Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Finding Flowers
I'm finally posting an entry about actual wedding planning! I've been slacking, I know, but now that I'm home for the holidays in close proximity to (1) wedding vendors and (2) my mom I have no excuse. Monday morning we met with our prospective florist: Kelly Steadman of All Things Beautiful. On the drive over I realized that I am probably a florist's worst nightmare: I don't know much about flowers, but I know what I hate. Still, I figured that the meeting couldn't be worse than drilling teeth, which was actually the next thing on my schedule.
We arrived at Kelly's gorgeous old home to the smell of coffee brewing for us. My mother doesn't drink coffee (only tea in vast quantities) and I prefer my coffee in expresso form with a lot of milk and whipped cream, but we felt welcomed anyway. Kelly was really great. She was very honest and even pointed out ways to decrease the numbers of flower arrangements that we needed, and she used her years of experience to point out ideas and potential problems that I never would have realized (like the photographic perils of including white flowers in a colorful bouquet).
I had made only one definite decision before the meeting: I knew that I wanted white calla lilies for my bouquet. Even though calla lilies are often considered funereal (and, according to wikipedia, are highly poisonous if eaten) they seem to be used for weddings and other celebrations just as often, as they symbolize purity and rebirth. Most importantly they are simple and stunning and have enough shape variety to keep things interesting.
Beyond my love for lilies, which are apparently too expensive to use in the other bouquets and arrangments, I had only few ideas about flowers. I vetoed daisies and anything else that reminded me of a cartoon flower. 
Since I wanted a tight, round bouquet I avoided sprawling stalk flowers and any that droop when handled. Other than that I pretty much pointed to pretty pictures in Kelly's flower books and she told me how affordable they were. We didn't settle on flowers for the girls but at this point the frontrunners are roses in shades of pink, hopefully with a few stargazer lilies thrown in for good measure. I know, pink roses are incredibly cliche and out of character for me, but I think they just might work. I have no idea what to do with the larger arrangements yet though I imagine they'll echo the bouquets. Kelly suggested that I play with paint chips and browse websites so that's the plan for now. When we got home my mother and I put our heads together and came up with a very preliminary plan to send to Kelly so that we can get some idea about cost. Even though we postponed a lot of decisions it was a productive meeting. I learned a good deal about flowers and designing bouquets, and barring any major pricing issues I will definitely hire Kelly Steadman and her team. I still can't believe that I'm leaning towards pink roses though...Only time will tell.
| posted at: 03:30 |
permanent link and comments
