Suzanne's Bouquet - Blue and White Hydrangea, and Ranunculus

Here are the results, Suzanne! I know it's not exactly what you were thinking of, but it's certainly a tribute to you. And, honestly, if it were my bouquet (it's not), I'd add the brown into the bouquet with the ribbon INSTEAD of the chocolate Cosmos. You will still have the Hop Buds mixed in to break up the expanse of Hydrangea.

Suzy Q also wanted me to suggest how to incorporate an antique ring into the bouquet. That is why I incorporated the brown ribbon to begin with. The ring is actually my engagement here - not antique, just rocking a nice "patina" due to lack of proper cleaning.

Suzanne's Bouquet - The Materials

When I shared this blog with my high school friends (we all post on a Google Groups page regularly to keep in touch), Suzanne - a June bride - automatically wanted my take on her bridal bouquet:

Tell me what you'd do with this: Blue Hydrangeas, White fluffy
flowers of some sort (like white ranunculus) Chocolate Cosmos Hop Buds And an
Ivory fabric to put around the stems. For my bouquet I want mostly blue
with touches of white and a few chocolate cosmos and ivory ribbon.

I told her I'd do what I could with the supplies that I can get! Hop Buds and Chocolate Cosmos were not possible. But I did use the reddish brown leaves of the unknown plant mixed in there to show how the brown color would look in the bouquet. (I will find out what it's called asap)

And I need to share this story about the Blue Hydrangea! I won't say where, but I saw them and picked them up so I could make good on my promise to Suzanne. Just like I do with all of my flowers, I took them home, trimmed the bottoms and put them in water with antibacterial floral food. Well, within hours the blue Hydrangea were basically dead. Wilted, dropping petals, droopy, ugly, shriveled, dead. So I took them back the store - where I buy A LOT of flowers - and asked for new ones. Easy trade, right? The floral manager gave me such a hard time! She was insulting and really passive aggressive....more or less accusing me of mis-treating them OR lying about when I bought them OR stealing OR all three. I ended up taking a bouquet of white Hydrangea to replace the sad blue specimen and bought 2 stems of blue elsewhere. Funny enough, my friend's mother had the SAME problem with blue Hydrangea from the SAME store as me... You can see in the picture below how droopy those hydrangea are!

Results tomorrow...

My First Bouquet - Hydrangea, Alstromeria, Mum and Solidago

My supplies thrived overnight and I set out to make my first bouquet around mid-morning. I was a little bit stressed, because I really DO NOT underestimate floral designers. As a wedding planner, I've worked with a lot of talented designers and never ever encouraged a bride toward DIY wedding flowers and other such misadventures in added stress. I take this seriously. If I didn't I would just call myself a floral designer and start marketing myself as such right now.

I still probably did exactly what a DIY bride would do though - I looked on Martha Stewart Weddings and did a google search about making bouquets. I didn't find the tutorials very helpful, as they were not really specific, and only involved roses. The one piece of advice that I did glean is that it's best to make small bunches and then bunch those together - bunches become bouquet, voila.

I would normally like to show pictures of the process, but I had to use my husband's iphone camera (real camera still at the bottom of Gulf of Mexico), so I only have the finished product. But I will tell you this about the process - I started once and had some issues with the shape of the hydrangea bunches, so I took it all apart and started to make Turkey Chili out of ADD tendencies and frustration. I tried again once the chili was simmering and was successful! I held the raw, finished bunch up for my husband - who was working from home - and must have looked pretty proud because he said, "I want to be doing what you're doing. You look so happy!" And that about sums up the experience.

Here is the first completed shot, sans ribbon, in my kitchen. I just used floral tape to keep it together. Not a great background and the light is weird - I should take some photography classes.

And here she is, clipped and wrapped. I found the best natural light is on my bedside table, so I had to play with the angles to not include my unmade bed in the shots (for shame!).

I've put her in a Ball jar for safe, hydrated keeping and have been moving it around from room to room because I like looking at it. I wish I had a dining room table...or a bride who could walk around after me holding it.

Finally, I'm happy to report that after being manhandled, laid down, re-positioned and kept overnight, it is still in great condition!