A Wedding Weekend!

Last week was my best friends wedding.  We had a wonderful time celebrating and enjoying time together.  A lot of old friends came home, new friends were met, and fun was had.  It also happened to be the first week that I was back to school! EEEK! Needless to say, I was running from one place to the next from Tuesday afternoon on! Thursday was the rehearsal, Friday was a picnic for the wedding party and some out of town guests, and Saturday was the big day.  Though my dear friend asked someone to do flowers for her wedding, we were trying to think how to save some money with the rest of the entertaining. So, I did flowers for her picnic with stuff from my garden. 

The picnic was a fiesta themed and her colors were blue and orange.  Earlier this spring I planted some very small zinnia plants that I thought would just fill in space. Little did I know that the zinnias would turn into small shrubs in my garden, full of orange and white flowers! PERFECT! Zinnias cut well, are the right colors, and I have a massive amount of them! So, when Wednesday rolled around, I went to work, got home and put together 13 vases full of flowers for the picnic on Friday, as I knew it wouldn't happen on Thursday.  Overall I think they turned out!

Wedding #1- CHECK!

Well, we did it! The wedding was a week ago and I left town right after, so posting to this blog wasn't going to happen.  But, now that things have settled a bit, I figured I could recap! My mom and I had the pleasure of doing all of the flowers for my second cousin's wedding. Though there were some frustrations, snippy comments here and there, we did it! 

I went over to my parent's on Friday before the wedding to walk into my mom eying up the bridal bouquet, figuring out what more it needed, and buckets of flowers on the floor.  I asked how I could help and was put to work on boutonnieres and corsages.  Through this process, I decided on thing- I understand the need for floral tape, however I hate that stuff! After hours of putting those together, I decided I needed some time to play with flowers- more so, arrange some flowers so that I could feel like there was some creativity again, so I got to work on the flower girl basket!

From there, we took a break, ate some dinner, and then tag teamed the bridesmaid bouquets.  We ordered some calla lilies that are big, so getting them to stay as needed some work.  After that, we tweaked a few arrangements my mom worked on and called it a night.  She was up on and off throughout the night, thinking things would freeze in our refrigerator in the basement.  I, on the other hand, slept alright, but was up with the birds thinking it was time to get back to work on smaller centerpiece arrangements. 

By morning, we realized we were running a bit low on flowers, so I headed over to my neighbors to get some big white hydrangeas, while my mom headed out into her garden to get some of her fun colored stuff.  We got to work right away, so that everything could be ready by pictures at noon. 

Overall, we did pretty well! Everything was complete on time, we were still talking to each other, and when it came time to deliver and set things up, we were ready! Could this be a business venture? not sure, but was it fun and worth it- and could we try it again? SURE! There was plenty of learning about what to do for next time- so, for next time- it can only get better! Now, time for the next challenge!

Happy 4th!!!

Just a little late! I hosted the family BBQ this year for the 4th.  The family BBQ turns into 20+ people in one little house, luckily the weather was great, so we could do everything outside.  Since I have so much in bloom in my garden, I opted to test out how certain flowers would do in vases, in prep for future wedding centerpieces.  I know that sometimes Hydrageas flop, certain flowers don't work well in vases, etc. so I did a little experiment! Overall, I think it all turned out!

A little background

I grew up with a mother that is totally obsessed with flowers who has the most amazing flower gardens that are so relaxing to go and enjoy.  Her and I share some traits in common- mostly our creativity that we hate taking credit for, yet are very different in many other ways.  I tend to be more social, take on more than I can chew a lot of times, and keep myself busy, to the point that I schedule downtime into my days- which in the summer somehow includes the wonderful, therapeutic pulling of weeds out of my own garden (I guess that's a trait from my mom).  Though we have our differences, our decorating and flowers always bring us back together.

Last summer, I bought a little old house on a ravine in Stillwater.  Prime location and a PROJECT! When I moved in, half the yard was dead from the dry end of summer, and I was more focused on getting the inside of the house liveable, rather than focusing on the dead plants outside.  So, once spring hit this year, I figured I could venture out of the house I've made my own on the inside, and figure out what exactly was in this yard on the outside.  I called on my neighbor to help me figure out what was in the yard -her best friend lived in my house before I did and she is a plant lover, so I figured it'd be a good start.  Though she's had some insight, there have been multiple pictures sent to my mom asking what the flowers are, researching online, and digging of new gardens.

A few years back I helped a friend of mine with flowers for her wedding.  She went to the farmers market the morning of and we stuffed flower into mason jars and it looked great!

I also helped my mom with my cousin's outdoor wedding a couple years ago... We needed a toss bouquet, so I went searching the ditch and field for flowers then my mom helped me assemble- don't think it went too bad!

I have found that I end up with bunches of flowers coming home from the grocery store, make random stops at the garden centers, and somehow think I am slightly following in the footsteps of my mother.

So with this summer, comes a new adventure! Or maybe multiple, which I thought could maybe result in some fun blogging....

Adventure #1 Figure out your yard and make it that magical place I've been wanting forever!
Adventure #2 Help my mom with the master challenge of doing all of the flowers for my second cousin's wedding.
Adventure #3 Plan out some centerpieces for my best friends rehearsal dinner at the end of the summer.

So here goes the great flower adventure!