enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

just right.

IMG_2835 IMG_2831 I have mentioned before that I will be doing my own flowers. I think flowers are already beautiful. And I think imperfect roses are just right for the low-key elegance I would like to achieve at this wedding. Everybody keeps saying, "Elise – the last thing you are going to want to worry about is flowers." But seriously? I like to make stuff. I would worry if I wasn't doing it. I would worry if I was paying $1000+ for a florist to be in charge. So this plan is working for me.

I went to Crate & Barrel (twice) today. And the second time bought this drinking glass to try it out as a vase. I then stopped at Costco and bought 24 orange roses for $15.99. I chopped them down so the stems were about 5 inches long and clustered 15 into the vase. The green leaves on the edges are chopped from the bushes in the backyard. The poppies are fake and I'll pick a bunch more up at Michael's.

I love them. I think the vases give some the whole thing some charm and the ORANGE. Oh man, I love the orange.

PS + Have you seen this wedding? It is making the rounds in the blog-verse, and I love it. The casual elegance? The lovely, non-posed photos? That is exactly the atmosphere I want to create. Just perfect.

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20 responses to “just right.”

  1. Shirley K. Avatar
    Shirley K.

    Costco is my favorite. We did our own flowers for our wedding too, and we went to Costco for the white roses. We were able to put in a bulk order with the flower people on-site (isn’t that what Costco’s all about?), so that worked out pretty well. It meant we had to do some work on our own putting together bouquets and stuff, but that saved us money.

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  2. Elaine R Avatar
    Elaine R

    i have sooooo wanted poppies at my wedding for the longest time. I’m loving what you’re coming up with and i love wedding talk, so never fear. I’m living vicariously through you. :]

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  3. breanne Avatar
    breanne

    those flowers are GORGEOUS!! fabulous.

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  4. Julia Remix Avatar
    Julia Remix

    I have much the same feeling about flowers as you do. Your roses + glass arrangement is lovely!

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  5. carrie Avatar
    carrie

    So lovely!

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  6. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    Do your own flowers but have two people to help you (not your mom and maid of honor) – and who can be ready to take over if (when) things get crazy. Having been a diy bride, you don’t realize until it happens that you are THE guest of honor at an event with all of your family and friends gathered to see you and talk to you and dote over you. And if it’s putting together the flower arrangements or being with people you love on the happiest day of your life… Well, you don’t want to make that choice. My worst my memory of the wedding was sitting in my husband’s bedroom at his parents’ house finishing the programs while everyone was coming into the house trying to say hi to me as they were arriving for our rehearsal picnic. I’m so glad I did things myself, but I should have had every diy project done a week ahead of time. That said, enjoy the fun! It’s a magical time!!

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  7. Kath Avatar
    Kath

    Oh my, I agree with Sara above. My sister-in-law is a florist, and it is a lot of work to do wedding flowers, even if you want them simple on the day of. Do as much as you can possible do before hand. I am also a diy-er, as are my sisters, and it was an insane day on their wedding day (they had a kind of double wedding thing, I was in both weddings, and they were in each others weddings – lots of wardrobe changes). I recommend having someone you trust, who is organized, and who is not in the wedding to be your go-to, and also have a few back-ups that your go-to can call on. I had a tiny wedding (18 people in total), and I still wish I had a go-to person. It’s almost the same amount of work to get things done for a large double wedding, as it was for my small wedding. You still need to organize the same things, you just don’t need quite as many. Also, no matter how organized you are, you are still needing to depend on a lot of outside parties to make the day run smooth…and it my experience, it almost never runs smooth. But honestly, on the day, you probably won’t care – you’ll be glad it’s all over, and you’ll never want to get married again! ha. But same as Sara above, I was glad I did so much of it myself, as were my sisters.
    Gorgeous flowers too! I just did a wedding shoot for a friend who went with orange roses too, and it was beautiful! I’ll try and find a way to send you some photos…

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  8. Flo - mycraftyways Avatar
    Flo – mycraftyways

    These coloooooors…taking a deep breath …these colors are just gorgeous !!

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  9. Krys72599 Avatar
    Krys72599

    LOVING that arrangement! I went with white on white and it had a lovely fresh look that went well with my girls’ pale green dresses… Purple is my favorite color but for some reason I didn’t go with purple…
    Your oranges, though, and the green – oh, my!
    I’ve been leaning toward orange in other places, too – scrapping, blouses, etc. I’m really liking the look you’re going for, too…

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  10. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    Elise — I love your flower arrangements! I think you have the right idea. My mom did all of the flower arrangments at the reception, and she did a great job. No one in my family is a florist or has even the slightest knowledge of flower arrangements, but we pulled it off quite easily (with the help of the Martha Stewart Web site!). Before the wedding, we did what you are doing, buying some flowers from the grocery and fooling around with the arrangements. In the end, we ended up ordering the flowers online and had then delivered to my parent’s house on the Thursday before the wedding. We stored them in my parent’s basement in paint buckets! We all helped trim them (we knew what height because of our “practice sessions”), and the morning of the wedding, my mom and dad brought them to the reception location and put them at each table. I think my mom did a fabulous job :)Here is the link to one of the arrangements she did — http://mcgowanphoto.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?userid=mcgowanphoto&gallery_id=1185012&image_id=238
    Good luck!

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  11. JJB Avatar
    JJB

    i agree. just right.

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  12. summer Avatar
    summer

    wow, these are going to be stunning, elise.
    this arrangement looks perfect! nice work!!
    you have completely changed my mind about the color orange.
    i cannot get enough of it now.

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  13. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    That is a gorgeous arrangement! I love the glass you chose & the beautiful oranges. Love that you used fresh & silk flowers! I’m so inspired by your idea!

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  14. JM Avatar
    JM

    It sounds like you’ve got a plan in mind already, but one thing we did for my sister’s wedding that helped a bunch was to get all the bridesmaids enrolled in doing flowers. My mum showed us how to put together the arrangement (a block of foam, 2 of this flower, 4 of that, this many leaves, etc) and then we each got to make a few centerpieces. It was actually a ton of fun and they looked beautiful.

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  15. Jennifer Avatar
    Jennifer

    Lovely! The “vase” is great. Way to think outside of the box. Though, I can’t imagine that you spend much time thinking INSIDE the box, now do you?? 🙂

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  16. katie r Avatar
    katie r

    http://joyfulweddingsandevents.blogspot.com/2009/05/joel-and-danielle-at-fullerton.html made me think of you. Happy planning fun.

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  17. Amy Tangerine Avatar
    Amy Tangerine

    LOVE orange
    and LOVE that you are doing your own flowers and stuff!!!

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  18. thursday Avatar
    thursday

    I’m really glad I wasn’t doing the flowers myself. My aunt spent LOTS of time the day of the wedding setting up the flowers (and we had a teeny wedding in an old stone chapel). Just remember that you’re going to have to get dressed, do your hair, makeup, etc. and try to RELAX right before the ceremony… You’ll need to have everything set up the day before and make sure that someone else is setting them up at the reception and ceremony sites. You probably won’t want to be running around in your wedding dress placing flowers (but i could be wrong – you might be dreaming of that moment)! I mean, what about your big entrance? 😉 So, I’m agreeing with Sara – make sure someone not in the ceremony is helping you with the details. (such as, some of the flowers wilted and need to be replaced toute de suite!)
    Um, and be careful about jewelry around your arrangements. Ask me about where I found my aunt’s ring…!

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  19. thursday Avatar
    thursday

    Oh, and I want to run out to Crate & Barrel RIGHT NOW and buy me some of those awesome glasses. Sweet.
    I was just thinking how awesome a bouquet would look with long long stems and thick silvery grey ribbon. Kinda like this one:

    (but with grey, of course)

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  20. Holly Avatar
    Holly

    Love love love that you’re doing your own flowers. I think it’s super special and I love what you’ve done already! 🙂

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