Flower Arrangements

I wanted to quickly share my mother's wonderful floral arranging skills. We had Megan's bridal shower over the weekend and I had enlisted my mother to do the arrangements. We weren't working with the best colors, but with a little help from my grandma's yard, and a few items from my mom's garden, she managed to turn a slew of random flowers, into nine wonderful little centerpieces.

Megan has a little beach theme going-so we used the big bag of shells that I picked up at a yard sale for $3 and brown sugar to act as the sand. 

.ray.

Mike the Flower Man

Friday my mom and I went to see Mike, the infamous flower man, that sells flowers on third street. EVERYONE knows MIKE! We got the scoop on how to get flowers from him before the wedding. It's pretty simple. You tell him what you want ahead of time (colors or specifics), he shows up on his corner-Friday before your wedding, you give him money, he gives you flowers, and then you go at it making your centerpieces. My mom and I are still ironing out some of the details, but we did have some fun making arrangements Friday. We think we made the "perfect" arrangement for the wedding and wrote down all the details. I won't share a picture, even though I am dying to, but here is a random centerpiece we made, IF only we were using coral.

.ray.

Boutonnieres

Like I have said before, my mom has taken over all projects "succulent" (favors/boutonnieres). She is definitely the one with the green thumb. I kill anything and everything green that crosses the threshold of my front door, so we have managed to keep all the succulents at her house-growing/living/breathing, not dying/wilting/shriveling. I was eagerly awoken by my mom, like a kid on Christmas morning, calling to tell me she made a simple, but awesome boutonniere, and she was dying to show me. She is going to be a succulent guru come July and has now mastered the art of making a succulent boutonniere. She thinks the daunting task will take all of two hours come wedding time. Our neighbor is growing the lavender (she doesn't know yet that she will be donating to the cause). My mom is also negotiating with her new eBay friend from California, seeing if she can get enough of these succulents (see below) sent this spring. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

.ray.

Succulents

My mom has taken the succulent project to an entirely new level.
Here are a few of my mom's newest additions.

I am wondering if she will really be able to give them up come time for the wedding???

And will they survive the winter...??

.ray.

Succulents

As I peruse this blog and I see all the entries I have made thus far, I am starting to think I have pretty much made this entire wedding a do-it-yourself one. I don't know if I have gotten a bit overzealous, or the control freak in me has taken over, but I yet again have another d.i.y. project for the wedding.  The plan is to use succulents as the wedding favor. If you know me and have seen any of the plants I have brought into our house, you would know that I kill everything.  My mom, with the green thumb, has taken over this project. There are a million different varieties of succulents and cactus, and I have managed to scour my mother's yard, the neighbors, Damon's parents, and even a few yard sales to come up with several different varieties.  I am still in search of more varieties, so if anyone reading this blog would like to contribute, I would be more than thankful.

The above three pictures are from my parents' house. My mom has created a little green house for succulents.

Damon's parents' yard.  

There would probably be more if Damon wouldn't have thought they were a weed at one point. 

$1.00 for all of these at a yard sale over the weekend. 

.ray.

Grandma's Hydrangeas

So we, meaning my mom and I, not Damon, go back and forth on what flowers to use in the wedding.  Taking into account we want to do the arrangements ourselves, keep the costs down, and most of all, have them look amazing.  We originally wanted to use hydrangeas, my grandma has tons of bushes, but unfortunately, with the heat we had, we thought they had all wilted away.  We had the option of pushing up the wedding to the growing season of hydrangeas or just pick a new flower and move on.

We went to my grandma's house over the weekend just to see what the bushes looked like and we were pleasantly surprised.  Yeah, she didn't have the vibrant colors we had seen in early July, but now had hydrangeas that were gorgeous and would be absolutely perfect!

We then obviously needed to see how it would look in the vases.

.ray.

Succulents

We decided that succulents should be incorporated into the wedding decor, not sure how yet, but my mom has been growing them and separating them in her garden.  Last time I was at Damon's parents house we came across this pot.  I wonder how attached they are to this? 

If you guys are reading this....HOW ATTACHED ARE YOU TO THIS? :)

.ray.

Paulus Farm Market

D.I.Y. Flowers?......

I spent all week at the beach and couldn't plan a darn thing for this wedding.  I guess rest and relaxation are not something I should be complaining about, but as soon as I woke up this morning I hit the road running. 

We went to Paulus Farms in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Starting in July the fields are available to be cut.  For $10 they provide the clippers and the bucket.  It's then up to YOU to gather the flowers.   There was an awesome assortment of flowers, mainly zinnias, but also, snap dragons, sun flowers, straw flowers, asters, cosmos, celosia-flamingo feather, and lots more that I don't have the slightest clue on the names. 

       

All of the flower picking inspired us to practice our own arrangements, boutonnieres and bouquets. 

.ray.