I think I'm up to bouquets. We had buckets on buckets of roses, lisianthus, billy buttons, alstromeria and blue gum. We also had hydrangeas but were told that they wouldn't last out of water so used them in the table decorations.
A quick break for a fish and chip lunch, (mmmmm - it's impossible to get takeaway fish and chips here so got to make up for it in Melbourne) and we were back to the flowers. This time working on the table settings.
We'd decided to put floral foam in the vases to hold the flowers stay in position. My sister, K, and her wonderful boyfriend had done this already which saved us some time. I'm glad we did as it meant less fussing with water when transporting them to the venue. We also took our chances with the hydrangeas as they are so bulky and take up so much space it made filling the vases easier.
At this point, Dad came out to help and got stuck into wiring roses and lisianthus for us. He did an awesome job! And before long, Mum, who swore she was having nothing to do with the flowers as she thought we were crazy for wanting to do them ourselves was out helping too. Thanks Mum!
In the end we were packing up around 8pm so it had taken about 9 hours to do the whole lot although there was a lunch break and a manicure break for K and I during that time. In the end we had 4 corsages, 6 boutonnieres, 3 bouquets and 16 centerpieces (2 per table). I think the total cost came to around $600. This included the vases and all the sundries - tape, pins, wire etc. While the bouquets and centrepieces weren't exactly as I had envisaged, we received lots of compliments on them so that was nice.
One point to note - we did all these the day before the wedding and the centrepieces in particular actually looked a bit better the day after the wedding! They looked fine on the day but some of the flowers had opened more and they looked a bit perkier the day after. I guess my point is, if you want to do it yourself and are using the floral foam, you could put them together two days prior with no problems!
Also, if you were planning to DIY, try to see the flowers you are ordering - as I did it all over the phone I didn't see what the roses were like ( a rose is a rose, right?) and I was imagining the blooms to be larger than they were. If I'd known, I'd have ordered another couple of bunches.
So finally, about 9 we sat down to a beautiful mum-made lasagna (my favourite) and relaxed.
*Thanks to K and friend J for the photos*
