Wedding Flower Advice

"As much as I didn’t like my flowers at the time, I have with time, learned two important lessons. 1) don’t be talked into flowers that you don’t want, and write down those you do and 2) the flowers aren’t what make the day. As much as I love flowers, I’d rather have bad flowers and my husband than perfect flowers without him"

That is what Gwendolyn has to say about it. I enjoyed reading her reminiscence of her family's wedding flowers. Reading through her story, I shared her angst with such a callous florist. It sounded as if the sales pitch was geared toward what an unimaginative designer wanted to foist on their client. How sad.

Today there is no need to settle for such poor service... with all the books available, the internet sources for flowers, and so many creative people whose designs are accessible through many media sources (Martha Stewart, alone, offers some of the most beautiful designs in print, online, and through florists, etc).

I did the flowers for my daughters wedding, except for the Brides bouquet which had to be absolutely perfect. I didn't feel I wanted to be responsible for that. The advice I would give to a d-i-yourselfer: arrange for some helpers. It is a daunting job if you only have one pair of hands, but it is lots of fun.

someone's wedding in the park

At the time I wrote posts about it, (of course!)

• April Wedding Flowers 
• February flower choices  the original date we were looking at
• Wedding Flower Books - the ones that helped me the most at the time.
• How it all turned out

For me, the wrench in the works was the pressure of the wedding "overseer" at Franklin Park Conservatory- more interested in moving along the wedding party to make room for her next client of the day. I should have ignored her insistence that the gear get gathered up by the mother of the bride. There are always plenty of others who can be drafted into it. but this is what we don't always foresee- for the people who make their living from events, sometimes it is just a business to them, and they pressure for their own agenda, not yours.

The only way to avoid that is to hire someone like Derek Bergemann, the chef who catered the wedding. Yes, he was a friend of ours, but more importantly for the outcome of his service, is that he has a true love for what he does. That creates a winning situation for the Bride- she has the best possible service. Just as in the marriage, nothing really makes up for passion if it is missing.

Same is true for those who provide the flowers. Someone who takes pride in what they do will care about your happiness that day.

Best advice all around: Get something you love.

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Be sure to see Gardens in Ohio and A Botanical Wedding.