Sending Smiles ~

Well, it finally felt like fall around here this past weekend, starting with Wei Jen's bridal bouquet of mango mini callas, rust football mums, solidago, seeded eucalyptus, red carnations, hypericum berries and spray roses. The mums really help with the texture and keep the cost down while the mango mini callas and roses make for a more upscale vibe.  I especially loved the bouquets we made for Colleen's brides maids ~a simple hand tie of 3 medium sized sunflowers. Affordable and super cute! A great bouquet option if you have less than $25 to spend on each attendant.  Here's another affordable brides maids bouquet idea ~ 3 anthurium tied with grasses. Small but with a tropical, funky feel, these ran under $40 per maid.  Looking for something unusual? These bouquets of all pincushion protea really give variety and depth of color all in one very neat flower. Although not as low cost as those above, these bouquets are sure to stand out and get noticed in picture...

I love when bride's do a bit of DIY. Yes, you heard it right, I love when my bride's do a little themselves. Especially like what this past weekend's bride Crystal did. She let us handle the fresh flower part, while she and her maids set up some floating and votive candles on their own. I especially loved the little boards they found to anchor the centerpieces and the table numbers.  Aren't they super cute? She was able to personalize her wedding while not having to worry about processing fresh flowers and worrying about the weather (it hit 95 degrees that day).  She left that up to us to worry about and at a very modest cost, I might add. Again, vintage ~ country is very in these days and these adorable tablescapes were perfect for this tent wedding at Chauncey Conference Center here in Princeton. Would you consider doing a bit of DIY while your florist handles the floral aspect of your centerpieces? 

Planning a wedding is fun but expensive and I find that often brides & grooms over think their bridal flowers. Hydrangea to the rescue. Take these bouquets for example; simple but by no means small yet they are elegant, natural and as amazing as it sounds, quite budget friendly. In the case of these bouquets, extra touches such as chiffon ribbon and draping hanging amaranthus took them from boring to beautiful and only slightly added to the cost. Lesson to be learned here? No need to over think the flowers and by all means, take the budget friendly route. Your Maids won't mind, your guests won't notice and your wedding budget will love you for it! To see these and more of our everyday and wedding floral designs be sure to visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com  

This weekends wedding for Lisa and Bill was especially fun to design. The bridal bouquet consisted of 3 different colored gerbera diaises - coral, light lavender and medium pink. Accents of baby's breath was added to break up the colors and along the outer leaves we added loops of ti leaves to add a cool edge.  The bridal party consisted of 6 brides maids wearing black gowns. 2 brides maids carried coral gerbers, 2 carried light lavender and 2 carried medium pink. The stems were wrapped in black satin ribbon to allow them to disappear into the dress and not take away from the gorgeous flowers!   I am especially fond of the coral colored gerbera ~ this variety is called Bismark and these flowers are grown in Canada. They are especially hardy, which is perfect for hand tied bouquets like these.  The babies breath is called Party Time and has big, fat florets and they looks especially nice paired with the gerberas. I think these are the perfect bouquets for ...