today i'm going to share some of the behind the scenes fun of designing the flowers for the wedding.
i knew it was going to be a lot of work for me as the mother of the bride,
but i couldn't imagine having it any other way~
*remember i did the flowers for my own wedding...and i knew if i could
pull that off, this should be do~able too.
wedding week:
mon: i told my two sons that if they didn't get the garage cleaned up and all the
sawdust outta there from the present they were making for their sister,
there were going to be consequences.
tues: i lined up the buckets i would use for all the flowers and washed them.
it's really important to always start with clean containers for
flowers, it will extend their life.
wed: friend mary went with me to the floral wholesaler to
pick up everything i'd ordered weeks ago. this ended up being kind of
stressful, because when we walked in and saw my things on a big cart,
there were a bunch that were the wrong color, or not
what i'd pictured, so with mary's calm help, we went in and out of the cooler
about a dozen times putting stuff back and searching for better alternatives.
mission accomplished, we headed back to my garage/design studio to begin
the process of cleaning off foliage, de-thorning all the roses, recutting every
stem and submerging the dozens and dozens of hydrangeas and stock
in a water bath to rehydrate them.
originally i wasn't going to start designing till thursday, but because i was
so excited to get my hands on the flowers and also because i was afraid
i'd run out of time, i did 5 of the 6 bridesmaids that night and also a few
of the centerpieces. whew- i know i slept better because i'd gotten started.
*this is a bridesmaids bouquet starting to come together.
these gorgeous anemones are from mary and her hubbies gardens.
i kind of hinted/asked/begged for some of them for the wedding and they graciously let me
pick about 100 to use. they ended up being some of my very favorite of all
the gorgeous flowers we had to use. : )
bridesmaids bouquet
we put bleeding hearts from my garden in the two centerpieces for the
parents tables. my sis and her hubs were at our table and it
was their 35th wedding anniversary too. bleeding hearts are her favorite.
in all the commotion i forgot to take photos of the corsages, but did snap
a quick pic of a few of the bouts all bagged up and ready to go.
thursday:
friend cheri came to my rescue and helped me all day...she was a rockstar
putting together most of the 28 centerpieces for the tables.
i couldn't have pulled off the flowers without her help...
this was just the beginning of all she did for us too.
mary and i~
i made two of these as a last minute add on. i saw the wooden boxes
at the wholesaler and knew they'd be great somewhere~
my bride girl came over after work to help decide what we were going to use in
her bouquet. it was one of my favorite parts of her whole wedding experience.
i reminded her what all we'd talked about using for her, and showed her what i'd
set aside and then she picked out each of the flowers i used for this bouquet she and
i had been dreaming of. she loves flowers as much as her mama. : )
her bouquet had garden roses, peonys, astilbe, snowberries, clematis,
ranunculus, hydrangeas, oregano, honeysuckle, stock, lisianthus, anemones,
pittisporum and eucalyptus in it!
*i know, right? that sounds like a LOT, but it really was pretty. when i thought
i was done i asked her and she asked if i'd make it just a little bigger~
i did and she was right...
it was done, she thought it was perfect and we both loved it.
fri.: more amazing help flooded in from the west!!!
this is my auntie dar... (or grama dar as my kids lovingly refer to her).
she is a former florist herself and she brought my cousin, "baby al", and they
worked like busy bees, tying ribbons around all the favors for our guests.
then they helped pack up all the flowers, load all the vehicles and
get everything to the wedding site.
they also helped set up all day on saturday... sooo thankful for their amazing help!
then seester dawn and her girls fiiiiiinally showed up.
sheesh! they thought the wedding was in texas or something and headed there
before getting their bearings straight and heading north again where
most of the work was already done, but it was nice to have them to come to visit...
hahahahaha just kidding, but it is a good story. a story that involved
a 7 hour roadtrip to get to chanhassen, when we live about 2.5 hours from each other.
i think they did it on purpose so dar and al had to do all the tedious work.
*we're on to you girls...
o.k., guess what? i decided i would forge ahead and
include the grooms dinner too...so if you need to get back to the
rest of your life, b~bye.
____________________________________________________________
the kids hosted their own rehearsal dinner at "the
bunk house" on the horse and hunt club grounds.
************
the evening began with the wedding rehearsal.
friend karissa~
here is "dunny".
friend rose and a brother.
jess
these two little skippers were the adorable ringbearers~ jax and henry.
they didn't know each other, but like little kids often do, they became
friends in about 10 minutes.
: )
here's dad, practicing the graceful aisle walk with his girl and our
fabulouso wedding coordinator cheri.
*girlfriend took off her floral apron and put on her dress
pants to be in charge of pretty much everything on fri. night and sat.
~i have promised to give her a kidney should she ever need one.
no questions asked... she worked so hard and pretty much put everything i
had planned into action. she had a great crew of helpers on saturday
including my sis, friends mark, cindy and mary, aunt dar and little al, but she
literally took my lists of notes and a stack full of totes,
and with some awesome help, turned that reception hall into the
party of my dreams.
kenzie was part of the evening...and she was such a good dog.
now, rehearsal done, it was back over to the bunkhouse for a
fiesta taco bar with all the trimmings!!!!
(the fan halo was an accident)
a bunch of family (and the bride) made yummy bars and cookies for dessert.
*aunt dawn surprised the kids with animal, cutout molasses cookies too.
brent graciously brought his golf cart and boy did it come in handy
to haul people from point a. to point b.
jax and "uncle fish" got busy unloading it.
grama dar finally getting to rest. (and me)
(these two love each other. it's pretty cute)
these 3 boys used to live together.
brent is married to matty and they are jax's parents with another little
bambino on the way. thaine is engaged, so he's next to walk down the aisle.
my three chickadees right after the brothers gave c and a their wedding gift.
it was that darn wonderful bag toss game that the guys worked on
for a month straight in our garage....messin with my peace because it was so messy.
it was a BIG hit!
*these next two shots are of the boards being made...the brothers worked so hard
to make this bag toss game very customized and fabulous...but brought it
right down to the wire in my work space. see that counter behind them?
yeah- that is my floral bench. one day before the flowers arrived. umm hmm.
there was thick sawdust on every surface.
the game got broken in~
"little" nephew seth, who was a very grown-up acting usher and
a great wedding weekend helper.
this picture cracks me up... it's matty (who's pg) with a look of surprise, as
kenzie came barreling towards her. she verved off at the last minute thank goodness.
this is super hero jax ~
and super hero henry~
well, that's it. if you're still reading, bless your heart. i can't believe it took me so long
to get this post written, and guess what?
there is still one more about the wedding day and more of the fun i haven't shared yet.
and i will share some of their photographers pics too~
but for now
lars and i are leaving in two days for my first ever destination wedding shoot.
yes, it's true. we hardly ever get out of dodge, and we're excited to be
heading to marco island to photograph a wedding for friends!
i told him last night if it goes well, this could be our next career.
he and i, destination wedding photography team.
jet setting about the country,
never home to mow.
i'll get back to you on this one.
xox, beth
