Long lasting flowers

As I mentioned in an earlier post this summer, I was able to find some fabric flowers and butterflies for some of the reception decorations at a great FANTASTIC price last summer when living with my parents between my moves from NC and to OH.

I fell in love with the simplicity yet colorful pop of the flowers that with my Mom's encouragement, I made the leap and opted to create hand made bouquets for each of the gals and moms.  I figured if they wanted, they could keep them as souvineers and even sprayed them with each of their favorite Bath and Body Works scents.  Then, the individual sprays were placed in their Survival Kit Bags that we presented to each member of the wedding part at the Rehearsal Dinner two months ago from tonight!  The men also sported hand made boutineers and Mason, the flower girl, loved that she had a matching bouquet similar to mine.  Our photographer captured a beautiful moment between the two of us just before I walked down the aisle comparing our bouquets side by side.

My sister-in-law, Alisha's bouquet really stood out against her pretty light purple sheer dress & to the right is the flower girl's bouquet.

Adam's sister's bouquet was inspired by an Easter picture I saw of their family in 2014.  Both her boys wore light blue summery long sleeve blue button down shirts to Easter Mass which made for a very beautiful family photo (one that we had displayed in our Memories photo frame at the reception).  Wendy wore a beautiful light green dress that reminded me of a Greek goddess with the neckline!

My parents' living room floor last summer was the scene of lots of glitter, some petals, and a lot of twisting, trimming, and rearranging of flowers!  Nowadays my living room floor is covered with wrassling pups...my oh my what a difference a year makes!  ; )

This was how I envisioned the centerpiece of the sweetheart table looking upon our arrival by sticking my bouquet in the blue mason jar and we used the wine bottle as our Unity Candle.  On our wedding day, however, the key on the sparkly ribbon never made it due to the fact that it was lost at the church.  It had been carried up by the younger ring bearer, Jacob, but after mass was lost in the shuffle.  Fortunately, the church recovered it in the days following the wedding and they returned it to us.  We also forgot to ask the staff to leave a book of matches on our table to light the candle.  This is why, if you watch our highlights video, you will see us "pretending" to light the candle just before we sat down to eat dinner.  The wine bottle complete with the candle and key have found a spot in our bedroom.  The wine bottle was a gift I had created for Adam in Denver, Colorado to commemorate our trip.  However, it became our celebratory bottle of wine the night he proposed!  The key ribbon also holds my Jeremiah 29:11 ring.  Ironically, the candle is from California, purchased on a girls' getaway trip to San Francisco the summer before I met Adam.  Who would have thought that something I purchased on the Pier in San Fran would be used at my wedding to a CA boy?!

I was so proud of this boutineer I made for Adam.  To show him that night I displayed it on a headband so he could see what it looked like.  Of all the guys' boutineers, I liked this one the most since it contained a little bit of all the colors of the wedding:  purple, green, pink, ivory.

My older brother's boutineer matched Brian's light purple tie and pocket scarf as well as his eggplant socks.  The men were able to keep their socks and pocket scarves as gifts.  Who knows..maybe the scarves will come in handy as rags and the socks can be worn to bed or at night....they seemed to be less than thrilled by the color choices but this bride was colored happy by all the bright colors that day.  LOL!

Mom Sue's bouquet and Dad Tom's boutineer!  This boutineer wound up being worn upside down at the wedding but it still looked great!  ; )  Mom Sue's light pastel pink dress had beautiful layers and sheer fabric similar to my Mom's dress.  Both moms were so stylish and beautiful that day but then again they are each and every day anyhow!

Matron of Honor Heather's bouquet and my little brother's boutineer; Heather wore a striking bright pink dress and matched Patrick who wore an equally bright pink tie, pocket square, and socks (although they look red in the picture?) probably much to his chagrin!!  He returned the scarf that I now use as a vase marker doily type piece of material on our dining room table.  We currently have beautiful pink and purple flowers on display that beautifully go with the pink scarf.  Even better, the flowers were only $4.99 from our local grocer!

Adam's brother, Mark, was the best man and he wore this sunshiney boutineer while his lovely wife, Alicia, carried this bouquet that complemented her gorgeous flowy light purple dress.

Liz, my twin's wife, opted to wear a light lime green one shoulder dress that reminded me of grass blowing in a field with the ripples and waves on her dress.  Mark wore my second favorite boutineer and rocked the light green look!

Here is Wendy's bouquet again flanked by her husband's boutineer at the top right.  Tim wore a light green tie that matched his wife's dress in addition to the lime green socks and pocket square.  The butterfly boutineer was meant for Dustin who was the older ring bearer but this boutineer was quickly turned into my Dad's boutineer when we misplaced his on the way to the church.  We removed the butterfly and refashioned Dad's boutineer only to find his lost one in the car.  So, just before we all walked down the aisle, Dustin was able to quickly pin my Dad's boutineer on his shirt.  Ironically Dad's new boutineer better matched my dress and my Mom's beautiful navy blue sheer and sparkly dress so it all worked out in the end!

 Here are my Mom's and my bouquets combined just before the First Dance at the reception.  You can also catch a glimpse of the peacock feathers that were added to each of the bouquets as well.  Don't my parents look spectacular?!

After numerous comparisons of other flowers, as soon as I saw this pairing, I knew these would be the flowers we would order for the tables at the reception!  The mini carnations in varying colors of purple looked gorgeous next to the jade green tea roses.  We ordered these flowers from the local supermarket near the reception venue and saved a lot of money by going through them instead of going to a florist.  I am talking hundreds of dollars were saved....!

My bouquet contained a little of all of the girls' bouquets combined together!

These tiny vases were ordered to place the mini carnations and the roses in at the reception.  Some tables had just one color, some had two, and some even had three different colors of vases!  They added small pops of color amidst the tall clear vases that contained light up twigs in them.  My Aunt Maureen created the centerpieces and we are very grateful for her help in creating and carrying out the ideas regarding our centerpieces that really added a touch of elegance to the reception tables.

These are the colors we used from David's Bridal as guides in picking out the light green and purple to go with the bright pink.  I loved all the dresses the girls chose and the colors looked so pretty put together!!  I hope each gal will be able to wear her dress to another fun function soon!!

These were the actual flowers we used for the wedding reception.  It's crazy to think that this photo was taken two months ago on this date.  It seemed like time inched forward second by second in the days leading up to May 23rd but since then time has flown by and I can't believe tomorrow will be July 23rd already!!

Now, two months later, the vases and twigs are packed up and being used in Boston at other celebratory events my Aunt hosts.  The roses and mini carnations are long ago dried up and disposed of save for one lone green rose that accompanied us on our honeymoon and now is in our guest bedroom.  The mason jar decorations are placed throughout our house as decor and my bouquet proudly sits in the blue mason jar on our hutch in the living room while Adam's boutineer sits in our "bistro" area in the dining room.  Yes, I'm glad we invested in these long lasting flowers that will forever remind us of the joy of May 23rd!