Designing + Planning Orange Wedding Bouquets and Centerpieces

I'm at it again!  Some of our good friends are getting married this weekend, and they asked me to be their florist!

I love having the house full of flowers, helping friends save a little cash, and most of all, making them something beautiful that's a part of their wedding day (and about a thousand photos).  The stressful part?  Making them something beautiful that's a part of their wedding day and about a thousand photos!!!

I love their ideas for their wedding - hints of a baseball theme (they did get engaged at a baseball game after all!), casual outdoor feel, and bright colors of royal blue and true orange.  I'm also quite impressed with all the projects the bride has been working on!  Maybe she'll let me write a post about all her hard work...

link

So all that aside, I wanted to share with you what I've been doing to plan for this DIY floral experience. 

First, I started with the bride.

What's the budget?  As reasonable as possible but I still want everything to look pretty.

What do you want the flowers to look like?  True orange, with some blue for mine.  No lilies (a bridesmaid is allergic). 

Aw man, because I was kind of hoping to try these...

We browsed through a number of photos on pinterest and found that she prefers a rounded shape, not too big or too small, avoid the wildflower look, and no flowers that are too crazy.

1,2,3

We also took a trip to the flower wholesaler, but the day we went they were severely lacking in orange flowers!  I hadn't been planning to order ahead for this wedding, but after the selection that day, I decided it would be a better idea.

The following flowers come in orange.  I'm sure there's more, but this is what my flower guy suggested.  I bolded the ones I ultimately chose, and gave reasons why the others wouldn't work

Alstroemeria - too generic
Asiatic Lily - bridesmaid is allergic
Calla Lily - too expensive
Carnations
Celosia - too weird
Cockscomb
Dahlia
Freesia
Gerbera Daisy
Gladiola -not the right shape
Hydrangea - Royal blue for the bride
Hypericum - too expensive
Orchid - too expensive
Proteus - too weird
Roses
Spray Roses
Sunflower
Snapdragon - tips are green, not the right shape
Tulip - not available
Zinnia - not available


By studying the inspiration photos, I got a good idea of how many stems I'd want for each type of arrangement.  The bridal bouquet is of course larger than the bridesmaid bouquets, and the centerpieces don't need as many stems because they can be spread out.

To save money, my bride had the great idea to use the bouquets as centerpieces at the reception.  She's having 15 tables, but I only have to make 8 centerpieces because 7 are covered by the bouquets.  This is awesome, and essentially saved her 30% on the cost of her florals.  I plan to poke some greenery in around the bouquets so everything looks as cohesive as possible on the tables.

Here's the breakdown!

I went with fewer stems than planned for the bridal bouquet since three of them are large hydrangeas.

Also, flowers have to be ordered in bunches, not individually, so I tweaked the counts until I got even numbers for bunches.  Where you see 1.5's in the table, that just means half the bouquets get one flower and half get two.

So how much do flowers cost, anyways?  Carnations are the bargain of the bunch (har har) at less than 50 cents each.  The most expensive thing on my list, aside from the hydrangeas where cost can vary wildly, was the cockscomb at $1.80 each.  Everything else comes in between $1.00 - $1.50 per flower.

It's also helpful to consider the size of a flower.  Sunflowers, gerbera daisies, and dahlias take up a lot of square footage in a bouquet - so even if they're more expensive, you get more bang for your buck. 

My grand estimate for the flower order came to $450.  Y'all, this a BARGAIN for an entire wedding of flowers.  For my wedding, I got estimates of $700 - $1000 for bouquets only (and subsequently told the florists no thanks).

To make myself feel a little more confident in choice of flowers, I threw together some photos to make sure everything would play well together.  Thankfully, they do!

I've also been considering the schedule for the work.  The wedding is Sunday.  Friday I'll pick up the order and "process" the flowers.  Saturday I'll put most of the bouquets and centerpieces together.  Sunday I'll finish any centerpieces, prep the vases for the bouquets, and make the corsages.  I get to have fun in there too - they've planned a bachelorette dinner tonight, a group outing to a Nationals game Friday, and the rehearsal dinner Saturday.  Plus some of our BFFs who are also in the wedding are staying with us all weekend, so I'll have helpers this time around!

I'm super excited to pick up the order tomorrow and get to work!  I love having a house full of friends and flowers :)



You might also be interested in these posts:
Prepping Flowers for DIY Bouquets
DIY Fake Peony and Hydrangea Bouquets
Elegant White and Green Bouquets
Autumn Bouquets and Boutonnieres

Bonnie Projects

Wedding in Review: All the Projects

To wrap up the Wedding Wednesdays, I wanted to provide a wrap-up post of all the projects!  I hope they've inspired you to DIY a few elements of your own wedding, whether it be to personalize, save money, or just to have something to do with friends!

PS: Friends, I still have most of this stuff, so if you'd like to borrow it for your own wedding, just ask!


The DRESS - designed by us and handmade by my Mom

My dress was a hand-beaded, Chantilly lace fit-and-flare gown with a strapless sweetheart neckline and rows and rows of flounces.  It also featured a button-off removable train and beaded belt.

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

Personalized Bridesmaid Robes

Personalized Jewelry for Bridesmaids and Flower Girls

Flower Girl Dresses

American Girl Dresses to Match the Flower Girls

Flower Girl Baskets

Ring Bearer Pillow (made from leftover dress fabric)

Invitation Suite

Thank You Notes

RSVP Map

Will You Be My Bridesmaid Paper Doll Cards

Wreaths for the Chapel

Hydrangea Bouquets

Peony Bouquet and Ranunculus Boutonnieres

Ribbon Wands

Pennants

Pennant Cake Topper

Chair Ribbons

Ribbon Table Runners

Coastal Centerpieces Made From Lantern, Chrome Shells, and Coral

Chrome Coral Table Number Holders

Name Buttons

Photo Guest Book 

Cloth Napkins for Favors

Save-A-Guest Kit

Dancing Shoes

Bonnie Projects

Wedding Wednesday: Ribbon Wands

This is the last Wedding Wednesday post!  Next week I'll wrap up the series, and the week after that, I'll share our whole wedding.

But this week it's ribbon wands!

We went through a number of ideas for an exit, from sparklers (illegal) to glow necklaces to grits!  We settled on ribbon wands, an idea I stole from Megan and Sam (hi guys!)

My parents prepped everything, and my Mom's family assembled them the week before the wedding (thank you!!!).

They used 1/2" wooden dowels.  They come four feet long, and my Dad cut them into four pieces, each a foot long with PVC pipe cutters.  I bet you could also use a saw or even garden snips.

We considered staining or painting them, but it was so close to the wedding that we decided not to worry about it.

My Aunt Cathy and cousins cut 1/2" ribbons the length of the dining table they were working at (about four feet long), and tied a pair of mismatched ribbons to the end of each dowel.  They secured the ribbon with a dot of glue.

At the church, they arranged the ribbon wands in cool flower vases at the back of the church.  My lovely bridesmaids handed them out to guests as they exited the church after the ceremony.

Everyone lined up, and got ready for us to come out!

When we came out, it was so amazing.  There was this tunnel of people we loved, cheering and waving these ribbons.  Then we turned the corner, and there was another whole tunnel of loved ones!  Then there was another turn, and even more friends and family.  It was one of our favorite moments of the entire day, to see everyone we love cheering us on.

Thanks to everyone for their help with the ribbon wands, and a very special thanks to everyone waving them moments after our vows!

They also made an appearance in our photo booth!

Bonnie Projects

Wedding Wednesday: Pennants

When dreaming about my wedding (pre-engagement), I imaged a rustic affair, maybe even set on our farm in Alabama.  For a whole variety of reasons, that never came to be, but I made sure I still got some of the touches!  Like pennants!

I've said it once and I'll say it again - I didn't want to be throwing away a bunch of stuff after the wedding.  I wanted to make choices in a way that things could be reused afterwards.

Pennants are so whimsical and fun, I just love them.  Better yet, my Mom thought they were cool too, and offered to make them!  I'm guessing she never realized she would make 400 feet of them...

She was super nice and took great photos along the way so I'd be able to share a wedding pennants tutorial with you :)

Together we collected a ton of different coral fabrics - all cottons.  Keeping them cotton meant that we could eventually take them apart and make them into something cute, like a quilt.  I think we had 35 fabrics altogether.  She also saved remnants from the cloth napkins to use.

Mom pressed all the fabrics to make them easy to work with. 

Check out her crazy iron with pop-out feet!

She started by cutting strips of fabric 8" wide, with smooth edges.

Then, from those strips, she cut the triangles using a rotary cutter with a wavy blade.  You can't use it with a ruler like you normally would, so she had to measure the cuts and do her best to keep them straight.  For the double-sided pennants, she laid fabrics back to back and cut them together so the scallops would match up.  Wavy edges prevent fraying, so she didn't have to hem all those edges.

The triangles measured 8" tall by 6" wide.  

She tucked the top of each triangle between the folds of extra-wide double-fold bias tape and stitched the layers together.  She didn't leave any space between the triangles.  She used white tape for most of the pennants, but used a coral pink for the ones destined for the cake table and seating card table - guests would be up close and personal with them so we wanted them as pretty as possible.

To avoid ironing them on wedding day, she carefully folded the pennant chains so the triangles all stacked up.  She sandwiched them between two pieces of cardboard cut into triangles, and wrapped the whole bunch in cling wrap, making sure to label the length.  To the front, I attached a diagram of where they were supposed to be hung at the reception.

I had given her specific measurements for all the lengths we required, and whether they should be one or two sided.  She added an extra 10% of length to allow them to hang down in pretty swoops.  Then she added another few feet just in case.  Because they're made of fabric, any extra length could just be snipped off and tossed aside if need be.

They came out PERFECT!  They were exactly how I had imagined them, and gave the plain white space a really fun and festive feel.  The venue was pretty plain, so we used them everywhere - cake table, escort card table, bar, dock, rafters, photo booth - you name it!

Pennants made a cute photo booth backdrop

The day after the wedding, my Mom, bridesmaids, and aunts (thanks guys!) helped me straighten them all out and fold them up nice.

Don't forget to fold them up nice after the wedding!

I have plans to hang some in my craft room, keep a few for a little girls room one day, make some into a quilt, and who knows what else! 

I sent a strand to some of my best friends for their little girls room.  And I just lent the rest of the collection to a friend to use in her wedding!  Needless to say, I'm definitely making good on that re-use idea.

Reuse wedding pennants in a little girls room

Bonnie Projects