Dealing with florists, floral designers, flower markets, and the wedding venue is almost a full-time job. Fortunately though there are ways to simplify the process and give you a little more time to take care of other things.
The first thing to consider when choosing your flower arrangements is color. Before you choose the type of flower, choose the color. Almost any flower can be found or created in any color, so let the color be your guide and the flowers will follow.
Remember, as with anything in a wedding, you can never go wrong with white. After you have chosen your colors, choose your flowers. A good florist will point you in the right direction.
If the flowers you have chosen are beyond your budget, find a florist who can find alternative flowers for you. Remember, all flowers don't bloom year-round everywhere in the country.
Try and choose flowers in their natural colors that are in season at the time of your wedding. You may be choosing your flowers in January, but if they aren't available for your wedding in August, you'll be out of luck. Make sure your florist is aware of the date of your wedding. You don't have to go a florist to get all of this done. You can find independent floral designers in almost any town.
You can also talk to your reception or wedding venue and see who they regularly work with. Often, local community colleges will have agriculture and/or hospitality departments who might be able to provide you with students who could help you choose and assemble your floral designs if you choose to do it yourself.
As you are no doubt aware, flowers can be one of the most expensive parts of a wedding, and we all know they don't last. If you are committed to meeting a budget, flowers are one of the easiest ways to cut costs.
By visiting the local farmer's market and planning ahead, you can save a lot of money by providing your own flowers. Of course, you'll need help (as you'll be pretty busy on your wedding day), but the savings are substantial.
I want to make table centerpiece arrangements for my birthday using white and pink tulips. The vases I am using are mirrored mosaic (non see-thru) about 20 inches tall. It's going to be easiest if you use a brick of dry foam in the vase. The brand I use is Sahara by Oasis, but there are others. Just make sure it's meant to be a dry foam used with silks, and not a foam to be soaked with water for use with fresh flowers. The brick should fit tightly in the container. Use two, if necessary. To conceal the foam, I use some spanish moss or some sheet moss stretched thin over the top of the foam.
You insert the stems right through the moss. Try to insert the stems at least a good 2 inches to be sure the flowers hold in place. One of the best things about working with silks is that you can bend the stems in any direction you like. Toward the middle, leave the stems relatively straight, but around the edges of the vase, give them a nice outward curve.
Also, don't be afraid to stagger the heights. If they're all on the same plain, the arrangement is going to seem flat and uninteresting. If you put a few flowers slightly deeper than the surrounding ones, it will keep the viewer's eye interested. Additionally, I recommend to use a little bit of clustering - put a few white tulips together in some areas, a few pink in other areas, and alternate in between. Using small groupings of like colors makes a bigger visual impact than if you distribute them completely evenly.
Ideally, the vase should make up just 1/3 of the height of the overall arrangement. Since you're working with such a tall vase, this might not be possible. But I would recommend to leave the stems as long as possible. You want the flowers and the vase, because it's decorative, to gain the same amount of attention. If the stems are too short, the flowers are going to lose any focus and appear rather unimpressive. Try to make sure that you keep the idea of how you would like your flower arrangement to look like and stay with it. But I think that that you be a very nice center piece.
I want to make an arrangement in a large 25 inch floor vase but am not sure what type of flower and what shape to give the arrangement. The vase is made of metal, is oval at the top, a smaller neck and flares rounded at the bottom. It has the colors of dark brown, gray, and shows grape leaves and bunches of grapes at the bottom. I would go with flowers that you might find in a garden to give it a wild, airy look.
Curly willow should certainly be used, in my opinion, and perhaps some grape vine, too. You'll want to use some tall flowers that grow on stocks. For flowers, I'd go with things like crab apple blossoms and larkspur for height. I think hydrangeas would be a nice touch to fill around the bottom. Maybe use alstroemeria throughout the arrangement, as well. Don't forget the importance of greenery. I think some ivy trailing from the mouth of the vase would look nice. Colors of cream, and shades of purple would be appropriate.
But just remember that if you go this way that you want to have people stop and look at the arrangement. Try not to get the greenery to long when you are doing your arrangement. But if you can only get it long then use the greenery. You could try raping it around the vase from bottom to top and you can even make it look as though it is going up the wall. Just make sure you have the idea of what you want it to look like before you put it together.
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