enJOY it

That's little P and little E.

Both are going to make an appearance at the wedding reception. On the big screen. As a slideshow. We're coming up with all sorts of things to happen at the reception to up the interesting factor. Receptions usually involve drinks, dinner and dancing. All fun but if you aren't a big dancer (my fabulous girlfriends) or don't know a lot of people (our parents) can get a little long and boring. Yep. I said it.

We're having a slide show (about 4 minutes long) of photos of us growing up and then together. Whenever I see wedding slide shows, I get teary. We are also going to play a little "get to know the bride & groom" game that I have seen done at many of my cousins' weddings. I will explain it in more detail as the time gets closer.

I am also planning on having a little "reception program" on the tables with the menus. So many tiny details go completely un-explained at receptions. Things like "who's giving the toasts and how they know the couple?" Things like "Why is this the song that the bride & groom choose to dance to?" "Why are the bride and her dad dancing to this song?" I know that the DJ can say all this stuff but often the DJ gets ignored or his words get lost. I want everything out there in case people are interested.

Working hard to make the whole party feel just like us.

So, yep. I am doing my own flowers. This means centerpieces and bouquets. I have the centerpieces down and last week I practiced the bouquets. Here's the thing. They're flowers. They're pretty. Especially when they are imperfect and a bit causal.

I bought two dozen orange roses at Costco to practice with. (Our real flowers will probably be ordered from Costco next April.)

Cleaned them up a bit – no leaves. No little pokey leaves around the petals. No dead petals.

Stuck them in water to sit over night. This was a bit of a test. I am planning on having the flowers delivered on Thursday. I'll clean them up that day. Then Friday morning I will "prep" and bundle them. Saturday morning, the day of the wedding, I will just have to wrap the ribbons around them. (I know, I KNOW, I'll be busy on Saturday. But this is how I want to do it. Paul will still marry me even if my flowers fall apart. And my bridesmaids are a talented bunch and will help me out if I promise champagne.)

My tools are pretty simple. My bouquet will have about 20 roses + 2 fake poppies. The bridesmaids will have about 15. I bought inexpensive floral wire at Michael's. The ribbon is May Arts and the green springs came off the plants we have in the backyard.

I have no skills besides a positive attitude when it comes to the flowers. I hold the stems loosely in my left hand and add a rose at a time until the bouquet looks full and even. It helps to stand in front of a mirror and look at it as you add. I wound a lot of wire tightly to hold it together.

I started at the base of the flowers and wrapped the ribbon all the way down and then wrapped it back up. To hold it in place I used small sewing pins. The real bouquets will have matching pins but these did the job. If the pins go directly into the stems it holds really well. The real bouquets will also have more green leaf sprigs but it was dark when I started this project and that made picking greenery difficult.

184 days and counting.