the week of our wedding: flowers pt. 1

In the months leading up to our wedding, I had been told repeatedly that I shouldn't DIY our flowers. I was told that it would be too stressful, that I wouldn't have enough time in the days before our wedding, or... worse of all, that I couldn't make something as nice as what a florist could create (the gall, I know).

In spite of this, I was determined. I'd spent months researching and reading about how to make bouquets and I'd even practiced a couple of times. I knew I could do it and I was determined to. Not only because it would save us money but because I knew I'd have fun making the bouquets with my bridesmaids. That's right, fun. Not stress.

I had spent the weeks leading up to the wedding scouring the various supermarkets in the city that sold flowers. For me, a florist was always going to be too expensive, even if we simply ordered the flowers from one and put them together ourselves. And when the grocery stores in our area had prices like 3 bouquets for $24.99, how could I resist? Although the bouquets were too small to make one substantial enough for a bridesmaid or bridal bouquet, I knew it would be simple enough to combine as many as we needed to make a well proportioned bouquet. Even if that meant buying 10 bouquets, it would still be cheaper than a florist. So, there you have it, the price works out.

What didn't work out was the selection. Okay, I'll be truthful, part of the selection didn't work out. We ended up finding the bouquets for the bridesmaids at Costco. They were white and green, exactly as my maid of honor/sister had requested when I asked her. The only problem? There was only 2. Only 2 of the perfect bouquets. And since I had 3 ladies on my side, that was an issue.

Yep, it was an issue.... for about 5 seconds. I quickly realized that the Costco bouquets were actually quite large. Like, really big. Too big for one girl. So my mom and I decided to buy the 2 that they had, split them up and turn it into 3. Perfection. Problem solved. Phew, what a hurdle, that was scary for a second. Glad we got past that.

Little did I know, that was the least of my problems with flowers.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything at Costco for my bouquet. None of the flowers really caught my fancy, but we decided that it was no problem since we still had 2 grocery stores to visit.

We arrived at the first grocery stores to find some bright pink Gerbera daisies which would serve as the perfect bouquet for the flower girls. Yet, still, they too had nothing for the bridal bouquet. Okay, starting to panic. But trying to keep calm since I knew there was one more store. And this store was the one that usually had the best selection out of the 2.

However, upon entering the last grocery store, full on panic set in. For some reason, the selection of flowers available at the store sucked the day before our wedding. Two weeks before, they'd been fine. The Tuesday before our wedding, they were amazing. This had boosted my confidence.

That Friday caused all that confidence to crumble. Although they had the flowers I wanted, the colors weren't right and the quality wasn't amazing. Some were droopy and some were just flat out losing petals and leaves. They did however, have an amazing selection of spider mums, which I promptly bought even though they didn't really fit with the handpicked wildflower bouquet of my dreams.

Not cool. I remember panicking about the possibility that I would have a bouquet comprised solely of spider mums. Pretty, but not my thing.

And of course, since I was stressing, so too was my mother. Who, at one point, took the time to kick me while I was down by reminding me that if I'd gone with a florist, we wouldn't have had this stressful problem to deal with. Thanks, mom.

However, she was right. If we'd hired a florist, I wouldn't have had to think about the flowers at all. But at the same time, the things she doesn't see is that the money saved and my feeling of accomplishment for having made my own bouquet are worth all the stress I was feeling at that moment.

Thankfully, in spite of all the crazy stress, my grandmother had the perfect solution to my bouquet debacle sitting right in her impeccable garden.

Stay tuned for Part 2!