English Garden Wedding Flowers

My oh my, what a weekend it was. I did the flowers for our friends' wedding on Sunday afternoon. They got married at the Webb Barn in Wethersfield which, holy guacamole what a spectacular place!! Made me want to cook up some make believe event to celebrate, just so I could hang out there! The couple got the most gorgeous weather for the day as well; light breeze, partly cloudy, seventy degrees. You couldn't ask for better! Now on my big day (we got married in our backyard), it was 98 degrees and humid as hell. Ah well.

       So like I said, I did the flowers for the wedding. This is actually the third wedding for which I've now done flowers. I did my own flowers at my wedding, and also another friends' who got married on our property. I really really like arranging flowers, and wedding flowers are the most fun because it's basically the only time you ever need to make bouquets. This was my first time doing boutonnieres and corsages. All in all it went pretty well, a few details I would tweak if I were asked to do yet another wedding. Would have been a terrific evening had I not been coming down with THE COLD FROM HELL. 

         Brian started getting sick on Thursday. By Friday I was starting to feel a bit crumby but was in immense cold-denial. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding, must not get sick, these flowers have to get done, must not get sick. I deteriorated steadily through the weekend. Managed to hobble down the aisle in my too-tight dress, got through the pictures, and then crashed entirely. It is easily the worst cold I've ever had. I spent yesterday (Memorial Day) in bed, which I never ever ever do. I haaaaaate being inactive. My house was a huge mess and I was desperately behind on work, but I literally couldn't walk. I feel like we, as a culture, don't take colds seriously enough. It's always, "Oh it's just a cold". Yea, no one's going to die from a cold, but I can tell you that yesterday I was way way sicker than I've been the times I've had the flu. I'm a bit better today. Managed to chip away a bit at the house cleaning this morning, and as soon as I publish this post I'll be out in the workshop hammering away at a dining set I truly need to finish pronto. 

         So back to the flowers. The bride's colors were purple and blue. She wanted a country garden theme, with some rustic and antique elements, nothing too formal. I ordered all the flowers from fiftyflowers.com. I really like their customer service and their stock is pretty reliably fresh. My friend Jess and I started arranging on Saturday afternoon. The centerpieces are all in antique aqua mason jars. I did the bridal bouquets Saturday evening. Sunday I re-adjusted the centerpieces, and made all the boutonnieres and corsages. It was rush rush rush near the end, but I managed to get it all done in time for the big day. I snapped some quick cell phone pictures when I was dropping off the flowers before hopping into my (too-tight) bridesmaid's dress. I reaaaaaaaaally need to stop eating and start running again. I was the chubbiest bridesmaid by far. :-(

Bride and bridesmaid bouquets. I didn't put the ribbons on until the last minute
so I could keep them in water as long as possible. 

boutonnieres are boxwood, lavender, and rosemary from my garden, and purple daisies from the flowers I ordered.

corsages. 

And centerpieces!

And here's Brian in his groomsman get up and me in my (too-tight) bridesmaid dress, both pretending like we don't feel like walking zombies, trying not to cough in each other's faces.