My floral choices were the following: Amazon roses, Casablanca lilies, curly willow, Gloriosa lilies and purple Asters. Silver wire was used as an accent in just about everything and added a beautiful and elegant effect. (You should be able to click on the image to make it larger.)
Drawing everything out and figuring out the different floral combinations necessary proved to be not only theraputic, but gave me a handy cheat sheet to give to the florist when I placed my floral order eight months earlier...And just like we would hear from the chef at our tasting, the florist I choose gushed how excited they were that I had chosen the flowers I had for our wedding day, as many they had not worked with before and were not the "usual" choice that brides go with. In hindsight, I'm not sure still if I should have been flattered or concerned by that confession...
Lesson Learned: Our ceremony arrangements below were delivered separately from our other floral items. Actually, the arrangements below barely made it to the ceremony on time! We had to place a call to the florist asking where they were after the bridal party flowers were the only thing delivered to the hotel by the time deadline. The florist said traffic was to blame, but I think that they most likely didn't do a trial-run of how to construct these arrangements with the fruit slices and their last minute assembly panic is what delayed their being sent out at the same time as the other flowers. When we returned from our honeymoon, we not only had the square vases we provided below returned from the hotel, but also narrower square vases which the florist had to set inside them to achieve the vase effect you see below. Tip: make sure your florist has experience creating your vision and if not, that they do a practice run before your big day, not on your big day!
The ceremony flowers consisted of Casablanca lilies, Gloriosa lilies and lots of curly willow. The vases were filled with slices of oranges and grapefruit to pull in the orange & pink silk of Jill's Maid of Honor dress. Plus, it added a nice colorful impact to the scenery.
You can see the unity and flow in the immediate bridal party flowers below...
My bridal bouquet contained Gloriosa lilies, Casablanca lilies, curly willow and shaped snake grass. Only my bouquet and the ceremony floral arrangements would contain the Casablanca lilies.
Eddie's boutonniere turned out to be stunning! It contained a Gloriosa lily to compliment my bridal arrangement, a purple Aster and was wrapped and looped with silver wire.
Since our vision of our wedding day was that of a retro/vintage feel, I was excited to give Jill a curly willow ball to carry down the aisle as something different, but to also go nicely with her dress. The florist and I selected a sheer purple ribbon (to compliment the purple Asters that were used) and attached a Gloriosa lily to the top and bottom (to compliment and tie into my bouquet) and then it was all wrapped with silver wire. I still have it, actually, hanging in a corner of my sewing room!
Anastasia had a non-traditional role being the Woman of Honor. To compliment her dress, she carried a silver-plated tussy mussy holder filled with Amazon roses (whose color popped against her black dress and tied into the citrus slices at the front of the aisle and Jill's dress) curly willow and purple Asters. Again, everything was looped with silver wire to keep that consistent and the overall result, elegant.
I had a tussy mussy made for Eddie's mother to carry, instead of the usual Mother of the Groom corsage. It was nearly idential to Anastasia's, except that her's had five roses and curly willow and Mary's only contained three roses and no curly willow. Additionally, I had a tussy mussy made for Vivian, made using just purple Asters and wrapped in silver wire. All the silver plated tussy mussy holders came with charms that we had engraved with the recipents name on one side and our wedding date, on the other. Eddie's grandmother, a last minute attendee, carried a tussy mussy that was just wrapped with ribbon for the handle that we had added to our order the day prior to our wedding day.
Because we had invited a small number of guests, many whom were close but extended family, I decided to just have flowers for immediate family and chose more feminine boutonnieres made for Eddie's two sisters to wear on their dresses instead of the usual corsages. Both sisters boutonnieres had an Amazon rose and a purple Aster, wrapped and looped with silver wire.
Eddie's father and his two nephews all wore boutonnieres of an Amazon rose with silver wire. Our nephews each had a boutonniere, too, because they handed out maracas to our wedding guests near the end of the ceremony (as well as being the only nephews in attendance).
I had boutonnieres made of purple Asters and wrapped and looped with silver wire for those friends who played a special role in our wedding ceremony. This included my dear friend Nancy who did two poetry readings, Steve who cued the recorded music required for the processionals and recessionals as well as playing the guitar and singing during the service, and Mike who performed our wedding ceremony for us (his wife, Vivian, the recipient of a matching purple Aster tussy mussy bouquet mentioned earlier).
Finally, I had boutonnieres made of greenery and wrapped and looped with silver wire for our two wedding day coordinators, sisters Pat and Lucy.
