Your Wedding Advice - StrictlyWeddings.com Blog

Winter White Bouquets Year Round Elegance

There is nothing bland about choosing white for your wedding bouquet. White comes in various textures and shades – brilliant white to subtle creams; dramatic calla lilies to dainty lily of the valley. Until you see a bouquet that’s all white it’s hard to imagine its simple elegance. When you add touches of green – special grasses, succulents, berries and buds – it creates an entirely different statement. For a natural, yet elegant effect, ask your florist to allow the leaves and stems to remain visible.

Photo Source: InsideWeddings.com

New York’s Mark Rose Flowers & Events – Stunning Wedding Floral Arrangements

We love looking over the websites of our many talented luxury wedding resources. New York’s Wedding Floral & Event Designer Mark Rose has some gorgeous new photographs. Lots of oh’s and ah’s from us as we looked through his galleries. Here are just a few that we found that are not part of his StrictlyWeddings.com page.

Mark Rose was raised in New England where his fascination with nature and love of flowers began at an early age. His education in architecture, design and horticulture combined with his extensive international travel continually provide his inspiration. Mark’s professional career began in Washington, DC where he designed events at The National Gallery of Art, The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian and The Washington Opera, establishing himself in his field.

Mark moved to New York to work with event designers Robert Isabell and Preston Bailey, and soon after was offered the position to oversee the public flowers and in-house events at The Plaza and The Pierre Hotel for Atlas, where he worked for almost a decade.

These grand hotels and other prominent venues throughout New York have been ideal locations to showcase Mark’s style, where he has designed spectacular wedding receptions, corporate galas, and charity balls in the celebrated spaces.

Photo credits:

www.rydocumentary.com
www.fredmarcus.com
www.ksacher.com

Wedding Flowers – Succulents and Flowers Intertwined

Looking for something different for our brides, we reached out to the West Coast and found this wonderfully different use of succulent flowers beautifully intertwined with the more “normal” flowers often found in weddings. The floral designer is Heavenly Blooms …and they are.

The choice of flowers had much to do with the brides name in Spanish meaning “white flower.” For the ceremony decor, Heavenly Blooms used a clean and modern collection of vases filled with stems of white hydrangea. They placed some of the vases on rustic wine barrels to complete the look, and incorporated white pomanders and large succulent blooms into the design. (more…)

Wedding Ideas with a Tropical Twist

We found this inspiration board of tropical wedding ideas from Pacific Weddings. Something completely different, but you can’t deny that the look is slightly exotic and definitely colorful and unique.

Even if you don’t live near the Pacific, you can find these tropical treats at our local farmers markets during the summer months. This fruit-inspired photo shoot reveals four vignettes in glorious hues of papaya, banana, mango and pineapple, that will give your wedding a tropical twist.

Source: Pacific Weddings, Photography by Visionari; Flowers by Yvonne Design

The Meaning of Flowers

Years ago, we were into the “lore” of herbs and flowers and enjoyed the pleasure of making “posies.” Beautiful bouquets that would send a message through the flowers and herbs selected to grace it. Today, you may want to choose your wedding flowers based on their meaning. Here are a few that have a loving meaning as well as beauty and fragrance.

Hydrangea

Gardens burst into life with these poofs in late summer and fall; in shades from pink to lavender to green, they look modern when massed in bouquets and large arrangements.

Meaning – devotion
Style – glamorous, beach casual, classic, romantic, modern
Color – blue, green, white, pink
Size of Bloom – large, medium
Season – year round
Cost – expensive

Sweet Peas

Skinny stems mean you can gather these frilly favorites in a bouquet, and it will still be featherlight. More good news: While it looks delicate, this early spring bloomer is deceptively hardy.

Meaning – delicate pleasures
Color – purple, red, lavender, pink, white
Style – glamorous, classic, romantic
Season – fall through late summer
Size of Bloom – small
Cost – expensive

Gardenias

With a scent to swoon for, this stemless flower can be floated in water or wired into a bouquet; though edges turn brown when handled roughly, it’s a stunningly retro-glam hair ornament.

Meaning – joy
Color – ivory, white
Style – glamorous, classic, romantic
Size of Bloom – large, medium
Season – spring, summer
Cost – expensive

Roses

These are the classic long-stemmed roses that you see in the florist’s shop every Valentine’s Day. A perennial wedding choice, their petals can be plucked to carpet the ceremony aisle.

Meaning – passionate love, purity, friendship (depends on color)
Color – red, yellow, pink, white,
Style – glamorous, classic, romantic
Size of Bloom – medium
Season – year round
Cost – medium price

Peonies

This voluptuous, ultrafragrant flower has a fleeting season—late spring to early summer. Bunches of these chubby, old-fashioned favorites are beautiful placed in pretty pitchers.

Meaning – bashful
Style - beach casual, glamorous, classic, romantic
Color - red, burgundy, pink, white
Size of Bloom - large, medium
Season - late spring
Cost - expensive

Resources: Marriage.About.com, Meanings of Flowers

Visit one of our Floral and Event Partners

Budgeting for Flowers

It is common to allocate approximately 10 percent of the total wedding budget to flowers, but you may choose to spend more or less, depending on your priorities. When you meet with florists, be honest about your budget from the very beginning.

The florist should be able to give you a good idea of what can be accomplished within your budget and offer you helpful advice and alternatives if your requests are unrealistic. If you’re not satisfied with one estimate, shop around; prices can vary widely among vendors.

Cutting Costs
Here are a few ideas to stretch your budget.

• Buy flowers that are in season: For an August wedding, asters and phlox from the farm down the road will be significantly less expensive than peonies, which are out of season at that time.
• Use less-expensive varieties. For example, thousands of daisies can make a wonderful display for the cost of two or three elaborate orchid arrangements.
• Find ways to make flowers do double duty. Bring the arrangements from the church to the reception, or place the bridesmaids’ bouquets around the cake table. You can even use pots of flowers from the bridesmaids’ luncheon again at the rehearsal dinner.
• Avoid a wedding date that coincides with holidays such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day, when flowers are at a premium.
• Choose simply constructed arrangements, which are more affordable than complicated wired bouquets.
• Don’t limit yourself to cut flowers; instead, consider garlands, foliage, potted plants or herbs.

Check out previous postings for additional ideas.

Match Your Colouring to Your Bridal Flowers

Blonde brides look good with blue, purple and pink wedding flowers. Red, orange and bronze flowers look best for brunettes; while redheads look stunning with plenty of foliage, green flowers and small touches of colour. For darker skinned brides, the more vivid colours work well, and white flowers look perfect.

Selecting a simple colour palette will create impact and style. Brides wearing white or ivory should match the colour with ribbons or accents of white or ivory in the wedding bouquet flowers. Corsages and buttonholes should stay within the palette of colours. White or ivory corsages for mothers look right against any outfit.

Size matters with Wedding Bouquets

When choosing flowers for the bride and bridesmaids, think of the appropriate size wedding bouquet or posy. A petite bride could carry a delicate posy of small flowers whilst a taller bride might have a regal calla lily bouquet trailing ivy. The same goes for bridesmaids of all ages. Smaller girls carry smaller flowers.

We wanted to share these wonderful bouquets from Jordan Payne Events one of our StrictlyWeddings.com partners in Dallas, for we think they Rock! The beautiful photos were taken by Gary Donihoo-f8studio.

Going Green

I know, we all feel beat up by the push for “going green.” To be honest, our experience shows that it’s sometimes more expensive. Yet, we do have a few ideas that may work with your plans as well as your budget.

How to add shades of green to your wedding day:

• Limit guest travel. Have the wedding in the town where most guests live; help arrange car pools.
• Have a daytime wedding, outdoors when possible.
• Choose recycled paper for invitations and place cards.
• Serve locally grown food.
• Decorate with locally grown flowers, herbs, fruits and veggies. Create smaller centerpieces. Choose potted plants rather than cut flowers. Use mason jars if it’s an informal setting.
• Seek out caterers who recycle materials and use linen and china instead of disposables.
• Wear vintage clothes and jewelry, or choose “green” fibers like silk or organic cotton.
• Use candles.
• Go acoustic.
• Pick digital over film (most photographers are in today’s world, but just in case…).
• Check out businesses that claim to provide green services and see if they really do; many new companies have entered the rapidly growing market.

Winter Flowers – Splash Color or All White

The flowers that will adorn your wedding are symbolic and have a profoundness to the feel of your wedding. Having information about which flowers are in season can save you a great deal of money in planning a winter wedding and can help you determine when to take advantage of flowers in season and when you may want to invest in particular flowers that you feel will add the perfect touch. The good news is there are a multitude of flowers available and many florists import flowers from growers in much warmer clients year round.

There are no color restrictions in winter and in fact one of the most popular winter flowers is Amaryllis, a beautiful and vibrant red flower. Cymbidium Orchids are in season and come in various colors. Also available for your winter wedding are Gerberas or gerber daisies, Tulips and Roses, which are available in a multitude of colors. An unusual flower that is available in winter is Anigozanthos, commonly known as kangaroo paw, available in yellow, pale pearly pink, lime green or rich dark red. Nerine is a delicate flower available in pink and white and make a nice addition to a winter bouquet.

Winter whites can easily be achieved by using flowers in season such as Calla Lillies, Gardenia, Lily of the Valley and Scabiosa.

So many choices of flowers abound and give you many avenues in which to pursue in order create a warm and elegant feel to your wedding. For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our partners.

Reasonably Priced Flowers

• Mums/Daisies/Poms
• Carnations
• Gerbera Daisies
• Stock
• Statice
• Snapdragons

Fancy Flowers

• Alstoemerias
• Lisianthus
• Asiatic Lilies
• Hydrangeas
• Mini Calla Lilies
• Cymbidium Orchids
• Bells Of Ireland
• Rananculuc
• Iris’
• Gladeolas
• Dahlias
• Sunflowers

Extravagant Flowers

• Mokara/Vanda Orchids
• Dancing Ladies
• Freesias
• Tulips
• Hyacinth
• Stargazer Lilies
• Peonies
• Ecuadorian/Colombian Roses
• Lily Of the Valley
• Stephanotis
• Gardenias

Embellish the Ceremony Space with Unexpected Touches

Celebrity wedding planner, Lisa Gorjestani, has earned a reputation for showstopping designs. Here is a tip to consider for your wedding day:

When the exchange of vows takes place outdoors, the back row of chairs is usually the first thing guests see. To dress up the seats, Gorjestani hangs a bucket of flowers or envelopes filled with fragrant petals, autumn leaves or fresh herbs from each. “Afterward, I use the floral arrangements to decorate the bar at the reception.”