A Wedding with Dahlias in Season!

Hi, Everyone!  I am sorry I have been among the missing for the last few weeks.  It turned out to be very overwhelming to go away for a week right before I was to prepare the flowers for a wedding and to create a blog post this week.  I was consumed with flowers and floral arrangements and all the preparation that goes along with that :).

But, I am back now and have lots to share with you!  I still want to tell you about my trip to Mackanac Island in Michigan but, I haven't had time to edit my pictures yet so, I thought I would share photos of the wedding I did this past weekend.  That's always fun!!!

Several months ago now I received a call from Carolyn, the bride-to-be.  She was calling from Texas where she is now living.  The wedding was going to be back in my neck of the woods where she was from, originally. Carolyn's aunt, Maureen, is a friend of mine from my garden club and she had told Carolyn that I do flowers for weddings. Maureen has always been one of my biggest fans and I truly appreciate her support.



Carolyn and I discussed budget and style on our initial phone call and I hoped we had made a connection.  It appears we did because soon we were talking all things wedding.  The wedding was going to take place on August 26, 2017...the perfect time of year for a wedding!  It would be held at a country club a few towns over from my studio.  It was all ideal!

On our first phone call, Carolyn told me she didn't know much about flowers and she didn't have a "theme" for her wedding.  The more we were in contact and the more we shared photos on Pinterest, the more Carolyn was honing in on what she wanted for her wedding.

The bridesmaids dresses were going to be a dark evergreen color and Carolyn thought blush pink flowers would compliment the dresses nicely.  I totally agreed.  We would add a mixture of different colored and multi-textured greens, as well. You know--green, greens and gray greens. Soon, Carolyn had found a flower she really loved-- the dahlia.  Dahlias would become the basis for all the bouquets, arrangements, boutonnieres and corsages.  I was thrilled!  Dahlias are such a beautiful flower and, thankfully, very available in August!

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The list of items I was supposed to make for the wedding grew a little bit as the months went on. This is often the case when dealing with brides and weddings.  The brides, many times, realize they have forgotten a special person who needs a corsage or boutonniere or they find a corner of the ballroom that could use a "little" something more.  In the end the wedding for Carolyn and Daniel, her fiancé, would involve quite a few arrangements.  My staff and I had our work cut out for us but, it was all good.  That's what we are here for! 

After the initial process of buying the flowers at the flower market and cutting each stem and placing them in fortified water, I started making the corsages.  (As a side note, please understand that while I am in the floral designing mode, I commonly do not have time to take photos or simply forget to do so.  Therefore, unfortunately, quickly taken photos, often with my cellphone, have to do.  I haven't found an answer to this problem yet but, I am working on it.)

This corsage was made for one of the moms.  (Sorry about the red plate.  As I said, I was in the designing zone not the picture taking mode.)  White dahlias, white spray roses, white and pink stock and a mixture of greens were to make up the corsages.

This corsage was for one of the grandmothers.  All the same flowers were used plus a few dahlia buds.

And, here it is all wrapped and ready to be delivered.

I then moved onto the boutonnieres.  This one below is not exactly like the ones I made for the wedding.  This facsimile was made the next day because again we hadn't taken photos while we were in the process and since they were so very pretty I wanted to do them justice and give you a better idea of what they looked like close up.

There were going to be eleven men who needed boutonnieres for this wedding.  So, after designing the boutonnieres and making several on my own, my very able assistant, Judy, finished them up for me.  She did a great job.  They were lovely!

I am glad this photo was taken because after they were all made and packaged up I realized I had forgotten to take a picture of the groom's boutonniere.  You can see it in the top left corner.  His boutonniere was made with a white dahlia and some little side dahlia buds.

I loved the seeded eucalyptus and all the other greens in these boutonnieres.

Next it was on to the centerpieces.  All fifteen of them!

 So, my other assistant, Brittany, and I made them... and made them.

The flowers we used were hydrangeas, ranunculus, spray roses, roses, dahlias, dusty miller, stock and mixed colored greens; green-greens and gray-greens.

The vases the flowers were placed in were white frosted-glass round vases.  Very pretty~

While Brittany continued on with the centerpieces, I started working on the Sweetheart Table arrangement.  I find sweetheart tables are the choice of most of my couples lately.  I have to say I love sweetheart table arrangements, especially those with the greens flowing over the side of the table. Such a lovely look.

With those arrangements done, it was time to make the bouquets!  Carolyn wanted the bridesmaids to carry a single café au lait dahlia with a few peripheral side flowers.  I loved making these bouquets~~so simple but so elegant. 

Don't you just love the café au lait dahlias?!

I am showing this photo because there aren't any photos of the toss bouquet and it was quite pretty.  It is hiding in the lower right-hand corner of this photo :).  Do you see it? ↓

To my chagrin, I realized when I was reviewing my photos, I hadn't taken any photos of the bride's bouquet before going to the venue.  (This seems to be a common theme, doesn't it?)  I was extremely careful with this bouquet because it contained several of the café au lait dahlias.  They are very fragile and I was frantic to keep them in pristine condition.  As soon as the bouquet was made, I placed it in the cooler for protection.  We did get a few shots of it at the venue.  I'll show them later in the "Continued" part of this story.

So with all the bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, centerpieces and arrangements made, the next day we were off to Sky Meadows Country Club in Nashua, New Hampshire where the wedding was to take place.  I always bring extra flowers with me just in case something unforeseen happens.  They kind of look pretty just like this~.

I also bring my super neat tool carrier that my daughter bought for me.  She thought I "just had to have it".  That little carrier has been the absolutely best thing for me going off to weddings.  I can fit all of my supplies in it and everything is in one place.  My daughter didn't seem to like my system of using cardboard boxes to carry things around.  I guess she was right :).

So, I am going to stop the story here as we are traveling to deliver the flowers.  I will be back soon with the continuation of Carolyn and Daniel's wedding story but,

Until then, enjoy what is left of the summer.  I am very sad to see it end ;/.

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