look okay but most don’t work).

Orchids
Leave them in the tropics, they don’t look good in bouquets. They grow attached to trees…. On the odd occasion (if small and mixed with a mass of other stuff) they’ll pass, but nope. If you’re in Hawaii, you can have orchids. And NOT the fluro purple ones.

Finally, any bouquets that resemble this should be banned, they belong in… the 80’s (I think – if ever)

Throw me something more wild – poppies, peonies, ranunculus, roses (some), green leaf things, berries…

13 Comments

  1. said:

    Bec, make sure you shop around. I am utterly appalled by how ripped-off most of my friends have been for wedding flowers!!

    I have a mag called Wedding Flowers (or something like that) which I can post you if I like…there’s a few pics in there that sound like what you’re looking for.

    September 11, 2007
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  2. said:

    Certainly shall!

    The one I’m talking to on Saturday is going to be expensive (I think).
    One other has ‘roughly’ quoted and it’s expensive.

    I have one good recommendation price wise and shall be checking it out for sure.

    And a mum of a family friend of Geoff’s has offered to do flowers for the church so that’s all set (when I go talk to her) so money is saved there.

    Should be right for flower pictures Bec, I have the internet, magazines a plenty and a flower book or two (tad old but hey).

    Still a bit stumped as if I want to introduce another colour or not, but it shall sort itself out. Just praying there’s some kind of flower similar to what I like that’s in season and the places aren’t closed over Christmas.

    September 11, 2007
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  3. Beth said:

    *ahem* I am having oriental lillies 😛 White, with tulips. And I think they look beautiful!

    September 11, 2007
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  4. said:

    Mmmm… Totally agree with you on this one Bec. Particular flower choices/arrangements are oh-so-common. Poppies are amazing in sunlight – I love their translucent nature. Peonies are just lush. Are you having flowers on your cake?

    I can’t wait to see your Wedding photos (once the event has eventuated). I’ve an inkling it’ll be a particularly tasteful affair.

    September 11, 2007
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  5. said:

    Sorry Beth!!!!!!!! Bah, I knew I’d offend someone 😛

    You’ve redeemed yourself with tulips 😀 (Unfortunately I don’t think tulips work too well in the middle of summer, so I’m avoiding them…droooooooop)

    hope I’ve dug myself out of that hole. ho hum…tiddley um.

    By the way, we got your invite today!!! Muchly excited. I will RSVP properly. Snazzy job – burks man do your invites?

    September 11, 2007
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  6. said:

    Couldn’t agree more Bec! I ended up just having plain bunches of gerberas, not expensive, in season, and simple happy flowers. I didn’t do everything else delicately, so it seemed to match. They are a little out of vogue now I think! Poppies would be beautiful though – such delicate intriguing flowers…

    September 12, 2007
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  7. said:

    Bec, I just got mine from a local florist – Dad came home from a market and I said “ooh, I like those, they’re perfect for our wedding”, and Mum went into the florist with a sample of my fabric, told her I wanted natives, and left it at that. They were $60 from memory – still totally overpriced given Dad normally buys a similar bouquet for about $20-30 (!!), but an awful lot cheaper than most of the weddings I’ve been involved in.

    Natives might be a really good idea if you’re getting married over Christmas (and outside??) – they’ll hold up irrespective of whether you have rain, hail, or sweltering sunshine…

    September 12, 2007
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  8. said:

    oh…btw…if you’re not looking for anything overly-arranged, that store on Sydney Road I told you about will put bunches together. 😉

    September 12, 2007
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  9. Nay said:

    oi! I had lillies! I had white ones with a huge green leaf behind them, tied with silver ribbon…..they looked lovely 🙂 I had heaps of comments about them! Having said that….the photo you shared of the lillies was hideous!

    September 12, 2007
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  10. said:

    hmmm.. natives!!! Bec. you have me thinking. 😛 Thats a better way to track.

    September 12, 2007
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  11. said:

    There’s one pic on my FB account that gives you an ok idea – if you want a better pic I can probably find one. The beauty of natives is that they really don’t need much arranging either!

    For decorations, we just had big bunches of leucadendron, waratahs, stuff like that – all from the place on Sydney Rd. We did a similar thing for my best friend’s wedding the month before – they had their wedding out of town, near his parent’s farm, and a bunch of people just went around the farm and cut down branches (little branches!) the day before, and then the night before those of us who were staying in 1 cabin together did all the arrangements – it was really good fun, and cost very little (just some vases etc from Ikea, which they later let people take home).

    September 13, 2007
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  12. said:

    I haven’t totally written off the ‘diy’ but yes…

    September 13, 2007
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  13. said:

    argh! i was thinking about flowers today! i dont want orchids either.. i like the idea of tulips, but to be honest, id be happy with carnations 🙂

    September 15, 2007
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