Flowers!

Last week I was awash in flowers, as you saw.

{flowers, cut}

We had a family event, and I volunteered my services, despite my lack of experience. After all, your family can't really reject you, can they? (I did check in with my expert floral adviser before committing myself to this project - thanks, Kris!)

I purchased one case of floral foam, 12 white ceramic containers from Ikea ($4.99 each), a few dozen bunches of flowers from the flower market. I picked out simple mums (I think?) and yellow billy buttons. Total cost: $200 for 12 centerpieces, about $16 per table.

{flowers, in process}

All I did was arrange floral foam in the bottom, soak it with water, and pop the flowers in, keeping them tightly clustered. Simple, yes. But so very time consuming. I estimated this would take a couple hours, but it ended up being more like 8 or 9 hours. Luckily, we have HBO (I re-watched the entire season of True Blood, plus a random movie). I sustained only one clipper related injury, which is pretty good for me. It involved a minimum of shrieking and whining to D as he tried to wrap it in gauze.

{flowers, finished}

If you're thinking about doing your own flowers for a wedding, don't assume it will just take a few hours, unless you are doing something really, really simple, like sticking a few flowers into mason jars. At the very least, have 4 or 5 friends over to share the work and cut down your arranging time. And order pizza. Flower related stress increases exponentially when you aren't properly fueled.

Tip - don't think you have to stick to the vase section when you're making flower arrangements. The 8" Smarta dishes were cheaper than most of the vases I looked at and they are oven safe, so when we're done with the party, we'll have some useful bakeware and/or serving dishes.