Wedding Lesson #3: Forget DIY, Be a DIT Bride

(personal photo)

The boutonnieres my aunt and cousin made as I nursed a migraine

So when I last left you, I was stressing out big time over my last minute Taualuga dance and my DIY flowers. By evening time, when I planned to work on the bridesmaids' bouquets and flowers, my headache had gone from bad to worse. I was feeling nauseous and dizzy. I couldn't stand up upright without feeling like I would puke. We decided to work on the flowers in the hotel where everyone was staying in the night before the wedding. My MOH, Matron of Honor and even one of our groomsmen came to help me cut the leaves, stems and thorns from flowers. Thank goodness our potted orchid centerpieces were pretty much already done. My FH simply put them all in their pots and covered the soil with moss and voila! Our centerpieces were taken care of!

But by the time I had put together one bridesmaid bouquet, I decided to give up. My head was pounding and my body was telling me to get some rest.There was no way I could finish the rest of the flowers. I needed to go to bed.
But then my aunt and cousin came knocking on our door. They had just come to see how we were doing and bless their souls, they took on the rest of the flowers! They knew exactly what to do because they've done bouquets and corsages for church-related events before. They did an absolutely beautiful job--even better job than what I could have done without a migraine! My aunt and cousin used several leftover roses from the bridesmaid bouquets, baby's breath and purple orchids to make the bouts. I was able to get the sleep I needed while they made the rest of the bouquets and all the pretty bouts for our groomsmen, sponsors and parents.

My aunt scolded me by saying I should have asked her earlier for her help. There's no reason for me to try to do it all on my own. She's right.

My lovely bridesmaids with their bouquets (photo taken by a friend)

So don't be afraid to ask for help. Forget being the super-DIY bride all the time. You can't do it all on your own. Do-it-together -- with friends and family who really do want to help -- and take some of that load off your shoulders. A bride needs her beauty sleep you know!

Our bridesmaid bouquet

After our trip to the LA flower mart, I'm thinking our selection of bridemaid bouquets can be expanded beyond carnations. I still think they're cute and very budget-friendly, but I'm liking this bouquet:

Cute, unique and fits our color scheme of purple/plum/gold very well. I know that roses come in the cheap at the LA flower mart but don't know how much the orchids will cost me. I'll do another DIY trial with these flowers, so stay tuned!

My First DIY Trial: The Carnation Bouquet

This is something I was really excited to do, and I must say I am pretty pleased with the results. I just attempted my first carnation bouquet. I'm intending to make 4 carnation bouquets for my bridesmaids. Why carnations? Well 1) they're cheaper, 2) they're easy to work with and 3) I really love the fullness and vibrant color of the flower.

I went to Conroys and bought 10 carnation flowers for $16.  This trial was done on a spontaneous whim, so I could have gone to a wholesale florist to save money, but I wasn't ready to buy bulk. Afterall, I was only making one bouquet.

I bought scissors, floral tape, corsage pins and ribbon from Michaels (supplies we can definitely use again)

Using the tutorial from Mrs. Flamingo's post on WeddingBee, I clustered my flowers together, wrapped them snug with floral tape and covered the tape with an off-white satin ribbon.

Here's my first attempt:

Ok, so the ribbon is a little crooked and some floral tape is peeking at the top, but not bad for a first attempt. I think I could use 5-10 more flowers to fill it out a bit, but I think this can definitely be a suitable bridesmaid bouquet.

One thing though, some flowers started to snap. I taped up the injured ones with floral tape and hid them in the middle. Can't tell, can you?

The Recession Friendly Flower: The Carnation

My crash course in species of flora begins now. The first flower studied: the carnation. These light, fluffy flowers look like colorful bundles of tissue paper, and they're often looked down upon for being less stylish than their floral counterparts (c'mon, I just compared them to tissue paper!). But I like them...bundle them together and they're oh-so-pretty! I saw these arrangements on Credit Crunch Bride and it got the DIY-inspiration wheels turning. Affordable and easy to make! Apparently, Credit Crunch Bride doesn't think the shades of purple thing does well with this flower (I don't think she likes purple, period) but I think it can look really purrty.

I dunno...maybe I'm just "crazy." But I like, and I especially like the price. I've seen wholesale prices for each stem at 60 cents to a $1. Not bad! Perhaps I can actually make 4 bridesmaid bouquets for $25 each!