Cool Lighting for Your Wedding Centerpieces

Lookie what I found! Are these not the coolest?

Branches with battery operated lights with silk blossoms to add lights to your flower arrangements.

 Organic Wedding Centerpiece with lighted branches

Lighted Branches for centerpiecesCenterpiece with lighted branches and butterflyI was at a networking meeting last night and ran across these. I have never seen them before and the ideas just started popping. The lights are attached to a battery pack and have a burn life of 36 hours. As you can see from this image they come in an amazing variety of colors.Lighted branches for flower arrangements in a variety of colors

Now usually I am not a fan of silk flowers, but these, wow! I can see how the addition of a one or two in a large arrangement would make quite a statement. What with the growing popularity of branches in wedding arrangements I think these would be a great choice. I also understand that you can break down the branches to make them small for low or smaller arrangements. What can I say, I am smitten. I wish I could show them too you in person.

Bella Aeris is a local Nashville company that is having them manufactured so I doubt you are going to find these everywhere. You can order from their website and they are available retail or wholesale to the trades. You can find them here. Be sure to check out their Flickr galleries. If you are in the Nashville area, they have a shop in the Mall at Greenhills.  I’m thinking field trip!

Feasting Tables for Your Wedding

Maybe it is the nip of fall in the air or maybe it is just that I’m tired of seeing ballrooms set with a sea of round tables; but I’m currently loving feasting tables.Feasting Tables for Your Wedding


There is something lovely about the look of a long table that runs down the center of the room, seemingly going on for miles. It feels so much more like family to be seated that way. It kind of reminds me of all those family dinners as a child. Isn’t that really the kind of feelings that you want for a day this special?

Sources

top left

bottom left

center

right

Why Can’t I Get Lobster for the Price of Cheeseburgers?

I mean they take up the same amount of space on the plate??

That is just about as ridiculous of a statement as the one I heard today from a wedding planner. She was talking to a good friend of the Dish about how expensive her bride’s bouquet was going to be.
Yes, this bouquet was a bit pricier than most, BUT, that had to do entirely with the flowers the bride insisted on using.Purple Lady Slipper Orchid
Two of the most expensive flowers you can use are Lady Slipper Orchids and mini Calla Lilies. The bride wanted both, with the callas in two different colors. Two different colors means two entire bunches no matter how few you are actually using in the bouquet. ~sigh~

As wedding professionals, we are running a business. Our intention above and beyond making our clients outrageously happy  and their day all they have dreamed of is to make a profit while doing so. That is why we are in business. If we don’t do that, we won’t have the opportunity to make clients happy for long.
As a bride, there is nothing, and I do mean nothing; no product or service, that you cannot have. With one little caveat: you have to pay for it.


Do you want your florist to store, transport and arrange the hundreds of votive candles you bought online instead of from them? No problem, Purple Mini Calla Liliesas long as you compensate them for their time.

Do you want the calligrapher you hired to address the invitations you bought online to also fold them and stuff the envelopes? Same thing, expect to compensate them.

Do you want your caterer to cork and pour the cases of Two Buck Chuck you picked up at Trader Joes? Same thing.

Have to have coral peonies for your arrangements? Great but they won’t be in season for 3 weeks. How does $6 a stem grab you?

My point is two fold. First and foremost, work with your wedding vendors to find compromises that work with both your budget and desired outcome. For instance, with today’s bride’s bouquet she switched to a different orchid, one color of callas and replaced the other with cream roses. Your professionals know how to make things happen.

The second point is that if you are not willing to compromise, be willing to pay for the privilege.

Flower Friday: All White Wedding Bouquets

With all the beautiful color palettes being used for wedding right now, there is still something ethereal about a bride entirely in white that makes her stand out in the rainbow.
Here is some inspiration for you. I love how many of these have incorporated feathers to soften the look. Enjoyall white wedding bouquets

What color flowers are you carrying and why? Inquiring minds want to know.

Clockwise from top left;

source unknown
feathers and pearls
White roses with Rhinestone broach
Sweat peas
Marabou and Gardenias
Teal stem wrap
Callas, feathers and crystals

Feather Bouquets for Flower Friday

Feathers are a fun way to add punch to your wedding bouquet.

My favorite is the dark all feather one with the tassel. How perfect for a wedding with a vintage Victorian feel. The 2 white ones strike me as spot on for a snowy winter wedding. That pink orchid cascade bouquet is just completely off the hook. I guarantee that you won’t see these bouquets walking down the aisle at all your girlfriends’ weddings.

Feather Bouquet

Sources:
Top: Project Wedding, San Diego Wedding Insider, Flowerella
Center: Beautiful Bridal
Bottom: Elizabeth Anne Designs, Brides Buzzing, Hats N’ Stuff

NO Open Flames

What to do if you can’t use candles?

Everyone looks better in candle light. The room seems to sparkle as the light dances on faces and walls. Sadly, more and more venues are going to a “No open flames” policy. What is a girl to do?

There are some alternatives. Tops on the list is lighting. Bathe the walls in soft gold or peach uplights. These two pretty examples come from Romance Lighting.

Warm Peach Event Lighting for a Wedding

Warm Peach Event Lighting for a Wedding

Pretty Lighting for a Wedding Ceremony

Pretty Lighting for a Wedding Ceremony

Still have a desire for gorgeous candelabrum? Well it will look pretty stupid without candles. How about this…

Candleabra as Flower Centerpiece for Wedding

Candelabra as Flower Centerpiece for Wedding

Add some sparkles and they will pick up the lighting, especially if you have your lighting team add pin spots on your centerpieces. It will end up giving you the feeling of flickering light.

Fruit Centerpieces for Flower Friday

I love the way fruit adds to centerpieces. In the fall it gives a feeling of bountiful harvests and in spring a touch of joyous exuberance.
A couple of these are pretty elaborate, and some are simple enough to do it yourself.
Fruit and Candle Centerpiece

Fruit and Candle Centerpiece

Autumn Centerpiece with FruitI

Autumn Centerpiece with Fruit

Spring Centerpiece with Asparagus and Artichokes
Centerpiece with KumQuats and Dahlias

Centerpiece with KumQuats and Dahlias

In all honesty, not much is easier than a footed bowl filled with a variety of seasonal fruit with a few blooms and a couple of leaves tucked in to hide any hole. Sometimes nature at its simplest is all you need.

My Perfect Wedding Bouquet

I spent three very long intense days working with a florist friend of mine last week on a wedding that required 26 bouquets. During the course of all this, we got to chatting about what would be our perfect bouquet. Oddly enough, the look, shape or color wasn’t high on my list of criteria. It was the smell.

Most commercially grown flowers have little or no scent; it has been bred out in favor of looks and hardiness. There are still a few, however, that have retained their aromatic glory. This is where I went.

So here is my wish list:

Flowers for a Fragrant Wedding Bouquet

Flowers for a Fragrant Wedding Bouquet

    • Gardenias. Yes, they are very delicate, but they smell like heaven.
    • Stephanotis. Tiny little charmers that I would add crystal centers too.
    • Tuberose. A classic addition to perfumes but also a darn pretty flower.
    • Freesia. Fragrant and lovely.
    • White Phalaenopsis orchids. No, these aren’t fragrant, but I would love to see their pretty faces smiling up at me.

Being a noob at floral design, I prefaced my wish list by saying that I doubted it would work. My friend Jody immediately jumped in to say “hey, of course, it can. For you, we’d make it happen.” I trust Jody, she has been doing floral design since she was in the womb. If she says it can happen, it can happen.

Bridal bouquets were originally made of fragrant herbs as a way to chase away evil spirits. This thing would smell so good it might actually attract a few benevolent ones to your wedding. That can’t be a bad thing.

So here is a question for all my friends and readers out there in the industry: without limitations, what would your perfect wedding bouquet be? Is it color? Is it shape? Is it a particular flower? Inquiring minds want to know. If you think about it, you have seen about a bazillion bouquets over the course of your career. What would you choose for yourself?

%d bloggers like this: