Flowerless

Today is officially my 1 year anniversary! It feels like just yesterday! I also realized that of all the fun things I've shared with you, I have yet to share the details of the little things. I'm a VERY sentimental gal and every little detail of my wedding was planned and taken into consideration.

The centerpieces

The wedding was an Alice in Wonderland themed event because that was the first thing that Adam and I really bonded over. Our friend (and bridesmaid) Stephanie offered her services as a floral designer and craftsman and made us these gorgeous teapot topiary centerpieces. She screen grabbed shots from the scene where Alice is at the mad tea party and made every single teapot on the table- 10 total. Stephanie also sent along faux flowers and made teacups and saucers that were meant to be stacked. We had every intention of getting over to the venue to demonstrate how they are to be set, but with the freeze shutting down the city, that never happened, so the venue set it up with the best idea of what we would like. I didn't see it all together until the reception. They absolutely nailed. They were flown from California to Florida in big boxes, where they lived for a month or two with our friend Jane.

The bouquets:

Just as each girl was different, I wanted their bouquet to be. But I still wanted a very uniform look. I had originally intended to make brooch bouquets for all of us, but the more I looked at them online and collected the brooches, the more I realized I didn't like them as much as I thought I did, not to mention would never be able to afford the amount I needed to do it right. So I altered course. I raided my nearest Joanne's remnant section for colors that matched the girls dresses and I went to work making flowers. I found this vintage Children's book at a thrift store, already with a broken spice, so I thought it would be nice to give it new life as part of my wedding. Each girl's bouquet contained a story. Mine was Alice in Wonderland, Leslie's (in pink) was Sleeping Beauty, Erika's (in green) was 101 Arabian Nights, Stephanie's (in purple) was Bambi, Kayla's (in blue) was Cinderella, Katie's (in goldenrod) was Robin Hood. To add even more individuality to their seemingly uniform bouquets, I added vintage brooches to the center of the flower of their dress color. Except for Erika. As the maid of honor (and because her flower color was a green burlap rose, which already had pearls on it), her bouquet was made to match mine, with vintage brooches in the white satin flowers (while mine had them in all of the white- there were two types of white flowers, you can see them in the photo above). Each girls' bouquet was fixed onto a thrifted vintage butter knife to give it a more vintage glam look and keep them nice and light. Mine was fixed to a vintage cake knife.

The Corsages:

When it came to the corsages for our mothers, we wanted something that would be functional and beautiful. So, using the same fabric flowers from the bouquets, we made them timepiece corsages and gifted them to them at the rehearsal dinner in the same teacups I gave to the bridesmaids. We thought it would be fun if each faction of our family wore a color to match the bridesmaids, so we asked my dad's side to wear purple, my mom's side to wear pink, and his side to wear blue. This helps up match the corsages to their dresses.

Boutonnieres:

Because we had an uneven number of bridesmaids to groomsmen, it felt silly to try to match the colors, so we run the gambit. We had each male member of the group wear a tie and socks that did not match the color of their boutonniere, which was made from the same fabric in the bouquets. For example, Vince in the green tie, had blue and goldenrod in his boutonniere, which means his socks were either pink or purple, and so it was for the other groomsmen. Each boutonniere had one white flower, tying them all together. The fathers had the same flowers as each other- pink and goldenrod. Grandma and Grandpa had a special set. with 5 brides and 4 mother, grandma stuck out, so hers and grandpa's were made out of the maid of honor's color- the green burlap roses with the pearls, setting them apart from the others.

The Cake:

I love uniformity, so our topsy turvy naked cake was covered with the same brooches and flowers as everything else! We mailed them out to the bakery, along with the teacups (which were identical to the ones from the ceremony). I loved how these fabric flowers looked with the teacups, topiary centerpieces, and everything else made with them.

Stephanie even made this adorable top hat to hold my bouquet during the reception.

All in all, our flowerless wedding was a lot of work, but we had a lot of help from good friends (a couple flower-making parties helped us cross the finish line). In the long run, I am so happy with the result. I can keep my bouquet forever, and I didn't have to try to deal with picking out flowers (an incredibly difficult task for an indecisive gal like me), or arranging drop off and set up from across the country. On top of that, it was so much fun to learn an new skill (or 4) as I had never made a bouquet, corsage, or boutonniere before. Heck, I had never made a fabric flower before, let along a burlap rose and 3 different types of flowers. My not-so-DIY wedding turned into a total DIY wedding, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.