Flowers for a wedding

Bride's Bouquet

With weddings, flowers are a major concern for some people.  For me, I obviously wanted flowers (nice ones at that) but I did not want to break the bank on them - I spent extra on the dress!  Having helped a few friends plan their wedding, I knew an important factor that went a long way was using a florist who is familiar with the venue.  So when I got the list from Willowdale, I started looking at the various websites to get a better feel for the florists while keeping in mind overall pricing.  My first appointment was with Fiddlehead in Salem, MA, followed by one other.  I brought my mom to both appointments because she is so much better at flowers than I am - and I needed another opinion!  Again, the photos are mostly from Holly Redmond.

Part of my flower dilemma was that I did not know what I really wanted.  I was going with eggplant purple as an accent color along with some moss green and chocolate brown, but that was about it.  To further complicate things, it was New Year's Eve - what flowers are "in season" then?!?  After going through a number of ideas and starting to figure out what what I did and did not want (more of the latter than the former), the appointments ended and my mom and I went on our merry ways and awaited the estimate.

Bridal and Bridesmaids Bouquet

While the estimate for the second place was cheaper, the person was exhausting to meet with - just too much personality.  What was more glaring on the estimate however, was there was not many flowers compared to what I was getting with Fiddlehead.  Jacqui at Fiddlehead seemed to have a much better understanding of what I wanted and was giving it to me, rather than forcing certain ideas on me.  So while I was not sure what I wanted, I wanted the florist listen to my thoughts and work with me.

Flowers from Nick

Given all that, and after I signed on the dotted line, when people asked what my flowers were going to be, all I knew was "eggplant" and "cream" in color, and gardenias!  That was one request because I LOVE the smell.

The bridemaids bouquets were similar in style, just a bit smaller.  I had her add some greenery and berries, but nothing to Christmas-y, just to add a bit of a wintery feel.  Doing New Year's Eve without being kitschy (i.e., too much ice blue, silver and gold) is tough.

Nick also worked with Jacqui and surprised me with an amazing (unprompted) bouquet of some of my favorite flowers and colors.  It was such a treat to walk into the bridal suite and see them first thing.  At first I was not sure who they were from, but the card with a sweet message let me in on the secret.

With the rest of the decorations, Willowdale did not need much to enhance the space.  The house was already decorated with the holiday spirit with some garland and soft white lights to accent it.  With all the woodwork, it did not need much else.

Urns to make out an alter

Hydrangeas with white birch vases

Fabulous Entry Way Piece

Once of the great things about Willowdale is all the woodwork, shelves and the nooks and cranies everywhere.  They just do not make houses like this anymore - it really was one of the things that sold us on the location.  Knowing Willowdale allowed (and encouraged) open flame and candles, I went kind of nuts!  There were tons everywhere.  Working with that, I decided to also work with the house's mission-style lanterns and went ahead and bought a variety of lanterns in all shapes and sizes. We ended up with about 18 lanterns between 6 inches and 2 feet, and then about 40 tea light lanterns - 3.5 inches high.  Jacqui also added some small votives in glass jars to compliment all the other pieces.

Greenery with lanterns

Decorated Shelves and Centerpieces

Re-purposed Conservatory

Lining the Dance Floor

I could not have been more thrilled with what Jacqui did for Willowdale!  Everything turned out beyond my wildest expectations.  She did more than I could have hoped for.  It was amazing to see the things we discussed in the abstract in person and looking amazing.  I would highly recommend Jacqui at Fiddlehead.