Katie and I are lucky to work with many talented people, and Ms. Kay and Ms. Susan are at the top of the list. These ladies have done arrangements for countless weddings throughout the south and have been working with us for years. When it comes to flower arranging, you won’t find anyone better than these gals — just check out our catalog for proof. I’ve honestly seen them make the simplest, cheapest grocery-store flowers look like a magazine-worthy, high-end floral arrangements.
They'll stop at nothing for the perfect arrangement — Susan is notorious for her “drive-by clippings.” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been on location and Susan suddenly disappears and comes back with a whole new arrangement. Birmingham residents, if you see a sweet little lady snooping in your garden with clippers, don’t fret, it’s probably just Ms. Susan.
Anyways, about the wedding … right after Stephen proposed to Katie, Kay and Susan were among the first people she called (after her mother, of course!). Now, since Katie is a girl who knows what she wants, she had her color palette and vision ready. She went with a pink-and-orange theme because she wanted the day to be bright and bold, to have an elegant feel with a whimsical touch.
I sat down with Susan and asked her to give me the 411 on what made Katie’s flowers so spectacular. She said a large part for her was just listening to the bride — and that was easy, since Katie had such a clear idea of what she wanted. This clarity came from looking through countless magazines, books and blogs. Every morning at the office, Alison and I would share the ideas that we’d found, too.
Another bit of advice: quality not quantity. If you’re working on a tight budget, be sure your flowers are large, full blooms. Katie’s first choice was peonies. Unfortunately, they run about five dollars a stem (yikes!) and had to be shipped in — so we did some improvising. In-season garden roses at full bloom (here’s where quality comes in) can look very similar at a much more reasonable price tag. She kept some peonies in her budget to splurge in a few areas, such as her bouquet, which looked stunning!
For the rest of the arrangements, she went with a combination of pink hydrangeas, tulips, larkspur and gerbera daisies. All of these were either year-round blooms or at their peak season. Sticking to blooms in peak season during your wedding is definitely key to getting good quality and staying in budget. For Katie’s April wedding, tulips were at their fullest, as were hydrangeas. The gerbera daisies also added an inexpensive whimsical touch to the arrangements.
Another trick of the trade is grouping like flowers together. Keeping similar colors and blooms coupled makes for a more graphic, striking impact. This especially came through on the cookie bar and Katie’s bouquet. You also want to group the “heavier” looking flowers near the bottom of the arrangement to ground it and build the leafy, airier stems at the top for height. A bright and bold color palette for your arrangements also helps to make a statement with fewer flowers.
The final touch is finding a clean, elegant vase to showcase your arrangement. Note that a larger container is not always better — a vase with a small opening can be easier to style with fewer flowers. On a flat surface, it helps to place the arrangements at varying elevations to add more depth and interest. For Katie’s wedding, grouping the glass containers made for a more sophisticated look.
I don’t know about you, but we think Kay and Susan nailed it! Susan said they were, “The happiest flowers for such a rainy day. They put sunshine in the room — so Katie!” Hope you enjoyed looking through these photos as much as we enjoyed putting them together! We all pitched in at the end —be sure to check of the photo of Alison’s husband, Robert, assisting with the tulips. What a good sport!
They'll stop at nothing for the perfect arrangement — Susan is notorious for her “drive-by clippings.” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been on location and Susan suddenly disappears and comes back with a whole new arrangement. Birmingham residents, if you see a sweet little lady snooping in your garden with clippers, don’t fret, it’s probably just Ms. Susan.
Anyways, about the wedding … right after Stephen proposed to Katie, Kay and Susan were among the first people she called (after her mother, of course!). Now, since Katie is a girl who knows what she wants, she had her color palette and vision ready. She went with a pink-and-orange theme because she wanted the day to be bright and bold, to have an elegant feel with a whimsical touch.
I sat down with Susan and asked her to give me the 411 on what made Katie’s flowers so spectacular. She said a large part for her was just listening to the bride — and that was easy, since Katie had such a clear idea of what she wanted. This clarity came from looking through countless magazines, books and blogs. Every morning at the office, Alison and I would share the ideas that we’d found, too.
Another bit of advice: quality not quantity. If you’re working on a tight budget, be sure your flowers are large, full blooms. Katie’s first choice was peonies. Unfortunately, they run about five dollars a stem (yikes!) and had to be shipped in — so we did some improvising. In-season garden roses at full bloom (here’s where quality comes in) can look very similar at a much more reasonable price tag. She kept some peonies in her budget to splurge in a few areas, such as her bouquet, which looked stunning!
For the rest of the arrangements, she went with a combination of pink hydrangeas, tulips, larkspur and gerbera daisies. All of these were either year-round blooms or at their peak season. Sticking to blooms in peak season during your wedding is definitely key to getting good quality and staying in budget. For Katie’s April wedding, tulips were at their fullest, as were hydrangeas. The gerbera daisies also added an inexpensive whimsical touch to the arrangements.
Another trick of the trade is grouping like flowers together. Keeping similar colors and blooms coupled makes for a more graphic, striking impact. This especially came through on the cookie bar and Katie’s bouquet. You also want to group the “heavier” looking flowers near the bottom of the arrangement to ground it and build the leafy, airier stems at the top for height. A bright and bold color palette for your arrangements also helps to make a statement with fewer flowers.
The final touch is finding a clean, elegant vase to showcase your arrangement. Note that a larger container is not always better — a vase with a small opening can be easier to style with fewer flowers. On a flat surface, it helps to place the arrangements at varying elevations to add more depth and interest. For Katie’s wedding, grouping the glass containers made for a more sophisticated look.
I don’t know about you, but we think Kay and Susan nailed it! Susan said they were, “The happiest flowers for such a rainy day. They put sunshine in the room — so Katie!” Hope you enjoyed looking through these photos as much as we enjoyed putting them together! We all pitched in at the end —be sure to check of the photo of Alison’s husband, Robert, assisting with the tulips. What a good sport!