Yay! Okay. The Golden Girl requests more wedding talk. And, right now, I can't get enough, either.
Two questions today. One super-girly one, though men who paid attention to detail (anyone? Anyone?) of course may also answer. And one for the general populace, though, men, step carefully, now.
First, for the ladies: What flowers did you choose? This is the thing I'm currently obsessed with, and it sounds like I can't get much hard info without talking to an actual florist. Drat! So I'll live through you for the moment: How did you choose your colors/flowers? Were you happy with how it turned out? Would you have had more/less flowers/decorating, if you could have done it over? This is significant to me because it seems one of the least important, yet most expensive, details. And yet flowers are inherently wonderful things.
For all: I've heard probably equal numbers of friends say that either they a) are so glad they had a wedding, it was a day to remember, a cherished moment in their lives together, etc.; or, b) they wish they had just eloped and saved money. Is there anything you would have done differently? Or maybe not had a wedding at all?
Bonus questions: What was your favorite thing about the wedding? (besides the actual fact of getting married, I mean.) What one thing went horribly wrong?
It's a lot, I know. But please let the comments flow like water! The more (and longer), the merrier.
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I had very, very simple flowers. The bridesmaids all carried a single rose with baby's breath and tied with a ribbon and I carried a sheaf of Sonja roses ... I'm not kidding that's what they were called and they were the right color, so I carried them!! The groomsmen had matching rosebuds in their lapels. Our church was very old and had these HUGE paned windows and my parents have an old bottle collection, so I had single roses in each window in old colored bottles. That was pretty much it for flowers.
ReplyDeleteMost horrible thing that happened that day ... well ... to set the scene you have to know that the reception was held in an old town hall on a lake pretty much in the middle of nowhere at the end of a long dirt road on a peninsula that jutted out into a lake (calling it a lake is sort of generous).
ReplyDeleteThe night before our wedding the whole wedding party had descended upon the place to decorate and leave some stuff there for the next day and we'd hired a guy to spend the night and keep an eye on everything. One of the things we'd left was our wine ... three cases of it. We left the wine in the kitchen which was right inside the only door to the place.
The next morning several of my bridesmaids and I were up early and combing the fields and roadsides for some seasonal flowers for decorating the tables and we got to the reception site at about 9 a.m. to discover that ALL the wine had been stolen!! Remember that this is in the days before cell phones and I'd had about 4 hours of sleep.
I temporarily lost my mind. It couldn't wait til I got home to tell my parents that the wine had been stolen. I was crying and this tragedy had to be dealt with now. So I went around knocking on the summer camp doors, trying to find a. someone who was awake and b. a camp with a phone. It took longer than you might expect.
Fortunately, one of my Dad's cousins went to Burlington for us to get more wine so we didn't go without. Thank God the beer didn't get stolen!!
I love that, Sonja! (the flowers, that is) Neat personal touch with the colored bottles. And the flower name, as well. Spelled right, and everything?!
ReplyDeleteWhat was the 'right' color?
Oh yeah ... the week following our wedding three cases of that wine mysteriously showed up in a local general store for sale. Hmmmm ....
ReplyDeleteThe "right" color was a pinky mauve ... late '80's you know.
ReplyDeleteKate- just popping in for a little wedding speak...I actually went to the Eastern Market in the morning of my wedding and spent about $100 on flowers. I had a 'crafty' friend come with me and she made the bouquets at my house while I got ready with my bridesmaids.
ReplyDeleteGoing to the market ended up being one of the best ways to spend my time that morning- it is the thing that I love doing most in the city, and it kept me from getting nervous about the wedding.
We didn't have any other flowers at the reception, and last minute I did decide to get flowers for the moms and groomsmen, but we wern't going to initially. Those ended up costing about as much as all the other flowers. (this was at a flower shop by the market so I picked them up that day too)
The only thing about our wedding day that I felt didn't go very well- was the food at the reception, the caterer convinced me to have the food passed on trays by servers constaintly walking around, and they just did a bad job. I wish I would've had tables set up around the rooms for people to get what they wanted.
Good luck!
-the architect (i will keep my name the same from one blog to the next!)
whew, this might be a long comment...
ReplyDeleteFlowers - we had a budget of $500 for flowers. I went to a cheap rose place and spent half the money on 25 dozen yellow roses. (our colors were yellow and sage) We used those all over the church and the reception site. Schuyler put up the ones not in water early the morning of while I was getting my hair done. Then, I spent the other half on the bouquets which I ordered from the 'fanciest' florist in Yakima. They were relatively small, but nice with white lilies and some yellow stuff I forgot the name of (I didn't want any babies breath). I thought it all looked great, but I wasn't really paying that much attention.
Up until the wedding started, I was starting to feel more and more like we should have just eloped, but I had a blast at our wedding and still remember it as one of the most fun days in my life. I think the key is to remember that it's a celebration and not take it too seriously. Also, to ignore the people who try to make you do something you don't want to do.
Favorite thing - it's not concrete, but my favorite thing about our wedding was that it was very joyous. everyone was happy and the dj even got my mother-in-law dancing. (She doesn't dance, she even refused a mother-son dance). Also, we made it kid friendly, that was cool.
Not much went wrong, but a week before the wedding, my salon called to say that the stylist had quit and they didn't have anyone else open (I'd made the appointment 6 months earlier). I found someone last minute and it was fine. Also, I went to pick up my veil the day before the wedding and it wasn't ready. I had to pick it up after I'd gotten my hair done on the way to the church and fit it over my updo, but that turned out fine too. I also forgot some things at home and Schuyler ran and got them for me while I got dressed and we stopped on the way to the reception at a sex-shop to buy a garter.
Also, apparently the dj was really late - got there just in time, but I didn't even know because the people I'd asked to be in charge of the reception (my dad and aunts) handled it.
I hope you were serious when you said long comments were good.
I got cheap fake flower bouquets from the JC Penny wedding cataloug. After the wedding I wished I had gotten live flowers because they didn't look very good in the pictures.
ReplyDeleteThere really weren't many glitches at the wedding. My FIL refused to wear his tux. But he was very passive aggressive about it and made everyone miserable with his petty problems (this button isn't right, the coller is too tight, etc.) Then the pictures took a little too long (Kate, make sure you plan well around how, when, and where pictures will be taken) and people started to get bored. But other than that, the day went pretty well.
Even though the marriage didn't last, I'm glad I had the wedding day. It was fun and it was one of the few days in my life when I felt special. I'm also glad I have the pictures for Eliabeth. Her dad looks normal and happy and healthy in them.
I got married in the summer of '97. My flower set-up was similar to Sonja's: One rose each for bridesmaids and groomsmen, and a tiny bouquet for me. The roses were cream inside, darkening to coral at the edges. We had a few stands of ferns up where the ceremony was, and we decorated the tables and hall with ivy/white light garlands we had cut from someone's yard and made the day before. My friend who worked for a florist decorated the cake with hydrangeas. I think we spent maybe $100 on flowers.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to do it over again, I'd cut the sandwiches bigger so people would feel like they could eat a lot more; serve alcohol; and get proofs from the photographer instead of handling the negatives ourselves. (we scratched them all up). I also would have liked a nicer bouquet, I think. Will show you wedding scrapbook, which actually contains our estimated and actual budget for some reason.
I had all the flowers that "they" recommend you have. My bouquet was roses, but for everything else I had used gerbera daisies because I like them & they also happen to be an inexpensive flower. I think in the end, it trimmed quite a bit in the overall flower budget to go with a budget friendly main flower.
ReplyDelete