White calla / purple dendrobium / reed / gyp / baby's breath Lake Tahoe wedding

Here's a inspiration design post for Erica, who is getting married next summer at South Lake Tahoe.  She is out of state and planning a Lake Tahoe destination wedding, so we are doing a wedding flower consultation by email. She loves a clean and sophisticated look, but needs to consider her budget. She also likes the simple look of my Just Gyp bouquets. Her colors are royal purple and sage green, a great color combination!

via flickr, Nicole Radtke ("*nike*" photostream)

This horsetail reed has a similar look to bamboo....I love how it is kind of rough looking next to the delicate gyp (baby's breath) - rather ying and yang, masculine and feminine, edgy and ethereal.

via A Special Day Designs by Monique Wilber, Shingle Springs, CA -- Lake Tahoe Wedding flowers

 The bouquet above has a modern look as it doesn't have a lot of different flowers in it.  The gardenias are not in the budget, but other white flowers could substitute.  I love the green sisal sphere and the explosion grass!

via A Special Day Designs by Monique Wilber, Shingle Springs, CA -- Lake Tahoe Wedding flowers

Here are some callas, not many, but stylized and chic (above).  The budget won't allow gardenias, and Erica is not a fan of roses, so we can substitute there.  I love the green sisal wrap (also comes in purple!).

via Floral Design by Jacqueline Ahne blog

 The photo above is my inspiration for the reed and dendrobium orchid dangles...love love love Jacqueline Ahne's design work!
 
Now, imagine the dangling dendrobium orchids in purple (they won't be this pink-ish):

via 123RF

via A Special Day Designs by Monique Wilber, Shingle Springs, CA -- Lake Tahoe Wedding flowers

A Just Gyp bouquet for the bridesmaids, imagine with reed dangles and a wrap in your colors, as above.

via Wedding Flowers and Reception Ideas

A reed and gyp bout for the guys, above...

via The Knot

Not quite what I had in mind, but what a calla and gyp could look like together...or, another option:

via The English Garden

Okay, use your imagination:  make that white tulip a white calla, and think of the green dendrobium orchids as purple!

via My Bouquet blog

 For the ceremony marker arrangements, I was thinking curly willow as above, or straight sticks with horsetail reed (the reed is the first photo in the post), in a solid green or brown eco mache container, with dangling blooms. 

These are the eco mache containers....they can be colored to match your wedding colors, or used as-is.

Another option is the photo below, which has the curly willow (or straight sticks and reed) in a clear glass cylinder:

via My Bouquet blog

With "sticks", the design will be straighter, not so twisty, like this (but with reeds, not the tall grass) but with dangles:

via A Special Day Designs by Monique Wilber, Shingle Springs, CA -- Lake Tahoe Wedding flowers

With my big tall glass rental cylinders, it will look like this:

via A Special Day Designs by Monique Wilber, Shingle Springs, CA -- Lake Tahoe Wedding flowers

DIY Bulk Wedding Flowers for Sacramento, Placerville, and Lake Tahoe Weddings

White Mini Callas

Purple Callas

When I order bulk wedding flowers for you, you are saving 30 - 50% over having a skilled, educated professional design your wedding flowers.  When you order custom flowers, you are paying to have someone else with design skills create floral works of art - and for their labor, their experience and education, and the costs of running a business.  They also take the worry about how your florals will turn out for you.  Some couples choose to DIY their own wedding flowers for different reasons - they have a lower budget, or they are creative and want to express their creativity.

When I order DIY bulk flowers for your Sacramento or Lake Tahoe wedding, you have the same choice of flowers as I do.  I order from my regular vendors, who order from their regular growers, and the flowers are shipped "cold chain" - that is, kept refrigerated all the way.  When my vendors get the flowers, they make sure to rehydrate them with special floral food and bacterial-reducing dip, to make sure your flowers last longer.  When I pick up your flowers for you, if I will be holding them for you, I also rehydrate them once again and give them a bacterial-reducing dip.  This all means that your flowers will last longer.

When you order DIY bulk flowers from those anonymous online places, what are you going to do if the flowers show up wilted?  There won't be time to replace them.  And even if they are shipping overnight, the flowers might be left at a hot airport or be sitting on a hot truck - or in the winter, freezing.  Ordering DIY flowers from me, a local floral designer, you have peace of mind. I check your flowers when I pick them up from my vendors, and if they are not up to standard, I will find another source for you.

I just quoted bulk DIY callas / wedding flowers for Tamika's 10/10/10 wedding. After I sent her estimate to her, I checked online for the leading calla company.  Guess what?  My prices were lower!!!  So don't think that your local bulk DIY wedding flower vendor can't beat the big corporation's prices.  And I guarantee you -- I care a LOT more about your wedding than they do!

Valentine's Day Not Budget for Brides / Sacramento and Lake Tahoe Wedding Flowers Florist

See these lovely Renoir callas? I was just at my flower vendors on Friday, to see what was new and fresh for February (more on that in a minute!). As you know, prices on anything goes up when there is a high demand for them. That includes perishable flowers around any holiday, but especially Valentine's Day (you may not think about it...but don't get married around Mother's Day if you don't want to pay high prices, either!). Prices are up, up, up for this major floral holiday. Farms charge more to the wholesalers, the wholesale vendors charge more to the florists, and the florists must mark up their product as well. It's not that the florists are out to make a bigger buck on you...their costs skyrocket and that gets passed to you.

Where was I? Oh yes, the lovely callas. I saw a similar color at my vendor's on Friday...and keep in mind, that these are small posey callas...they come in a bunch of ten stems, which isn't barely a handful...and these callas, for TEN of them, would retail at...gasp...$78 right now! So when you are choosing the date, keep in mind that the two weeks prior to a major flower holiday, the prices are rising. After the holiday, quality would be a concern to me. If you can avoid those times, so much better for your budget!

Oh! But there are some lovely options this time of year. At the end of January, the flowering branches started coming in. Forsythia, at 5 to 6 feet tall; flowering plum; flowering quince with coral blooms.