My daughter loves DIY projects. So do I. She wanted me and my husband to be involved in the preparation for her wedding. We were really touched that she and her fiancé trusted and included us. When we were browsing for wedding decorations, bridal bouquets and center pieces, we were shocked at the cost. For the thing that we had in mind, it will cost us $5,000. So we made the bold challenge to do it ourselves.
I have never done any flower arrangements or decorations but I made up my mind that there is no better place to experiment and do what we would like to do but with our own daughter’s wedding. They decided to get married a year and one day after their engagement.
There were 5 important things that I focused on for the eleven months of preparation. Yes, 11 months!
- The theme and the colour
- The season and the time of year
- The venue and the program
- The number of guests and the number of the wedding party (bride/groom)
- The budget
THEME AND THE COLOUR
I considered it of utmost importance that I will know what specific theme the couple has in mind. They wanted a mix of rustic ambience with a travel theme. I said rustic ambience because they didn’t want their wedding to be outrageously out of the city but outside of Toronto yet within reach of most of their friends, or rather the bride’s side at least. And they wanted the ceremony outdoors.
Theirs is a merging of American and Canadian family and friends as they both went to an American university but the bride is Canadian. They chose a travel theme as they had been on a long-distance relationship for about three years before the wedding.
They wanted cornflower blue and peach for their colours. I then looked up pinterest and google for rustic weddings and decorations to have some ideas what we would be doing. I showed her some sample photos for bouquets and boutonnieres and they opted for the hand-tied style. Keeping that in mind, I proceeded to the next essential point, which is the season or time of year.
SEASON AND TIME OF YEAR
One would wonder why this is important. Since we are from Toronto, I would like to find out what flowers are in bloom around July 1st. My daughter may request any flower she‘d like as we are family anyway but we are limited as to what flowers are in abundance around that time of year. Being open to a wide colour palette and variety of flowers was a plus factor in doing DIY projects like this and my daughter was quite fine with different tints close to the theme.
I got a lot of information from Sarah Nixon and her website is found in www.mylusciousbackyard.com. You will find her pins on the different flowers that are available during the year. And I actually met up with her later and I’ll tell you about it later.
I also contacted flower farmers near Toronto to find out what are available but most farmers told me that they do grow flowers but if we have specific ones in mind, they won’t be able to commit until about a month before the wedding date as their flower harvest depends upon the weather and affected by all elements of nature beyond their control. I will discuss this further when I will talk about bouquets.
So early on, it is vital that for DIY wedding flower arrangements to envision and plan how you will make your decorations considering the major factor – where you will get the flowers and foliage.
I would also consider it very necessary to know the day and time of the event so I will be able to plan when to get the flowers delivered and when to put them together. I learned from my research that it is best to get the flowers delivered around three to four days before the event so they are still fresh and also have enough cushion for delivery delays.
VENUE AND THE PROGRAM
Physically seeing the venue is a must for me to visualize the decorations but I did not expect that we even get to view and become a part of the decision makers. My family and the groom’s siblings and friend were with the couple when we were scouting for the wedding venue. It was very reassuring and kind of inspiring that the two families were really on this thing together. The place not only the couple chose but stamped by close family members was perfect for their dream wedding.
White Oaks Conference Resort was a beautiful venue. It has lots of options for the wedding they wanted. The onsite lush gardens with a background of a tiny pond and a staircase on the side provided positive vibes for the wedding ceremony. It also includes a decorated rain room just in case Mother Nature decides to pour some rain on the wedding march.
The venue also has the perfect dining room size for the guests they were going to invite. A very accommodating and friendliest wedding specialist, Alicia, outlined the program with some of the details we could expect so the venue was finalized really early. She was hands-on with everything.
We went home so relieved and happy. I can now start envisioning how to arrange decorations at the wedding venue and how to put stuff for dining room decorations.
NUMBER OF GUESTS AND WEDDING PARTY
The main reason I would like to find out the number of guests and wedding party is for me to estimate how much flowers and decoration accessories to order and how many centre pieces to put together as well as the numbers of bouquets and boutonnieres. I would also like to be able to schedule the preparations so the flowers remain fresh and will not wilt during the planned summer wedding.
BUDGET
Although the budget should probably be the first in mind when planning anything, but I considered it last in the list regarding my flower decorations because I wanted to explore first the possibilities of looking for the best flowers, the best resources, the ideal arrangements per couple’s wishes, and the nice accessories that are needed before I finally eliminate what we don’t need and then reach the amount that would not exceed the professional cost of $5,000. I would say, we did have a working budget in mind and plan to keep the cost down as much as possible. In the first place that was the reason why we wanted everything as DIY project.
Me and my husband did let our daughter know that we were willing to shell out for the decoration expense because we wanted the best for our daughter’s wedding. As it turned out, we did not reach that amount but the results exceeded our expectations!