Wedding Invitations

No matter how large or small a wedding is, one thing that is almost guaranteed to be a part of the day are the flowers. Flowers adorning the church door, scattered by the flower girl, worn proudly as a corsage by the mother of the groom, and of course carried happily by the joyful bride, there’s no question that weddings and flowers go together and make a winning combination.

Are you overwhelmed by sorting out the flowers for your wedding? You’re not alone! If you are planning on honoring your mothers and grandmothers and other special women in your lives, definitely mark down corsages or nosegays for these ladies (and add in a few extras for any you might have inadvertently overlooked). You might also want to think about flowers for the reception site, the ceremony site, the rehearsal dinner site, and of course the flowers for the wedding party.

Some brides in the early stages of wedding planning might wonder about the etiquette involved in selecting wedding flowers and we’d like to help clear up any confusion that might be out there. Wedding etiquette (or tradition) suggests that the groom himself give the bride her bouquet as a gift, as well as the flowers for the bridal couple’s mothers and grandmothers and the groomsmen’s boutinieres. Traditionally, the bride takes care of ceremony and reception flowers as well as the bridesmaids’ bouquets.

Another lovely gift of flowers you could make together would be to send flowers to family members who are unable to attend the wedding due to distance or poor health. Trust me, no one doesn’t like being remembered with a gift of flowers.

You want a florist who is dependable, has a good reputation, who can do a good job and who can work with your budget. A good florist can work with any budget. It’s called creativity.

Even if you don’t have a date set yet, it’s important to start shopping around for a florist and gathering ideas as soon as possible. Go ahead and cut out visuals from places like magazines and hang onto them to show your florist when the time comes. Start talking to friends, family, coworkers, and even other new brides for suggestions, recommendations and referrals. It can be amazing what a resource they can be to you.

Also start visiting floral shops to get a good idea of who you may want to go with.
You can tell a lot by the appearance of the store and the manners & personality of the employees. Take note of their displays. How creative are they? Also take note of the health and quality of the flowers, plants and other arrangements. Ask them if they even do weddings. Ask if you can take a look at some pictures of past arrangements or events they have done. Look at their pricing.

You don’t have to make a commitment right away.  It’s ok to ask questions and shop around. No florist should make you feel obligated to go with them just because you asked a few basic questions. If they do, run the other way. Just be sure to be considerate of their time.

I’ll explain specifically what I mean tomorrow in our wedding etiquette blog. Until then, have a wonderful Monday. Make it a good one. 

If you had an “uneventful” wedding, you’ll be counting your lucky stars after I share with you this story I ran into.

After the actual ceremony the bride and groom took some more pictures outside with the photographer. The bride, with a very irritated look on her face, began swatting at the groom and violently waving her bouquet around. The groom on the other hand had a fearful look on his face as he back up. You can probably imagine what the distant onlookers were thinking. Probably something along the lines of…“This marriage is off to great start. The bride’s already taking swings at the groom”. As it turns out, the bouquet made if real flowers was quite enticing to the bees that lived nearby. She was swatting at the bees surrounding them and the groom was deathly afraid of bees.

Later they decided to have the bouquet tossing over on the other side of the property away from previous bee attack. Note that the entire property was lush in beautiful thick foliage. When the bride tossed the bouquet it went over everyone’s heads and it smacked the overhanging hive that no one had seemed to notice. Swarms of bees (or wasps, not quite sure which species), poured out in fury. Amazingly no one got stung and the bees enjoyed the nectar of the fresh cut flowers.

If only bees knew it was bad wedding etiquette to show up uninvited to a wedding. Then again, perhaps they look at us as the uninvited guests.