Happy Weeding

This actually happened over a week ago now, but between the paranoia that she would call me angry or in tears and the excitement over Tate it was shoved to the side.

I have officially completed my first wedding! Well, 'first' as in, the 'first' I've taken from the very first phone call, completed the consultations, did the follow ups, worked with my boss on checking pricing and finished the bouquets.

Not to say I did it by myself, however. If it weren't for my boss and coworkers I would have been incredibly lost. Pricing a wedding? Discovering how to get the best bang for their buck for their budget? Making sure you understand the bride's vision so you can carry it into their bouquets and make wise spur-of-the-moment-when-needed decisions? Having someone to bounce ideas off of?

My bride (my bride) wanted all hydrangeas. Hydrangeas can be scary. They're very finicky. If they're not happy they can quickly turn brown and die. Which happened, actually. We had tinted her toss bouquet with some whitewash to fade out the blue and it lasted until she got her hair done. I actually wasn't at work that day, but a coworker called me later saying she had had to replace the bouquet and run it out to the chapel. She double-checked the rest & confirmed they were fine. So while we've successfully painted hydrangeas in the past this particular type of paint was just too strong. Noted.

Enough. I'm forcing pictures on you.
Her colors were tiffany blue, light blue & white.)

The Bridal Bouquet:


Please note how thick the handle is at the back of the picture. Ten hydrangeas. This thing was like a club. I could've taken someone out with it.

The Mother's Bouquet:


My bride opted out of corsages for the mothers and went with handheld bouquets of a single hydrangea cupped with babies breath instead. I wish I had a closeup of all her ribbons. She personally brought them in and I loved the white ribbon with circles all throughout it. Elegant and yet fun. Perfect.

The Reception Centerpieces:


Seriously, I know it looks like those things just dropped in there, but that's far from the truth. The hydrangeas were so large they toppled over. Bubbles, wirework and lots of manipulating of leaves later, Imy & I finally worked out a system and the others went (mostly) smoothly.

Major Things I Learned:
1) Honesty is priceless. I know this, but it was just reaffirmed. Just because I thought the leaves coming up through the flowers looked cool, it doesn't mean it did. And now that I go back and look at the pictures, and what my bride wanted, it would've been a huge mistake. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and the leaves would've destroyed the look she was going for. Much appreciation to Pam & Imy.

2) You could ask a thousand pertinent questions and still get down to the day of the wedding and realize you really needed to ask about fifteen more. This is where wise-choices-for-spur-of-the-moment questions come in. It will always happen. Just accept it.

3) I have so much to learn.

Honestly, I got really lucky. My bride was awesome-- very fun and very sweet-- and I work with people who are also awesome (and patient). And although it did cause a lot of stress & fear of what will she think and what will go wrong I really did enjoy the whole process.

Still, though, I agree with my boss. I would rather design a casket spray.