blooms for your big day!

so, right after we got engaged i was thinking about how weddings used to be. that it was almost like a barn raising -- everyone pitched in. your aunt made the cake. your grandmother made the food. your mom made your dress. your dad would grow the flowers. today, there are infinite possibilities of all the incredible things you can have at your wedding, but i wanted to be surrounded by things dear friends had helped me create. i was really, really fortunate to have a friend who had never "done" flowers before, but is a.) from birmingham, alabama, b.) so gosh darn creative, and c.) brimming with enthusiasm, so i felt like she would do a truly amazing job. and... she did.

so the other little secret here, is that at least in big cities you can't really buy wholesale flowers without a "license" that florists, interior designers, etc. have. so... we ordered all our flowers from costco and they were BEAUTIFUL. we had them arrive on thursday and by saturday they were in full bloom. people kept asking me WHO had done the flowers. and i got to brag about my sweet friend. we ordered roses, hypercium, cala lilies --lots of whites and soft colors. and, the flowers almost cost less than my shoes!

my other favorite part was collecting vintage ball jars. i had guests take most of the flowers home with them that night, but a few of these jars i kept to use entertaining over the years. it always makes me smile when i put them on the table and think of them being there for our wedding night. (i'm using them tonight, for my mom's birthday!) photo above from here. rest of the photos by andrew reilly.

more of our wedded bliss here.

ok, one last bouquet photo, cause it was just that pretty :)