Flower Inspirations For Your Wedding

Flowers are synonymous with weddings.  This is one time we can be a little extravagant.  They give your reception that  ahhh moment we all dream about.  There are many ways to decorate a wedding, but most will  agree flowers are the principal way.

Florists are no longer limited to what is growing seasonally in your region, but can buy flowers from all over the world. Of course, the cost will be higher for flowers that are not seasonal, but this is your chance to be luxurious if you see an arrangement you love with your favorite flowers.

A number of years ago I visited a very high end hotel in Las Vegas and was blown away by the flower arrangements there.  Very simple, yet a new, totally fresh approach and I could envision a bride and her “worker bees” able to capture this look if she was having a DIY wedding.  Recently, I found the floral designer who came up with the look, Jeff Lautham and thought you would want to see his incredible work.  Whether you call Jeff,  try this yourself, or give the pictures to your florist for inspiration, this will be a feast for your eyes.

1- Using lots of risers/pedestals  Jeff fills a room with pink hydrangeas, which are a perfect flower for lots of volume.  Notice he keeps it monochromatic for impact as well.

Image courtesy of Jeff Lautham

2- If you are using long banquet tables at your reception, this is a beautiful centerpiece idea.  You can use flower petals in abundance (as seen here) or you  can even use flowering plants if you’re flower arrangement challenged.  Lots of votives give the table a very romantic look.  Nowadays the battery operated votives are a life saver for reception halls that don’t allow open flames.  Again, notice the big splash of monochromatic color.

Image Courtesy of: Jeff Leatham

3- I think this is brilliant!  You can always have a round rose bowl with submerged flowers or an arrangement coming out from the top, but this is so interesting, isn’t it?  For safety sake, I would use a wax like product they use to hold candles in a candle holder, or that can be purchased in a home improvement center made for protecting items from falling off shelves in an earthquake (tell them what you need to do, they will figure it out) to temporarily secure the top bowl to the bottom.

Image Courtesy of Jeff Leatham

4- I guess what I love about Jeff’s work is that he thinks outside the box.  Making a “bouquet” of any kind of flower, keeping it monotone, and “leaning” it in a very tall container is his signature look.  It’s what first caught my eye at the hotel I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  Check out your local party rental store, or search online to see where you can rent containers like this.  Again, hydrangeas are an easy flower to work with and  because the heads are so large, you don’t need as many flowers,  Calla Lily’s work wonderfully as well, and they come in all colors.

Image: Jeff Leatham

Image: Jeff Leatham

Eco & Budget Friendly Weddings

More and more brides today are looking for environmentally friendly as well as budget friendly  options for their wedding decor.  There are so many ways to be eco friendly for your wedding.

1- Serve organic food

2- Wear a gown made from natural fabrics

3- Send invitations printed on recycled paper

Even though you’re going green, your wedding can still be ultra chic.  Just cutting down on the number of flowers you use can help.

Using branches with some flowers and crystals can fill in a room with a tall ceiling or an outdoor event while limited the amount of flowers needed.

Branch Centerpiece - Photo Courtesy of On Occasions Of Atlanta

Hydrangeas are a wonderful flower because they have so much volume. Be creative with DIY centerpieces. Pick flowers from your garden. I once had a bride with a very limited budget for decorating. Fortunately her wedding was in a month when everyone’s hydrangeas were in full bloom. We found a neighborhood bursting with hydrangeas in the front yards. Three of us split up and with clippers in hand, knocked on doors , explained why we needed them, and all the neighbors were so willing to let us clip a few hydrangeas from their bushes. Many said “take as many as you want”. I was able to make centerpieces from “free” flowers for all the tables and it was beautiful.

Photo Courtesy of: On Occasions Of Atlanta

A lovely flower inspired favor for your wedding could be a Cherry Blossom Candle.

Five Things You Should Know When Planning Your Wedding

When planning your wedding most brides think first about what their guests will see, but you don’t need to spend a fortune on flowers and decor to create a big look.   Remember your guests will look at what draws their eye, so you don’t have to have something everywhere – just where you want them to look.

1- Having light near the floral arrangements brings the eyes there and is helpful if you want to distract from things in the space you’re not crazy about.  You can accomplish this with candlelight or  spot lights.  Using crystals in the flower arrangements can also bring more light as it reflects the candle light.

2- Be careful about using too much scent at the tables because it interferes with the taste of the food and makes your guests uncomfortable.  Don’t use scented candles at the reception – save that for home.

3- Even though they’re gorgeous, gardenias have a very strong scent so you’d want to use them sparingly, if at all, in your flower arrangements.

4- Choose food that reflects both of your personalities and culture and incorporate your ethnic food and upbringing.  If your wedding is being catered, often the caterer will make your mom’s or grandmother’s best recipe for you, even if it’s in a hotel.

5- As for the music, there are so many choices to reflect your taste and style.  Chamber music, a harpist or soft background music is lovely as guests arrive at the wedding site.  For your reception you need to choose not only the type of music you enjoy, but be watchful of the volume.  There’s nothing worse than trying to have a conversation and enjoying your dinner with music blasting so loud you can’t hear yourself think, much less what someone is saying to you.  As the evening progresses and the dancing begins, the volume can be raised to accentuate that it’s time to party.  However, be aware that there will be guests who still want to visit with each other, so the volume has to be monitored.

Now for some beautiful pictures to inspire you:

Colin Cowie Design

Image: Xquisite Events

Asiel Design

Falling in Love With A Fall Themed Wedding

There was a time when all brides thought the summer was the perfect time for their wedding.  However, Fall has become a very popular time of year and for many good reasons.

If you’re guests will be traveling to your wedding, the Fall season will be less expensive since, as we all know, the airlines and gas prices always go up in the summer.  Also, hotels and reception sites will be more readily available.  Since most tourists head home after the summer, hotels will welcome your business and this can be reflected in their banquet facilities as well as the rooms for your guests.

I love the Fall because of the beautiful colors of that season.  Think of your wedding pictures with the beautiful, rich fall colors as a backdrop.  If you’re doing the wedding yourself, decorating can be so much fun using gourds, fall leaves, pumpkins, apples, etc. and the warm glow of candles inserted into these items as candle holders are wonderful for your banquet table or centerpieces.

To make candle holders from apples, tiny pumpkins or gourds, simply make an indentation in the fruit deep enough to hold your votive, taper or battery operated candle.  Also, you can cut out pumpkins and gourds and use them for serving dips, soup, dessert, etc.

I hope you’ll enjoy these inspirations:

Fall Bouquet

Image La Partie Events

Image Jennifer Wahlquist

Image: Tapestry Flowers

Image: Skye-Blu-Photography

There are Fall Theme Save The Dates and lots of wonderful Fall Theme Favors that will tie in beautifully with your wedding.

Wedding Reception Decor Ideas & Tips

Whether you create your own  centerpieces, or have a florist do them for you, making sure  they fit your style will ensure your wedding to be one to remember.  Designing your reception decor is a wonderful opportunity to express yourself.

Start by creating the big picture then decide on the style that shows your personality.  Then add the details.

1-  What colors are you attracted to?

2- What season is your wedding?

3- Bring in different colors of candle holders to compliment your color scheme. Some may hang from the centerpiece, some on the table.

4- Whether simple or extravagant, consider the size of your reception space.  If your space has high ceilings, you need to bring in height to the centerpiece.  You don’t have to have all of them high, you can do high on one table and low on the other.  It brings more interest to the room.

Simple Centerpiece

High Centerpiece

Low Centerpieces

Image: Laura Davis Events

Image: Simply Blooms

5- Using  square vases is a way to do your centerpieces yourself with minimal flowers and a lot of elegance.

6- Always test your design ahead of time.  Especially if it’s a DIY.  If you are using a floral designer, ask that they make up a sample to be sure you are happy with the final results.  This way you don’t have to imagine what it’s going to be like, you can experience it.

Idea:  If you’re doing it yourself, keep it simple and elegant and bring in color with candles.

DIY Wedding & Bridal Shower Decorating Ideas

Decorating a wedding or party can be great fun if you have a vision and pictures to help inspire you.  I love the challenge of  “decorating on a dime”, while at the same time having the event look like a million bucks.  For those of you who enjoy doing it yourself (or with your family and friends), these will be some helpful ideas.

Flowers usually take up a large part of the budget when decorating an event.  There are alternative centerpiece ideas that can be equally as elegant while bringing  in the color palette you desire to give your event that Wow! factor.

1- One way to accomplish this is with Pillar Candles. Finding candles in your color scheme, in various sizes and widths and grouping them together so you have a nice presentation on the table can look gorgeous.  Choose one color for all the candles.  Use a strong contrasting color in your color scheme in satin ribbon in two different widths, and wrap around the candle at two levels.  Depending on the size of your tables, I would suggest you use an odd number of candles per table ie.,  3, 5 or 7.

Duplicate the look with added flowers at base of candles and make the arrangement of the candles more horizontal for  the buffet table, escort card table or sign in table.  To keep the flowers fresh, use those little tubes that contain water and put the stems in them (the tube can be hidden from view)  If your site doesn’t allow open flames, simply use LED tea lights and embed them a little in the top of the candle.

Image: La Premier

2- Vases can be costly if you are having a large reception, so when I saw what Colin Cowie  did with glass vases, I immediately thought of an idea you can use for a fraction of the cost.  Now, stay with me here…don’t think this is too silly until you try it.

Start saving your milk cartons (orange juice cartons will work too).  Use both the quart size cartons as well as the 1/2 gallon size.  Rinse them out well and start stockpiling them.  You should figure on 5 per table if your tables are large round ones.  Since these cartons are obviously already used for  a liquid, you know they will  hold water for your arrangements.

Your objective is not only to have different width cartons, but you’ll want to cut them down so you have different heights.  Once your happy with the different heights, measure them and cut all of them the same way.

Practice on your different size cartons with inexpensive fabric so you can make patterns from a paper bag  for the fabric you will cut up.  Allow room at the top and bottom to iron a little “hem”  so the ends are finished on both ends.

Choose a beautiful fabric.   You can even be extravagant in your choice of fabric because it won’t take much, and most fabrics come in very wide widths. Once you’ve made your patterns you can figure out how much fabric you will need.

Simply wrap your gorgeous fabric around the container and hot glue the seam together (being careful to use the glue sparingly so it doesn’t seep out the edges when you press down.  When placing the vases on the table, make sure the seam side is facing inward so all the guests see are nicely wrapped containers.    Add a contrasting ribbon to top and bottom and fill with flowers that are easily arranged (see my tips on arranging flowers in a previous post).

If you feel your container needs more weight for the flowers you are using, place a glass of water in them to hold the flowers and this will give additional weight and support.  The containers pictured here  are filled with lots of roses, however, if you use a large bloom, you don’t need as many flowers.  Experiment with your flowers to determine how many you will need per container.  Make sure whatever flower you choose you do a “mound” design of them making sure the bouquet covers the top of the container  to make the arrangement look luxurious.

Fabric Covered Container With Ribbon

Fabric Covered Containers Grouping

Fabric Covered Containers With Colored Votives

A crystal rose favor, if you’re using roses, would be a perfect remembrance gift for your guests.

If you use this idea, I’d love to see your pictures.  Send them to eileen@yourweddingwhisperer.com and I’ll post them so everyone can see your creativity.

Wedding Reception Decorating Ideas

Colin Cowie  is my hero!  I have followed him for years on Oprah and various other shows I’ve seen.   I  have been awestruck by the incredible designs he comes up with.  So today, when I sat down to write my blog of useful and helpful information for your wedding, I digressed to look at some pictures of his work and decided to give you a taste of his remarkable talent.  We can all dream, can’t we????

Feast your eyes on the pictures so you’ll have lot’s of happy thoughts to think about for the weekend.  We’ll get back to the practical things on my next post.

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Colin Cowie

Courtesy of Coline Cowie

On a practical note (can’t help myself), I do think you can glean ideas from these pictures for your reception.  I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I do.

I think the perfect favor to go with this very elegant reception would be a beautiful candle.

DIY Cake Decorating With Flowers

Are you wondering how to decorate a DIY cake with Fresh Flowers but don’t have a clue how to do it?  I came across this article this morning that I thought would be so helpful to my readers I just had to share it.

Written by Kristin Brancaleone of  The Treasured Petal a very talented florist, who I just discovered and love her work.  These are the tips she gives for decorating your cake with fresh flowers:

Step 1: Select the flowers you’d like to use. Now this is kind of a bummer- most flowers are indeed toxic to some extent. I think the only common wedding flower I didn’t see on the on that list was roses. Hmm. That doesn’t leave us with much, right? Keep in mind that there are some flowers that are considered more toxic than others, including ivy, delphinium and kangaroo paws, so try to avoid those. Thankfully, this method really reduces the flower-to-cake contact, so you don’t have to lose sleep over this.

Flowers From The Garden

Step 2: Cut off the stems completely, leaving just the flower head.

Cut Stems Off

If you’re really concerned about your flowers making any contact with the cake, you can cut a small circle of cellophane, a little smaller than the flower head. Then pierce it with the toothpick and shimmy it up to the flower head so it acts as a barrier between the cake and the flower.

Step 3: Take a clean toothpick and poke it into the bottom of the flower.

Step 4: Simply insert the toothpicks into the cake and voila! Couldn’t be easier! The best part- it doesn’t leave a huge gaping hole in the cake like a flower stem would.

Put Toothpicks in Flower Head

Thank you Kristen, I know many brides will find this information invaluable.

Wedding Flowers Tips and Advice

Flowers play such an important roll in your wedding.  To really make a personal statement, choose your favorite flower that is meaningful to you.  Start by identifying your flower and the color palette you will be using.  The flowers you choose brings in color, sophistication and romance which all adds to the look of your day.  When choosing flowers, consider the location and season of your wedding.  Keep in mind the flowers you especially love might not work for the season of your wedding.  For example, Peonies, one of my favorites, is  mostly available in May.  Tulips, will not do well in the heat.  Roses, on the other hand, are an excellent  choice.  They are less expensive than some flowers because they are available all year and they mix so well with all kinds of flowers in the same tones or a variety of colors.  Here are some tips to think about when ordering your flowers:

1)  If you get a quote for your bouquets, ask how many of each flower you will be getting for the price.  You may get a lower quote elsewhere, but not as many flowers.

2)  If you are on a budget,  use a lot of one type of  flower in the room for  high impact.  When you are doing flowers yourself, this can be what makes the difference between a “home made” look and a professional one.

3)  All roses in high and low arrangements with lots of candles fills the room.

4)  Focus your flowers toward particular areas of the wedding such as the wedding ceremony.  This is a place where you really want to feature flowers. Your guests will be sitting and waiting while the place fills in and for the ceremony to start.  Having something beautiful to look at while they are waiting will give them a lasting impression.  You can use these flowers again by having them moved into the reception site and placed strategically in the location.

5)  If you are having a sit down dinner, your guests will be looking at the centerpieces for hours.  Pick a stunning look that’s unique to you whether it’s in the  color or style of the arrangement.

6)  Lots of color makes your wedding a “party”.  Hot pink flowers are a very popular choice right now.

7)  Bringing in color with flowers  to an outdoor wedding can add more to the already beautiful site. I love how this was done by Jeannie Ward an event planner, at a beach wedding recently.  With a gorgeous backdrop like the ocean, blue skies and beautiful beach, the simple addition of the orchids for some “pop” , the starfish for dimension and the lovely, simple arch are perfect for this wedding decor and one that can  be done by a DIY bride.  Notice how beautiful the orchid aisle looks  against the sand.  Here is the inspiration:

Courtesy of: weddingjeannie.com

Courtesy of weddingjeannie.com

Courtesy of weddingjeannie.com

I can see Jeannie’s idea carried inside to the reception where the backs of the chairs can have a scarf of tulle tied around the top of the chairs with a starfish and orchid to bring in the beach theme and add more color and texture.

For an additional beach theme idea for  the reception you can use  natural shell placecard holders, which the guests can then take home and use for a wallet size picture.

Tips for a Summer Bridal Shower

Your bridal shower during the summer months can be a wonderful, festive, outdoor event.  This is the perfect time to choose bright colors in your flowers, tableware and linens.  Want to make it fun and simple?  How about a  festive  look with Mexican food you can bring in from your favorite local Mexican restaurant?  Set the tables by alternating the colors of your linens, i.e. pink napkins on an orange table cloth, and visa versa on every other table.  Step back and make sure the color combos look balanced in the space.  Spice it up with some maracas  tucked into the napkins with ribbons to hold it in place.  Fun plastic margarita glasses add to the festivities.  I’ve found wonderful large paper flowers that we’ve strung on  the trees or from a ceiling which come in beautiful colors that would coordinate with your flowers and linens.  If you’re fortunate enough to live near San Diego (which I do), you can visit Old Town and find a wealth of  cheerful  items that are very festive, yet not tacky looking. 

Image: Martha Stewart Weddings

Image: Oriental Trading

Image: Oriental Trading

For the favors  send your guests home with a personalized Margarita Mix.

Of course, your event wouldn’t be the same without some Pinata’s placed on the food tables for decoration, or they too can be hanging from the trees or ceiling.

 To keep it fun and lively find Sombreros which can be tied to the backs of  the chairs to add to your decor and can be used for The Mexican Hat Dance.   I promise you everyone will be laughing and having a great time !!!!  (especially if you keep those Margaritas flowing).