Les Fleurs

I've been thinking about flowers for the wedding.  For the ceremony, we are keeping it neutral weird I know, mostly ivories, whites, beiges with beach for the backdrop.  For the reception, we'll liven it up a bit with some serious color, since the flowers will be lending most of the color I'm not holding back.  With that said, flowers are not cheap.  To save some cash I have been browsing wholesale flower sites online.  I have been doing my research and I think I found one worth trying out.  It helps that I have seen this company's work in action at a friend's wedding this past summer.  I was impressed.  And the money saved is astounding. 

What kind of flowers?  Hydrangeas and garden roses have always been my favorites.  And they are available in any color I choose.  So, I set out to check availability and delivery dates for the wedding.  These websites recommend a delivery of two days before the wedding for these particular flowers to give them enough time to recover from the trip and open beautifully in time for the big day.  No problem right? Wrong. This is why getting married the Saturday after a national holiday proves to be a dumb idea.  Wednesday is the 4th of July, there is an industry-wide shut down on the holiday which means they will not be shipping out my flowers that day...which means they wouldn't arrive until Saturday...not going to happen.  I contact a few of the wholesale websites to see what my options are as I'm not quite ready to give up saving mass amounts of money.  A few of them recommended changing my date, yes that really happened.  The site I chose from the beginning was actually very helpful and suggested I open my mind to different, hardier flowers.  Ones that could arrive on Tuesday and peak their beauty on Saturday.  I was intrigued to see what flowers she was referring to.  To my surprise, freesia, lilies, alstroemeria are on the list.  I can work with those! They are gorgeous, in any color imaginable, and on this site affordable. 

Relieved, I am now planning centerpieces around these flowers.  For the bouquets, I might keep it local and use a flower shop in downtown Sault Sainte Marie.  Then I could get the hydrangeas and garden roses I always wanted.  Not a bad compromise.  I'll leave you with some photos of my new wedding flowers.

Orange freesia.

Simple, lovely.

Lily.

Alstroemeria.