Something Blue...and Something Green!: Fabulous Flowers

I knew before we were even engaged that I wanted hydrangeas at our wedding! They are so full and lovely. Since I am not living in town, my mom made an appointment with a florist and after talking about it, we agreed that it would be ok to put down a deposit for flowers to reserve the date.

My fiance's mom is from a family of florists and she had offered to arrange anything that I wanted in silk flowers, but I thought I wanted real flowers at least for my own bouquet and my bridesmaids. I also envisioned real flowers in our centerpieces at the reception.

I finally got to meet with our florist last month. I came armed with several of my inspiration pictures and was going to be very clear on the following things: BUDGET, no roses, blues and greens, and certain flowers I really wanted (hydrangeas, green verbinum, and green hypericum berries.

For my bouquet, I showed her this picture:

I told her I really wanted the base to be blue hydrangea, even though she thought white would be better for a bride's bouquet. I agreed to adding white lissianthus and blue delphinium. I thought the delphinium looked a little purple-ish in the shop, but she told me if I didn't like it in the finished product, it would be really easy to take out, so I agreed to it. She was also going to add the green hypericum berries and green verbinum. I was happy with this and thought it would turn out great! I was quoted $195 for this bouquet.

Then we went on to talk about bridesmaid bouquets. I wanted blue hydrangeas for the base as well, with green flowers/berries mixed in. I showed her the following two pictures:

I especially love that second one and love the way that the colors just pop off those blue dresses which are very close to the color of my bridesmaids dresses. She thought the second picture was way too large for a bridesmaid, but thought she could make something similar scaled down. This is what she suggested: blue hydrangea, green verbinum, green hypericum berries. These would cost $50/each for a total of $200.

She would do Ben's boutonniere with white lissianthus and green hypericum berries. Cost: $15.

So far we were up to $410 for my/maids bouquets and FI's bout.

I had planned for FI's mother to put together groomsmen bouts, flower girl pomander, pew decor, wreaths for the church doors, and all remaining bouts/corsages out of silk flowers. Flowers were purchased from Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's, and Dollar Tree. So far this cost has been about $300. When I get more info about everything she is making I will have to update this to show where that money went.

For centerpieces, I really wanted real flowers. This was my inspiration picture:

I loved the look of multiple vases/canning jars filled with flowers and accented by delicate votives. However, that would get quite expensive having several vases per table, so I narrowed it down to one vase per table but still wanted to have fresh flowers.

My florist quoted me $255 for 30 stems of hydrangea for centerpieces that we could arrange ourselves. This did not include taxes or delivery, which was a $50 minimum. Since then, I have been thinking about other options for floral centerpieces. I have been thinking about going through Sam's Club. Online reviews are mostly good and I could get 40 hydrangeas for about $115 including taxes. They would be shipped to my house 2 days before and I would have to let them soak in a cool place until the wedding. They have a great policy where they will reimburse you for any flowers that do not turn out good, but this just makes my mom really nervous because hydrangeas can be a difficult flower, and the last thing we want the day of the wedding is droopy or dead flowers. Not to mention that we would have to come up with another alternative at the last minute. But to save the money, I think it may be worth it.