For any DIY bride reading testimonials before deciding "can I do this?" I'm here to say, "Yes you can!" I just heard about another DIY wedding where they chose to use another company, thinking they were saving some money. Once again they were disappointed with the quality of flowers from the company they chose. The hydrangea were half the size of what I had. My comment to them was, you should have used FiftyFlowers! I can't say enough about their top quality service and flowers!
My flower delivery didn't go as planned. Wednesday I was expecting 3 boxes of flowers... I got 1. I called FedEx, they weren't too helpful, so I called FiftyFlowers. Sweet Lucy picked up the phone and calmed me down. She gave me all of the tracking numbers, said it looked like another box would be arriving soon (my white height pack), but said it looked like the blue corn flowers got stuck in Memphis due to weather. She told me not to worry! Why should I worry? FiftyFlowers has never let me down.
Shortly after talking to Lucy, my second box arrived. I also got a call from another woman at FiftyFlowers saying they'd be over-nighting a new order of the blue cornflowers, since the original was stuck in Memphis! Thursday I received my 2 orders of blue corn flowers, along with the most AMAZING natural blue hydrangea. They were so perky in their water sacks and just gorgeous!
I hydrated the flowers and headed up to the lake to get ready for my "flower party" which was starting at 1pm! When I volunteered to do flowers for my friend's niece, my BFF, Shirley, promised she'd bring a team to help! Shirley and family didn't let me down. By the time they arrived to camp, I had 7 spots at the picnic table, each with 3 different size and height jars. I explained that they wouldn't be making 3 arrangements each, but would use those 3 jars to make up one arrangement for each table. I compared it to those Paint Parties you can go to, where you are learning how to paint and have a painting to copy. I handed them some of each flower type, some greens, and explained that they could put the flowers in any of the vases, but at the end the 'cluster' had to be arranged on all sides. I left them to create, while I started on the boxes of mason jars! They all laughed and had a blast as they created. Before they headed back to Long Island, Maine, they even helped me to wrap 50' of live greens to 4 ropes, saving me a half days worth of work!
They left, and I spent the rest of Thursday and all of Friday creating the rest of the arrangements, bouquets for moms, bride and her attendants, along with corsages, bouts and the fresh flower picks which we'd add to the garlands on Saturday.
Saturday was a challenge, summer in Maine, vacationers at the ferry terminal trying to get to their island vacation homes...and let's add to the craziness (and my stress level) that the TALL SHIPS were in port making finding a parking spot near the terminal an extra challenge! I found a nice young man at the ferry terminal to help me unload my car filled with flowers, he told me of a great place to park off sight and I had time to walk back to the terminal before the decorating would start! Thanks to family members, I had plenty of "worker bees"Â to help set everything up.
The captain of the boat said he'd never seen his ship look so pretty, and the best compliment was when I was decorating the lower level where the wedding would take place, I heard the bride and her mom come aboard the boat and scream a happy scream when she saw the flowers. When Mom hugged me and said thanks, she was crying. This beautiful bride deserved beautiful flowers and I'm glad I was able to deliver.
The boxes I made from "free" wood. We have a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood, and the builder said I could take some pallets off his properties. I made the boxes big enough to fit 3 mason jars each and I painted and distressed them all. One box was for the bride's bouquet along with the 2 attendants to sit on the head table, the other 2 were for two long tables at the wedding!
I did supplement my flowers from FiftyFlowers with greens, black eyed susans, red bee balm, and other blooms and greens from my mother in law's and sister's gardens, the ferns for the bouts, I found in the woods on the camp road! And since the bride wanted billy balls, but we didn't need a full order from FiftyFlowers, I bought 2 dozen dried from the craft store.
Thank you FiftyFlowers! Another successful wedding in the books!
