Intimate Rose Garden Wedding

We planned our May wedding at a beautiful little urban rose garden. It's a hidden gem just outside of Uptown Charlotte. We had about 75 of our closest friends and family (most of whom traveled all the way from our hometowns in Michigan and Rhode Island) for a completely al fresco ceremony and reception. The weather was our biggest concern; but the rain and humidity held off, the mostly cloudy sky kept us cool, and I couldn't have asked for anything better!
Without any real floral training, almost everyone thought I was crazy for undertaking all of the flowers for our wedding, but FiftyFlowers gave me the confidence to move forward with my vision. I wanted my wedding flowers to feel like you just picked up a beautiful handful of blooms from a meadow; lush and textural with a range of shapes and colors. I probably redesigned my shopping cart ten times before narrowing down my final picks.
Honestly, prepping the flowers was one of the things that kept me calm and relaxed in all the chaos leading up to the wedding. When the flowers arrived Wednesday and Thursday mornings, I got to open the wonderfully fragrant boxes in peace for a few hours, removing leaves or thorns, and tucking each stem into the awaiting buckets.
Thursday night after wine and crafts with the moms and girls, my future mother-in-law and two future sisters-in-law came back to the house to help me prepare the centerpieces. They were in charge of loading up each vase with tons of greens and I would fill in with the blooms. It saved me hours and I was so grateful to continue our bonding time. Come Friday, I whipped together a small practice bouquet to use for the rehearsal and to let the girls use as an example to create their own unique bouquets. Each bridesmaid got to choose which flowers and colors they liked the most, as I was putting together the boutonnieres for the guys. In addition to the bridesmaids' bouquets, my mother had requested a small posy (bouquet) instead of a wrist or pinned corsage. So, we chose about 4-5 flowers with a few stems of greenery for each mom. With still so many flowers left, my maid of honor was tasked with filling a bunch of smaller vases that were scattered all around the venue.
All in all, we were able to make 1 bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, 2 mothers' posies, 7 boutonnieres, 10 table centerpieces, 6 square bar/buffet arrangements, 10 small accent arrangements, and 3 large vases for our neighbors that were watching for our mail and packages.
With so many out-of-town guests, we ended up having people give arrangements to their Uber drivers, hotel concierges, etc. I am so happy at the idea that our wedding flowers continued to spread love and beauty throughout our city that weekend! I can't wait for my next chance to use FiftyFlowers again.

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