Head Table

Last week I ordered these amazing bouquet holders for the head table. My plan is to attach them to the head table for the bridal bouquets after the ceremony. I bought four--one for each of my bridesmaids and one for myself. I haven't had any "serious" visions of the tables at the reception beyond the centerpieces until now. So, let me explain what I'm thinking at this point. Here is the picture I'm using for inspiration.



Now, what I'm thinking is a bit modified from this, but similar. I have four bouquets, so they'll be a bit more spaced out. I do like the double-layered tablecloths. I was planning on single layered cloths for the other tables, but I have some satin fabric that I think would work well beneath the white fabric on the head table. I need to check and see if we have enough fabric and what kind, though, before I make final decisions. The bouquet holders come with small hooks for doing just this (in fact they are the bouquet holders used in this picture). If we choose to do this on all of the tables, I think we could get away with just adding some small tacks or clips to keep this in place.

I also like the candles on the end of the table, but I want to modify this a bit. In lieu of additional candles, I'm thinking we can reuse the unity candle from the ceremony. Somewhere near the center of the table, I'd like to put the pillar candle from our unity candle and then have the individual tapers burning somewhere near each set of parents. I have to see how this looks with the rest of our decor first, though. If so, I can reuse my unity candle holder (since it's in three pieces). Awesome! OOPS! Apparently this doesn't really "fit" with my reception decor (which is still a bit of a secret to me). So…just disregard this bit about the candles.

A Few Ideas about Flowers

I had a scary moment the other day in which two very significant things happened. First, Mike agreed to let me have my cascading bouquet (yeah!), so now I have to rethink my flowers. But with that realization, I have also finally found myself able to make a few flower decisions. Now, some of you may think these are all minor, but think about this flower killing bride as having made some significant progress.

We've decided to have a Christmas tree on either side of the altar decorated with white lights and crimson and silver balls. I thought about adding tinsel, but the kind I want would take WAY too long to clean up.

Now, my tentative plans are to have the wedding in front of the fireplace at the hall, an if we stick to this, I'd like to have a garland of holly berries, gardenia (and whatever greenery I'm using) across the mantle.

I don't know how I want to decorate the rest of the ceremony hall (be patient, one step at a time), but I've made a few other decisions.

I want to stick to the over-arm bouquets for my bridesmaids and have them consist of gardenias and perhaps a few dark holly berries. I want to wrap the stems in crimson ribbon (my "other" color) and then wrap my bouquet in a silver and crimson ribbon (perhaps braided).

I also decided that in lieu of an aisle runner, I'm going to give my flower girls separate colored petals. I want one walking down the aisle with crimson petals and one with white petals. This way, I think there will be enough color variation that I can get away with not having an aisle runner.

Also, we've decided to keep the centerpieces for the reception tables very simple. I want to have a pillar candle in white and then alternate between crimson and silver (if I can find them) tea light candles on different tables. Then, I'm going to sprinkle a few crimson and white rose petals around them and call it done.

So there we have the current flower decisions. Now I'm excited about talking to the florist and finalizing the details for the flowers. I can't wait to see what ideas she has.

A Flower Decision in the Making

Well, after much conversing, we have finally turned the floral ideas over to the florist with a few guidelines. We've decided on a few things and are leaving the rest of the idea grooming to the florist for now. But here are the tentative decisions we've made.

• Bouquets will be gardenias. I want crimson gardenias for the bridesmaids in an over-arm bouquet with white or silver (I haven't decided) ribbons around the stalks. For my bouquet, I want white gardenias with either silver or crimson (again, indecisive) around the stalks.
• Corsages and boutonnières will be gardenias also.
• For the actual decor, we know that we want a Christmas tree on either side of the altar with silver and crimson balls. I don't know about lights, yet. We may have them, but leave them off until the reception. We want to move the trees into the reception, but I don't know yet where we should put them.
  

Sadly, that is all the decisions we've come to about flowers at this time. We'll know more in April when the creative people get together. But if you have ideas for reception decor, aisle decor, or anything else we're missing, PLEASE let us know.

Sorry for the lack of visual aids. We've managed to find two things that just are not in pictures online. I guess we're really going against the grain here!

Bridal Bouquet: More Proof of My Floral Illiteracy

Somewhere, I have a couple of aunts who were florists. At least one is turning over in her grave right now, shaking her head that I am actually writing this post. From all I've done to search for flowers, this is the best I can do so far with what I want for my bridal bouquet. I don't want a bouquet; I want a trailing bouquet (I think it's called a spray, but I'm not certain. I want roses and greenery. I ran across the term "snow white roses" today, but I don't have a picture, nor do I know if they are real or silk. Oh well, as with the previous flower posts, here goes the best of what I like and don't like. I hope my florist doesn't shoot me :)


I like the greenery in this bouquet. I think that it intersperses well with the flowers and helps add to the flow that I want in a bouquet.


I like the flowers in this one, but I'm not sure if they are winter flowers. And there's nowhere near enough greenery in the bouquet.

This is my favorite of the ones I've seen. I like the addition of the greenery (but I think that's green ribbon). Which makes me wonder if I can add some platinum ribbon to mine and make it still look okay. I'm pretty sure crimson would be out in a look like this one.

I also like how the larger flowers are not just in the top of the bouquet, but shift into the trail as well. So what I'm thinking, right now without talking to anybody about them, is that I want a bouquet like this of white flowers (we'll come up with actual flowers later), and a good bit of greenery. Perhaps some mistletoe (if it looks right) and maybe some holly berries (but I'm not really sure of the color or even if I have the right idea of blending flowers in my head. Don't know. I have to talk to the experts and they won't be here for a month. Besides, I have papers to write! Ah. Back to the real world.

Bridesmaids Bouquets

So, my bridesmaids are wearing platinum in the wedding. My other color is crimson and I want to blend it into the ceremony as well. I'm thinking that I want to do something crimson for the bridesmaids bouquets. I like the color of these (to the left), but I don't want their bouquets to look like a round ball of flowers on a stick. I had this bouquet at the last wedding I was part of. It was terrible. I want to do something in this color, with some greenery, but not much else. Sadly, I am flower illiterate. So....I guess I need a bit more help and time here.

Ceremony Flowers

I blame the mothers for this obsession...(and I mean that in the nicest possible way). They've both mentioned that I need to start thinking about flowers and the ceremony. So, I've given it some thought and I want to start with some ideas I have for the actual ceremony (no bouquets here; that's another post). So far, these are the ceremony ideas that we both agree are nice and for different reasons. So, let's look--one at a time.


We like the wood look in this picture and the not-overdone floral arrangements. The candles must go. We're getting married in the afternoon, so no candles. We'll lose the look.









Alright, so you can barely see it, but what we like about this one is the two pillars at the front of the altar. I don't know about the curtains, but we can all talk. This one has a bit of simple elegance without being overdone. I'm still not liking the giant flowerpots on the edge of the rows.



I need to look at the ceremony locations a bit more before I decide, but I'm we're going with something simple, but classy and elegant for the altar. Light on the flowers, light on the decor. We'll brainstorm some more over the holidays. Feel free to bring ideas you have...we're both open for many, many suggestions.