The Bloomin' Truth - Flower Budget

I'm not big on flowers. I knew this wasn't going to be a huge chunk of my money. Don't get me wrong, I love flowers. But they are so expensive. And they die.

On top of it, I used to work for FTD. I was the Product Development manager for their floral containers. I know a lot more about the inner workings of flower shops, florists and floral wholesalers than the average bride, in my opinion. I certainly know what I don't like:

Leather Leaf (hello, 1985)
Plumosus (it sheds little tiny green needles - like a mofo!)
Bear Grass (hello, 1997)
Baby's Breath (unless you are doing an all Gypsophilia thing like these:)

From The Martha, of course.

Found this on The Sweetest Occasion. Never knew about this blog. It's AWESOME!

I found this on Weddingbee (God, how I hate that site), but don't know the original source. If ya know it, lemme know!

I am not a big rose kind of girl. I like some weird flowers, most of them happen to be cheap. Lucky me! Now, I don't know if this was the smartest thing for me to do, but I only interviewed one florist. Yup. Just one. And I have no recollection as to how I found her. I think I was just hunting on-line, found a link to her on some seriously obscure wedding web-site and then found examples of her work on Flickr. I made an appointment, talked to her about what I wanted and what I knew about flowers. I was up front about flowers not being the bulk of my budget and that I wanted to trim the fat at every possible turn. She was totally down with it. Her name is Angela Sadler.

I think we went through about 6 or 7 quotes until we got to where I wanted it. The thing is, I had a hard time deciding what I actually wanted to do with the flowers at the reception. You can read about that here. I finally decided, bit the bullet and went for staggered bud vases scattered on the tables, mixed with small votives (provided for FREE by Mere Bulles!). I got my bud vases on sale at Crate and Barrel, Target and Ikea and had a total of 5 different shapes and styles. I bought WAY too many. The good thing was that I was able to return ALL the vases to Target (I did get a merchandise credit because I had purchased them long ago), and I sold a good chunk of the C&B bud vases to Angela. I still have the Ikea ones and some of the C&B ones that I will offer to sell here as soon as I can get my act together.

I met with Angela a few weeks before the wedding at the local wholesale florist place to review and pick out flowers as well as to show Angela the bud vases. Apparently, most brides don't do this. Angela made a comment about how involved I was! I'm not sure if this was a good thing or what, but I like to see what I'm buying. Anyway, you can see what we did here.

We kept the ceremony flowers super-simple since I knew it was going to be a short service. Why pay tons of money for something people are going to see for 30 minutes, tops? Owen Chapel has it's own unique charm, so I didn't want to over-do it. We had wreaths on the doors, a large wreath inside and two large alter arrangements.

How did I save? A few ways:

1. I saved $25 on the large wreath by purchasing the wreath myself. It was about $13 with tax and coupon use at JoAnn's, so it saved a little over $10. Hey - every little bit counts!
2. I saved $5 each ($10) on the door wreaths. I bought those on sale at Micheal's for $3 for both.
3. Going the bud vase route versus centerpieces saved me about $500 from the original quote! Angela had really affordable arrangements using BIG flowers like hydrangeas, football mums, gerbers and stock. We used really beautiful variegate pittsporum and snow berries as the filler, both affordable.
4. We had one large corsage for my mom and then smaller corsages for the other females in the group (no MOG for us, so no need).
5. We used really big, really inexpensive flowers in my bouquet: gerbers and football mums. The most expensive flower was a garden rose that we added, just to make it a little different than the MOH's bouquet.
6. I had my go-to girl Alecia take one of the alter arrangements as well as the door wreaths to Mere Bulles to add to the ambiance there.
7. I chose teeny tiny little button mums with fern curls for the boutonnieres. The guys really liked them and they were CHEAP!

Here's the budget breakdown.

The delivery and set up was "free" - I just took out the bud vases Angela bought in trade. The total here doesn't count the $60 I made back from the returned Target vases. Hopefully, I'll get a little more back if I sell the remaining Ikea and C&B vases. I was really hoping to come in under $1500 on this and I might in the end. Who knows.

There was one thing that I didn't like about all of the flowers and that was the handle on my bouquet. Again, I blame no one but myself for not being more specific. I had wanted the stems of my bouquet wrapped in the left over lace from my mom's mantilla. I mean WRAPPED - like how they do it with the ribbon. I also had a pearl pin I wanted put on. Well, she used just the teeny-tiniest piece of lace, I think to preserve the lace usage, but that's not what I wanted. She could have used it all! At any rate, the lace shifted around as did the pin and looked a little tattered at the end. I assumed that the bouquet stems would be wrapped all the way down to their ends. That wasn't the case. I was afraid that the stems would touch my dress and leave a mark during photographs!


Wedding Tip #3: Be as specific as you can. Assume nothing. If you don't ever ask for it, you can't be sure of what you are going to get. If a vendor gets snippy because you're asking too many questions or giving lots of direction, let them or move on. You have a right to know exactly what you are paying for.

I really enjoyed working with my florist. She was happy to give me references, even one who had a wedding at Owen Chapel before! I contacted everyone and they sang Angela's praises and were straight up about her short-comings, the only one being that she wasn't one to reply immediately to emails. Knowing this bit of information saved me a lot of worry. Since I knew she would eventually reply, I could contact her in advance of needed info and wait out the response. She knew if I called, I needed her and she would call back in a jiffy. She was a great vendor to work with. I liked her personally and kinda wanted to get to know her more and just hang out. I think because I was around her age, she got me. That's how it all ended up though - we hired the vendors who understood The Candyman and I as people and treated us that way. That makes it all good.

The flowers were simple and beautiful. Mixed with the candlelight at Mere Bulles - they were STUNNING! The good thing about using the bud vases was that we were able to add them to different areas in the venue without a bunch of extra arrangement costs. We had some added to the fireplace mantel, the place card table and the cake table.

Gorgeous!

Our bad-ass ride.

First, I called Reggie today, our day-of driver-extraordinaire. We had originally planned for a 6:15pm pick up, but we needed to move it up to 6pm. I love talking to Reggie. I can't wait to meet him. How weird is that? Every time we get on the phone, I'm like chatting with the guy for an hour. He told me that he drove Holly Williams (grand-daughter to legendary Hank Williams) and her new husband this past weekend. They got married at historic Cedarwood. Amazing. I hope someone posts some pictures soon. Apparently, Kid Rock sang some tunes at the wedding. Pretty bad-ass, I'd say!

Things at Casa de Candyman and The Thirty-Something Bride are a little on the stressful side, but only because we're getting down to the wire and have a bunch of bullshit we have to deal with like insurance adjusters, car rental people, car dealerships and all that goes with one getting their car stolen. Happily, all we need to do now is wait for our reimbursement check and we are all set. Whew! Done! Who else has that crap on their to-do list?

Remember how I said I wasn't going to do the match boxes? I lied. I've been working on them sporadically and I finished them this weekend. They are cute as hell. I'll bet no one even notices them! I love them though and it was a good mindless-in-front-of-the-TV-activity.


On Saturday I delivered all the floral crap to my florist. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have all those bud vases OUT of my house. I sold a portion of them to her for the same price I bought them for (actually a smidge more as we just took off her delivery and set-up fee off the cost of our bill). Nice. After the wedding, I'll be selling 85 more, so get ready.

I also put together the centerpiece for the kid's table. I wanted to do something sort of fun for them. I really wasn't sure what, but I knew it would have something to do with candy. Last week I headed over to Party City, just to get ideas. I got one. I bought these crazy lollipops with really long plastic stick-things that were $.33 each. I also bought this gigantic bag of candy for $9.99.

Mmmmm, SweeTTarts and Smarties. I can make myself sick off those things!

I poured most of the candy into one of those glass hurricanes I was contemplating using as a centerpiece oh, so many months ago. Then I used the long "stemmed" lollipops like "flowers." I also went to the dollar store and bought a big bag of Pixie Sticks to use as "filler." My florist would be so proud of me.....

I'm going to take the extra candy and just scatter it all over the table too. Instead of the formal boxed favors, I'm going to put out boxes of Cracker Jacks I got for $.50 at Wal-Mart. Fun! These kids are going to be so jacked up on candy that by the time they get to the dance floor, they'll be going nuts! It's going to be awesome. I'm sure their parents will be so pleased....

I also got the drink menus printed out to put at the bar. It took me forever, but I FINALLY decided on the red wines. I bought a case of Puerto Viejo Reserve Pinot Noir (it will pair well with our chicken dish), two cases of Jean Bousquet Malbec (it's a favorite that I got ON SALE!) and a case of Dancing Bull Zinfandel because it was kick-ass cheap and actually, pretty darn tasty.


The Candyman and I also went to a party where I got a little sauced and I connected with a groovy chick who might get me involved in an area (business related) that I've been contemplating for a while now. We also went out for sushi. Our sushi guy made us this:

It was a really busy weekend, but it was a good weekend. The sun FINALLY came out on Sunday and it remains shining today. I wonder if it'll hold another 13 days??? Keep those fingers crossed people! Hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did. I'm tired, but in a good way.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah..................

Long weekends are so hard-core-crazy-rock-n-roll. I love them, LOVE THEM! It was such a wonderful weekend on so many levels.

On Saturday, The Candyman and I went to our reception venue, Mere Bulles, and met with Carlin regarding a lot of little details for the reception. Since I'm bringing in a ton of stuff, I wanted to make sure it gets put where I want it all to go!

I took a few things into Mere Bulles with me and had asked Carlin to have our linens set up for me to play with. I did and it just looks so super-fab, I can't even tell you. I took in my chargers, my bud vases and a mock-up of my favor box. We even swung by the Harris Teeter and picked up some ivory flowers to put in the bud vases, just to get a good visual! I'd share pics, but you know what? I want to keep this one secret! You're just going to have to wait until I do recaps to see it all! ;) I will show you this picture of the flowers though. I put them all in an arrangement when we got home. They looked so pretty in the morning sunshine, I snapped a quick picture!

Saturday night The Candyman and I had a date night out at PM on Belmont. It's a happy medium for us - I can get sushi and he can get a burger! Yum! It was great because we had one of those kinds of really meaningful discussions that make you a better, stronger couple. You know what I mean?

Sunday we did nothing. And I mean nothing. I think the most productive part of our day was the nap we took all snuggled up on the couch. Well, I guess that's not totally true. We did wander out for sustenance and I did put all the favor boxes together. Let me tell you how much I hated doing this. Why? Because it involves tying bows. I hate tying bows. Hate. I just can't get bows to look right - ever. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that I'm left-handed and learned to tie my shoes from another left-handed person who was taught by a right-handed person. My bows always look like crap. So, I spent way too long tying and retying the stupid bows.

Here are all the boxes I put together a long time ago- back around Easter. They have been sitting in the attic, waiting....

Remember all the thank you tags I printed and punched out? No? You can read about it here. I took all of those and punched a hole in them to thread the ribbon through.

Then I set to tying, retying, tying, retying all the damn bows. Why? Because I am a freaky, OCD perfectionist, that's why! Don't judge. So, you might be wondering to yourself, "Why is The Thirty-Something Bride tying all these bows around boxes with nothing in them?" Well, I'll tell you why. Because when it comes time to pack these suckers, all we'll have to do is slide the ribbon off, stuff the boxes and slide the ribbon back on. I think that would be much easier then trying to tie a bazillion bows the way I want them the day before the wedding, no? That way we can get a nice assembly line going of moms and cousins and aunts and stuff a bunch of boxes and be done!! I really do not want to stress about stuff like bows two days before the wedding. That would be mega-lame of me.

It's a sea of boxes!

It's a sea of bows!

I can't believe that The Big Show is only 33 days away! I've got most of the tasks and projects done, I just need to finish things up - like place cards (can't do it until all the RSVP's come in) and table numbers (again, RSVP's for the final numbers). I feel like I'm just humming along. Stress is at a minimum right now. Although, I did dream I was fired last night. Maybe that was the sign for me NOT to buy the expensive dress from RueLaLa. Hmmm.....

P.S. As I was finishing this post up on my lunch break, the office manager came in and asked me if I was available to go to Minnesota the week of October 5th. Um, hello? Getting married that weekend folks, no can do. Keep your fingers crossed that the sadistic powers that be don't actually make me do this.

DIY Hair Toys

Hair toys and a tomatillo.

OK, so you all know the drastic fate of my hair toy from DonnaElla. It committed floral suicide on I-65 North. A moment of silence please for the dearly departed. *sniff*

Since I simply couldn't face more time on Etsy in a seemingly desperate search for a new hair toy, I decided to DIY my hair toy. It's actually turning out OK! I started the process by refusing to use hot glue and sewing only. However, the thickness of some of the layers was not allowing me to pull the thread tight enough to keep the little pearls from rolling around.

You can see in these pictures how they look a little sad. I put the center pearl on top of a sequin and that just wasn't helping the situation either. I cut it all off and went and bought some "bling" glue from JoAnn's. It worked like a charm. I still hate hot glue.

I decided to make my MOH a matching hair toy since this wasn't so hard. When I was out buying bling glue, I figured I could get some black flowers to match my MOH's black dress. Black flowers. Yeah, I said it and no, they do not exist - at least not at happy-happy JoAnn's. I really didn't think that through now, did I? What to do? Buy some cheap-ass fabric dye and dye the petals. Yes, that is what I did and it was easy-peasy-japoneasy. I bought fabric dye for synthetic material for like $3.99 (of course I had a coupon - duh) and the job was done in a little over an hour. You have to put the dye in an enamel or stainless steel pot and simmer the fabric for an hour. You also have to be really careful with the dye because that crap will get everywhere if you're not careful. I was super careful and still managed to spill.

Once I dumped all the dye out, I put the petals on top of one of those mesh metal splash guard kitchen thingies to dry over the sink.

I let the petals dry all day and then just played with them a little to get them stacked right.

I've got the same center icon of silver and pearls to sew in the middle of this flower. Once I get that done, I'll share the final results. I'm making a second smaller flowers for myself (because one just isn't enough) and I need to figure out the best way to add the alligator clip to the back. I have a couple of these kinds of flowers already (store bought) and I'm referencing them for the best method. Stay tuned for the final results!

"He can call me Flower, if he wants to."

On Saturday I met my florist Angela Sadler at Metro Wholesale Flowers in Nashville.

But first, I have to comment on a re-occurring trend. I am finding great humor in my vendors. Why? Because all of them give me tiny little jabs at being so "detail oriented." It's such a polite way of calling me high maintenance. It's really OK though, I don't mind. I mean, when I pay for something expensive I want to know what I'm getting. If I don't understand, it needs to be explained to my dumb ass so that I can just sit back and let you do your job. Otherwise, I'll micromanage the hell out of you and trust me (or trust The Candyman), no one wants that. No one.

Anyway, when I met with Angela, it went really well and fairly quickly. I had an idea of what I wanted, but I really needed to see it in order to get the whole picture in my head. Y'all know that my colors are chocolate brown, ivory and accents of sandalwood (or, Bridal Beige). I want the focus to be on ivory flowers that are statement grabbers, but not expensive. I think we will be able to accomplish this really well, based on how Saturday went.

I used to work as a buyer for FTD, so I know a thing or two about flowers. I know how much they cost (generally), how much florists charge for labor and definitely how much containers cost! It's one of the reasons I chose Angela as my florist. Her prices were really fair, she works out of a space in a wholesale mart so has zippo overhead, and I really liked her designs and thought process. It really was a no brainer. She doesn't appear to mind that I know all this stuff either. I think it might make some florists a little uneasy, perhaps.

I was most worried about the bud vases. I wasn't sure how they were going to look, but Angela loved them as did one of the whole sale florist guys! We chose a few different kinds of flowers that are going to be in the bud vases, in my bouquet and a part of the church flowers.

Ivory Hydrangea - tables and chapel!

White Freesia that will be for the wrist corsages for the ladies. We're going to mix this with an Escimo rose or two because I don't believe in spray roses on corsages (hello, prom!).

It's a sea of Stock! It smells so yummy! We'll use this in some of the bud vases and chapel decor.

I LOVE these FOOTBALL MUMS! They look almost like peonies. They are huge and take up lots of space and are super-inexpensive. These suckers were bigger than my fist!

These two are what we'll use for the boutonnieres. Tiny ivory button mums and fern curls. We'll use a fern curl or two in my bouquet too. Aren't they creepy and groovy?

This is a filler flower called Snow on the Mountain. Just a hint of color to keep things from looking too monotone.

On top of these flowers, we'll be adding a few garden roses and white Gerberas with black centers to my bouquet, a few roses to the chapel decor (for balance) and green filler of Italian Ruscus. We decided not to do the coffee bean idea. With the small bud vases, it would have been way too busy. I still think it's a great idea though!

I'm hoping all of this helps the budget a little bit! My plan was to cut back on flowers (not on quantity, but on type) and cake and we've done that to a degree, just not as much as I'd hoped! For those of you just married and about to be married, where did you cut back? Was it planned, or at the last minute because you went over budget elsewhere?

Flowers Tomorrow!

So tomorrow I am meeting up with my florist at the wholesale flower market in Nashville. I think we will be able to knock out what I want pretty quickly.

Here's the run down....

For the chapel we are keeping it super simple. We're putting two grapevine wreaths with flowers on the two front doors. We'll have one large wreath behind the alter and put two one-sided arrangements on either end of the alter. Easy peasy. She'll use big, ivory flowers to fill space and to keep it low-cost. It will look almost exactly like this:

Source

These are photos of flowers that my florist Angela Sadler did of a wedding in my chapel. It's nice that's she's familiar with the unfamiliar venue! Look how cute and antique-y the chapel is! It's got lace curtains on it's almost floor to ceiling windows! Love it! The best part? It's only $250. Sa-weet!

As you all know, I went to town on bud vases from Crate & Barrel, a few from Target as well as a few from Ikea - thrown in for good measure. Those will be for the tables. That's what we really need to figure out. Other than that, we've just got to decide on the bouquets (easy), boutonnieres, corsages and flower girl headpiece.

While I'm not sure what I want exactly, I do know what I don't want:
Leather Leaf
Plumosa
Eucalyptus
Bear Grass
Mini Carnations
Angela told me that a "no" list can be just as good as a "want" list!


I was browsing Google Reader this morning and saw an AWESOME idea on Elizabeth Anne Designs.

How freaking cute is this? What if I put coffee beans in the little bud vases with a stem or two of ivory colored flowers that are yet to be determined? Can you see them on the tables with the ivory linens and chocolate brown chargers? Or is it too much? Maybe simple is better. I'm bringing some of the bud vases with me tomorrow. Maybe I should grab a small bag of coffee beans to take with me to see how it looks! Angela is going to think I'm freakin' nuts.


Feedback from The Blog-o-Sphere is appreciated. As always.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

I've made a commitment that scares the hell out of me, probably more than saying "Yes!" to The Candyman. I just bought 105 bud vases, 15 from Target and 90 from C&B Outlet (they are having a sale - limited quantities).

I spoke with my florist Angela and she thinks it's a great idea. The idea actually came from several sources, but the best picture I can come up with is from Budget Savvy Bride's recent wedding. She was a crafty little DIY bride and had this as her tablescape:

Photo by Evin Photography
Super cute, right?

So what's keeping me from doing my own, unique version of this? I've been stressing and stressing about what kinds of centerpieces to do and how it would hit my budget - hard. My florist is really awesome and the arrangements were coming out to be about $45 each (which is really good) and that was putting my reception flowers at $585-$900, depending on how many tables I'll end up with. That seems like too much to me, especially since we're having some flowers at the church and all the bouquets and such. I think that $45 might have been with me supplying the floral container too. I was actually hoping (and planning) to find something amazing overseas, but that was not the case.

So this is what I bought online and at Target today.

I bought 15 of these at Target for $.99 each, originally $1.99. Photo is actually from C&B Outlet.

I bought 30 of these from C&B Outlet on sale, 6 for $9.00 (regular $17.70!).

Bought 30 of these for the same deal as above.
Ditto here, 6 for $9.00!

So all told, I got 105 vases for $1.63 each. I think that's a pretty good deal, AND my florist says she'd be interested in buying the bud vases from me after the wedding. SWEET! We talked about her getting the flowers at cost for me and I could do the arranging myself, which is an option, but one I know friends and family might not encourage me to do. However, even if we put $4 of flowers in each vase (about 2-3 roses, for example), that comes out to $420, which is already less than the $585 I've got budgeted for the low end number of arrangements. I could mix mums and garden roses and gerberas in with fern curls to keep with the ivory/sandalwood/chocolate brown theme. I've also got a call into Carlin at Mere Bulles as they hook up their tables with plain glass votives and tea lights, if brides want them. If I have a smattering of various sized vases and flowers mixed in with tea lights, well, I think that would be just pretty as all hell.

I can see it all in my head, I just have no idea how it's all going to play out. I'm totally freaked. Comments from the bridal gallery, please!

Memorial Madness!

OK, so I have become addicted to Polyvore and ShopStyle. More on that later, but I felt I should share, just in case I need an intervention of some sort.

The Candyman and I had a great long weekend! It started off on Thursday with amazing news for The Candyman! We celebrated with sushi at our local sushi place called Minami. The restaurant is so small and so near our house, it's our favorite last-minute-celebration-go-to-spot!

I came home Friday afternoon to see The Candyman had finished laying the tile in our backyard and it looks good! I knew we'd be planting something this weekend.

Saturday, The Candyman and I went to have brunch and run errands, but the "run errands" part turned into, "let's go vintage shopping and pretend we're running errands."

Sunday we did brunch again, then actually ran some errands. We headed over to my friend Philip's house and helped him enjoy his gorgeous patio and a great dinner.

Monday, we planted. I napped.

In between all that fun, I managed to completely finish my invites, print and cut my recipe cards and thank-you tags I'm planning on using for my favors. I started printing my menus, but haven't gotten far. Um, hello. Did I not just mention Polyvore?

I also bought a pair of potential wedding day shoes. I found them on Zappos via ShopStyle. As an interesting note, I was blabbering to The Candyman about the shoes, where I found them, etc. He mentioned that "zapatilla/zapato" is Spanish for shoe. Is that the source of the name for Zappo's? Me wonders......

Here's the visual update!

I got these at Zappos for under $80! Keep your fingers crossed that they fit and that the heel isn't too high. Great thing about Zappos is that return policy! They were listed as "new" on Thursday (I think) and I got the second to the last pair of blue 8-1/2's!

My favorite!

The Candyman and I headed out to the 12th Avenue South area in Nashville to do our non-errand errands. We ended up at Savant Vintage Couture (I'd link, but she's so retro, she doesn't even have a website!) where I found these lovely, seed pearl purses and the feather and pearl hat. You like? ;) Maybe a little much.....

Newly potted pretties!

The Candyman finished the tile on Friday and we worked on some flowers this weekend. We still need to figure out what to do on the left side. I'm thinking more boxwood bushes like we did by the stairs. See below:
Boxwoods. Clearly, our grass has some patch-issues. We're working on it! Our little postage-stamp backyard will be awesome soon!

Basil, flowers and rosemary.

I hope everyone had a fabulous long Memorial Day weekend! A shout out to my pop, The Colonel. Twenty-five years of service, including a year in Vietnam, Marine Corps Fighter Pilot. Thanks, Dad!

Bud Vase Sale at TARGET!

I was just at Target during lunch to pick up a storage box for my veil as I don't think it's a good idea to continue hanging it. I think the stress on the old lace might damage it in the next few months, so I'm going to box it up in a long, flat storage bin.

On my way out, I cruised past the home decor section and saw these on sale. I was tempted to snatch them all up and use them as part of my yet-to-be-defined floral centerpieces. Maybe I could bunch these in various heights, some with candles, some with flowers.

These were 6" or 7" high and are $1.00 a vase. I think that's a pretty good deal. The next best price I found was Save On Crafts for $1.99 each, without shipping and handling.

These were a set of 4 for $3.00, or $.75 each! They are only about 3" high or so. CHEAP! They have indentations on the sides so don't look like chemistry beakers as they do in this picture.

There were two shapes of these, teardrop and a mini-ginger jar shape, each for $1.00.

There were a few other styles, but no deals as good as these. I might just starting hitting all the Targets in my area and clean them out, just because. I can always return them, right? :)