Wedding Flowers

I forgot to take pictures, but I just finished flowers for a wedding today: 1 large round bridal bouquet, 1 Groom bout., 5 groomsman bouts., 2 large corsages, 1 little girl corsage, 1 little girl round bouquet, 1 throw bouquet. It should be "all is coming up roses..."well, we'll see if the bride is happy with what came of her color scheme of burnt orange and plum, which ended up more like yellow, red, orange, white, and plum. Yeah, let's just chalk this one up to a little frustration with fought back tears that really wanted a place to land. I kept it together though.

I'll give a brief review of what took place in these last 3 weeks and what I learned.

1. 3 weeks notice is okay if everything goes as ordered and planned.
2. Know what you are in for if you can't buy from the wholesaler, always more $$$.
3. Bride should pick out exact flowers and ribbon colors so there are no surprises.
4. Flower maker - (in this case it was me) should not trust any florist when they say they ordered the right color flowers. Always, always double-triple check. Salmon is not burnt orange. Circus Roses are not really burnt orange either.
5. Costco has the best prices for roses if they can get your color. $15.99/24 roses. They ordered in the salmon instead of burnt orange. I'm thinking someone was mixed up in their colors...
6. A florist which shall remain unnamed did give us roses for $2/rose instead of the usual $3/rose, but in the end they also ordered in the wrong colored roses. Ack!
7. Moral support is always nice when things are not going as planned. Thanks Janalee and Julia! There really isn't any other choice at 8pm the night before the wedding to get new flowers. But one can still wish!
8. The evening before the wedding is a great time to make up all the bouquets, corsages, and boutineers, even if you have to stay up until 4am to get them done.
9. Husbands make good bouquet wrapping holders as long as they turn the bouquet slowly.
10. Husbands will always say it looks good because they want you to get done just so they can have their wife back. - Yes, that is about word for word of what I was told today...
11. Enjoy the creative moments of flower making. It's fun and somewhat therapeutic besides the fact that both thumbs and pointer fingers are very sore from floral tape wrapping.
12. Next time I'll get a 7 day temporary florist sales license so I can buy from a wholesaler.
13. Would I do this again? Sure. I've learned many lessons and hopefully am a little wiser today. (though I am about to fall asleep...zzzz) : )