Miss Indecisive

Family and friends successfully convinced me to order a cake from a professional bakery and forgo making it myself. End the end I realize this is a smart decision, but as somebody who likes to keep a tight grip on money I had a hard time justifying $400 for Betty Crocker! Now I'm glad I ordered it, of course, but letting go of control to that project was difficult.

That aside, most other things have remained DIY projects and for all intents and purposes we've saved money and really been able to personalize our wedding this way. Our DIY invitations are beautiful, I love my hairpiece, and even small details like our table numbers are coming together.

One of our DIY projects never really set well with me, and at the time I liked the result but started changing my thoughts after Dave and I spent one evening stalking photos of beautiful weddings on our photographers website (www.SharberPhoto.com).

The more I thought about it, the more I liked some of the floral arrangements I had seen. Although the bouquet and pomanders I had made are very nice, I decided that I could either do better, or shell out the cash for real flowers. We're spending a lot of money on photography, and I want to make sure that in our photos we like the way things look. (The first bouquet, right).

Something about the bouquet I had made felt like it was missing something, and after putting several different extra little flowers into it I wasn't able to find the look I was going for.

Well, on Wednesday I went to Michaels to buy another vase for our centerpieces (I've been buying them one per week using the weekly 40% off coupon) and snoop around in the bridal area for inspiration. That's when I happened upon a gorgeous arrangement, sitting along by itself on clearance because it was missing a few flowers. It was all the inspiration I needed!

Not only was it less than $5.00, but the colors were perfect. I brought it home and added two stems of green hydrangeas, some of the same purple berries that are in my hairpiece, and a purple ribbon. I cannot believe how gorgeous it is in person, and when Dave came home he said 'WOW! That's cool, where did it come from?'

The sticks around the stem were a major selling point for me, and really go with our mountain 'wildflowers, pinecones, sticks, and river rocks' theme.

Brilliant :)

I will have a photo of the bouquet with the dress soon, in the next post actually. . .because I finally have pictures of me in my dress!

As if that we're cool enough, Michaels' also had similiar arrangements with the same sticks on the stem for $4.99 each. I pulled out the flowers they came with (very bright Gerbera daisy's) and will replace them with others. Once those turn out I will post another blog on them, as they will become the bridesmaid bouquets.

What about the 3 pomanders and original bouquet?

Well, the pomanders will be used as decoration for the ceremony; Dave and I both wanted something like that hung from Shephard hooks on the path to the meadow where our wedding will take place. The Shephard hooks, well, that's another story!

The original bouquet will either be re-purposed into the bridesmaid bouquets, or will stay as-is and will be used as part of my break-a-way- toss bouquet. I may attach two wedding ring charms to it and bunch the carnations around it, toss the whole thing and let it break apart. (See post 'Break-a-Way toss bouquet). We'll see. . .in either case it will still be used and no matter what, our floral budget is still way under what we would have spent if we bought all the flowers fresh (and then let them wilt in the July heat). I love how these will look fresh no matter what.