Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Flower Strategy or How Many Flowers Can I Do Away With?

Don't get me wrong, I love flowers. However, being a budget bride means that I really do have to pick and choose which elements are most important to me. I love fresh flowers, but unfortunately they are one of the items I'll be saving on.

Lovely centerpieces that I can't have:


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I originally thought I'd be saving on flowers by DIYing it, but then I remembered how I'm not very good at DIY and that having to produce a whole bunch of floral arrangements the morning of my wedding would probably kill me and make my wedding morning quite unpleasant and stressful. There would probably also be a lot of tears, which would interfere with my attempt to look lovely and fresh!

Anyway, my strategy now is to find as many floral alternatives as possible. Here's the two alternatives I've already decided on:

1) The Faculty Club will be decorated for Christmas, so I don't need to worry at all about any floral decoration for any of the rooms.

2) My bridesmaids will be carrying lanterns instead of bouquets. Here's an image of the Ikea lanterns I bought for my maids. I may have made my sister walk down the aisle in Ikea quite a few times before deciding on these ones.


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3) The ceterpieces are going to involve mason jars, candles, and perhaps some pine. They haven't really been figured out yet, but I do have a vague idea about what I want.

Here's the things I still need to figure out:

1) Boutonnieres and corsages. I think I could probably just do away with these and not bother with an alternative, but I'm open to any ideas...hint, hint!

2) Something for me. I would be open to carrying something non-floral myself, but I'm not sure what. I love the idea of carrying a book, but I don't know that I have a book that is special enough to Mr. Knitting and myself to warrant being included in our ceremony.

3) Something floral for the flower girls. I suspect even I can't get rid of flowers for the flower girls...

What's your favourite flower alternative?

1 comment:

  1. 1. I made some fabric bouts that were easy to put together and would be happy to make some for you (albeit slightly more elaborate ones - mine were just for the guests so they were quick & dirty). But bouts aren't really that expensive - ours were free for the groomsmen b/c we got bouquets but for the dad's they were like $5 or something like that. Also, people like Princess Lasertron make button boutonnieres.

    2. My Luscious Backyard (www.mylusciousbackyard.ca) grows flowers in people's gardens in Parkdale and makes them with whatever's seasonal. Not sure if she does this year round but it's a sustainable and frugal-ish option. I wish I knew about this earlier on. Also, when I originally booked my florist it was just for bouquets (me + 3 bms and the bouts) and she was willing to do that for us. We wound up getting other stuff from her (her chuppah was cheaper than renting from a Judaica store and she's selling us orchids at cost for our DIY centerpieces) but if we hadn't done this she was still willing to offer us a really small amount of work.

    3. Go to Michael's and buy flower petals, if they're keen on tossing flowers (obviously different if you want bouquets for them). We were told to go with fake petals because the real ones are slippery and you don't want to faceplant walking down the aisle.

    Good luck!

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