10:21 AM

Fall Flowers for an October Wedding

I am excited to share some of my photos from the last wedding I did a few weeks ago. I always wish I had taken more photos but, there is so much going on that there is never enough time!

This is the first picture I was able to take but, it really doesn't show the whole story. There were tons of other flowers all over the studio but, it was time to go to work. I snapped this picture and off I went with my wonderful crew to make the bouquets!

When I first met with the bride, Lisa, a few months ago she wanted all whites and creams with a lot of silver dollar eucalyptus mixed in for the wedding flowers. Well, she ended up going to a few weddings of friends in the interim and discovered she liked color. As you can see, we went in a totally different direction! We went with more traditional fall colors. I thought it was a beautiful way to go considering it was fall and all. Fall contains so many wonderful colors. Why miss out on them?

So, very soon after the above picture was taken, my crew and I set out to get working. My fellow workers came to help me with the bouquets. I had been working diligently on my own, creating the boutonnieres and the arbor floral arrangements.

Here are some of the boutonnieres I had created earlier in the process~

There were ten boutonnieres in all. The above boutonnieres were a few for some of the groomsmen and the ring bearer. They were tied with navy ribbon to match their suits.

The bouts, as we call them, below were for the fathers. They were tied with gray ribbon.

The groom's boutonniere was made with three spray roses and tied with ivory ribbon to distinguish it from the other boutonnieres. I loved the viburnum berries and the seeded eucalyptus mixed into the guys' boutonnieres. A very lovely combination.

As Judy, one of my assistants, finished the boutonnieres by adding the ribbons, Brittany my other assistant, and I started working on the bouquets for the wedding party. There would be 11 bouquets in all...quite a bit of work to be done! I make them one-by-one with the watchful eyes of my assistants giving me color guidance and helping with the floral tape to bind the stems properly.

There were 7 bridesmaids in total along with a flower girl, 2 moms and, of course, the bride.

The bridesmaids were wearing dusty mauve which I soon learned was the "in" color for fall weddings this year. Very pretty!

Here are a few of the bridesmaids bouquets. The flowers we use were Quicksand, Sahara and Vendela roses, cream and peach spray roses, burgundy dahlias, orange and burgundy ranunculus, blue thistle, blue viburnum berries, brunia and an assortment of eucalyptus and grasses. All-in-all a very lovely combination :).

Can't get enough of these colors!

The two moms carried nosegays made from some of the same flowers used in the wedding party bouquets. They were tied with ivory ribbon.

*Just as a side note: I leave the stems long on the bouquets and cut them just before delivering them to the wedding party. This allows for the bouquets to be hydrated while trying to keep the ribbon dry :).

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This was the sweet flower girl bouquet. I tied this bouquet with scraps from one of the bridesmaid's dresses. The hem had been altered and we took advantage of the remnant fabric. I loved this little bouquet! So sweet~

The final bouquet was the bride's bouquet. Lisa wanted all white and cream with a touch of color from the blues of the thistle and viburnum berries. I thought her bouquet was classic yet had a somewhat carefree look, as well. Her bouquet was tied with an ivory ribbon to match the her dress.

On the afternoon of the wedding we traveled to the wedding location at the Warren Conference Center in Ashland, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, half way through our one-hour trip I realized I had forgotten to pack all of the delivery boxes I had meticulously wrapped and prepared for the bouquets, etc. I like the final product to look lovely as they are delivered and I was very disappointed in myself for having forgotten them :/.

As panic set in and calls were made to Brittany, who was at my home with her baby, to see if she could possibly quickly drive the boxes to us, we met up with the catering crew at the venue. My very wise assistant, Judy, politely asked if they happened to have any extra serving trays they could lend us. They did! Four in fact! We lined them with the paper towels I had brought to wipe the stems of the bouquets with and we were in business! The presentation was not as professional as I had hoped but, it worked anyway. We called Brittany mid-trip, told her to head back and delivered the bouquets and boutonnieres to the wedding party. Crisis averted!

The last job for us that day was to install the arbor arrangements I had made. Since no nails are allowed to be used on the arbor we had to tie these somewhat heavy arrangements up with ribbon and white pipe cleaners. It worked very well and I was happy with how the arrangements looked on the arbor.

Again, I just loved the colors!!!

That day was a funny day weather-wise. One minute there were storm clouds, the next sun. I think Lisa and Graham, the groom, lucked out. The sun came out for good as soon as we left to go home :).

With our job done, my crew of four got back into our SUVs and set out for home. All-in-all a successful day...even with the little glitch of the missing delivery boxes :).

Congratulations, Lisa and Graham!!!