Wednesday, December 2, 2009

flower trials

yesterday my sister, mother and i played with flowers from Blooms by the Box, 1 - to check out the quality of the product from Blooms by the Box, 2 - to do a trial, make sure we're up for doing the flowers ourselves and happy with the results, and 3 - to gauge how much we will need to order come the big day. (did i really just write a numbered list to introduce a post about flower arranging?)

well, i think this photo (hopefully) shows that the flowers were beautiful, and even prettier today than yesterday.

all in all it was a successful trial. we discovered that we don't love the tone of orange mum that we got, (good to know,) now to decide if we use less orange all together or find a replacement. I always liked the idea of orange ranunculus but i'm not sure if it will be in season, i think it might be a nice contrast to the texture of the mums.

we also discovered that we love the spider mums, while the football mums are rich and dense and amazing - they are almost too preppy for the farm-rustic-hand-tied feel i'm going for. using a combination of sizes and textures really worked the best - i really loved the contrast between he standard pom poms and one or two giant spider mums.

(trial bouquet)
the one comment from both my mom, and mike - was that they feel they are a little plain. I am going for simple and rustic and earthy but not exactly plain. I'm thinking of adding in some willow stems for a contrasting texture and have been looking at (said) ranunculus, maybe some little orange roses -i'm even thinking about some acorns to be a contrasting texture. what do you think?
(trial center piece in one of the vintage silver pitchers)

though it's not done yet, i have to say i'm excited to see the vision start to materialize!

any tips, pointers, and suggestions are of course welcome and appreciated!

7 comments:

  1. They look great and in good shape too. You are so smart to do a trial and check everything out before hand. While I am not good ideas (I tend to find images and then alter them in unique ways), I can't offer much in the way of suggestions. But I will say the mostly white flowers in the silver pitchers are a nice touch.

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  2. Those look great, nice work! What about some of those thin curly branch things? Wow, I'm crafty aren't I, referring to whatever they're called was "thin curly branch things!" I think some texture would be good in there. The acorns sound like a great idea!

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  3. You are super brave doing your flowers yourself. I think you did a really great job! The table flowers look great too.

    The only flower arranging tip I've ever heard is that you have to work with odd numbers - eg. three or five of each flower to give it balance.

    But I have no clue! Best of luck.

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  4. thanks Ladies! Stacy i think the "thin curly branch things" are the curly willows i was thinking of...http://www.bloomsbythebox.com/pub/orderflowers.cfm?categoryid=92&productid=217

    look like what you were picturing? if so I'm excited - it means i'm not so far off after all!

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  5. OMG Beautiful! They don't look plain to me at all (at least not in pictures). The trial bouquet looks amazing.

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  6. it's great that you did a trial run and figured out what you like and don't like. Smart!. I like the mums but can see what you mean about them seeming plain. I like the curly willow tips! They'll add texture and height to the arrangement you already have. Maybe also having more greenery showing will help. Keep us updated!

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