Flowers, flowers, flowers

When I first told Mike that I was thinking of making all of our bouquets for the wedding, he thought it was a really bad idea. He had this image of me as a stress ball, running around the day before our wedding with flowers in one hand and a box of tissues in the other. He still may not be wrong...

But that's not going to stop me from trying. A few weeks ago, Leah and I bought a few bunches of roses from Hannaford and set to work trying to make a bouquet. I, of course, being the irresponsible blogger that I am, don't have pictures for you. But I'll steal generic ones from the internet to illustrate.

I'd done my research in advance. I looked at a few descriptions on a few of my wedding blogs - including this one from Wedding Bee - and then I found this lovely video.

With that behind us, we set to work. We tried a few different times and a couple different ways to get what I was looking for. Which was basically this:
I want something with varying heights but not crazy. I like the idea of the accent flower, but we just had roses to work with. After a few tries, we were pretty pleased with what we came up with. It should *hopefully* not take up the ENTIRE day before the wedding and I have a great resource behind me for support (and not just my amazing bridesmaids).

During my travels on the Internet, I discovered 2G Roses. A company based in California, they specialize in all natural growing and direct to consumer distribution. And they specialize in wedding flowers.

We provide fresh cut flowers and greens to people who want to do some or all of their own arranging. The only finished product that we supply are green garlands. Doing the arrangements yourself is not as difficult as it sounds. Arranging flowers is actually quite easy if you stay away from complex styles. Keep in mind that flowers are attractive all by themselves and you have to work very hard to make them look bad. We have had thousands of brides do their own flowers and their skill levels have been from "what's a rose?" to former florist and I have yet to see one that didn't pull it off.

I can get 150 red and white roses for under $160. That will be more than enough for the 6 bridesmaids and my bouquets, the boutonniere for the groomsmen, dads and Mike, and the corsages for the moms and grandmas. That'll leave room for error, broken flowers, and even ambition if I want to do something more.

Like all craft projects, the potential for me pouting is definitely there. But I made it through the test run with minimal stomping and I think the second time around will be even better. I'm planning on ordering a "test bunch" in a few months to give it another try and to see the quality of their flowers.

And anytime I think the project is getting overwhelming, I'm just going to stop, smell the roses (hehehehe) and remember how much freaking money I'm saving by doing this myself.