#KurtyLovesBubby

Success! Kurtis & Dannielle (aka Bubby) got married yesterday at Verandas Beach House in Manhattan Beach and it was SUCH a beautiful wedding. They both have amazing, warm, and fun families and friends that made it a really sweet and loving and awesome party. They made me cry during their vows (that was mostly Karen's fault, she turned on the waterworks first which got me going), and we felt so lucky to be included in the celebration.

We Like Flowers were representin' at the wedding too, adding to the awesomeness if I do say so myself. Bubby was a very hands-on bride with the flower planning, shopping, arranging etc which was great since I didn't have my partner in floral crime (Mandy is doing flowers for another wedding today! WLF is so popular). She rounded up 4 of her girls to also help which made everything go so much faster, and with less stress. I love arranging flowers, but picking them up at the mart, unwrapping them, cleaning up all the mess, etc is a lot less fun. They all helped a ton so it was truly a group effort. 

Enough typey-typey, more pictures!

Dannielle, Karen and I did a recon mission at the flower mart a few months ago to get a clear idea of the flowers she liked and more importantly, the flowers she did NOT like. We got clear on the colors she wanted, specific shades of everything, and snapped reference shots for the flower order. Dannielle gave me some inspiration pictures which are always helpful, and we went from there. We placed the order with Grower's Direct at the LA Flower Mart and they were so great to work with. I emailed them our list of what we needed and the quantities, included the reference shots for the specific colors we needed, and they quoted us and took care of the rest. When we picked up the flowers, almost everything was perfect, just the color of the hypericum berries were a bit off, but we were able to leave them off the order and find the color we needed at a different stall. I'm pretty sure we got wholesale prices on everything too, because the final bill was about $70 less than what we were quoted! When does that ever happen?? Special shout-outs to Brenda and Julio who were so helpful!

So fast forward a few hours after picking up the flowers and caffeinating ourselves... arrangements!

There were 8 tables plus the sweetheart table, so we did 9 of these, roughly looking the same. We each did a couple and busted them out a lot faster than I thought we would!

Isn't this venue pretty? We arranged most of the flowers on Thursday but I went back on Friday by myself to place everything and finish the rest of the arrangements and bouquets and bouts, etc. As I was placing them on the tables, several soon-to-be brides came through on a tour of the venue and asked for my business card. Ha! I'm not a real florist, I just play one on the blogs. Nice compliment though!

These were the other arrangements I made with the leftover flowers, to place on the other non-dining tables. They were all kind of different, and fun to make. We did such a good job with the flower order, using almost everything and not needing any extras. I think I'm getting better at estimating how many flowers are needed to pull off a specific number of arrangements. It's all about the math!



Caila & Kayla did this arrangement, fast little apprentices!



And the bouquets! I loved how these turned out. I don't have a good picture of Dannielle's all-white bouquet, but I'll post it when we get the professional shots back. The one below is one of 5 bridesmaid bouquets that I did. Dannielle wanted them on the smaller side so it was basically just one show-stopper cafe au lait dahlia, a china mum, two white dahlias, some white carnations (sorry Karen Miller- they're good fillers!), white stock, peach roses, and white spray roses. They smelled AWESOME. All bouquets, bouts and corsages were wrapped in a raw muslin fabric, so pretty. Dannielle's bouquet got peach muslin overlaid with peach lace, and Kurtis' bout was the same peach muslin, but everyone else got the natural muslin.

These buckets lined the aisle and we just filled them with three hydrangeas. Easy peasy. 

One of the small cocktail table arrangements:

And the cakes! I did the big stock arrangement in the back (that stuff is SO fragrant, it made the whole upper level smell amazing), but the cake was someone else. I felt so bad, that was the one thing I forgot to do. Out of sight, out of mind, even though it was written in my notes. Thankfully this was all Bubby wanted, just a few dahlias placed around the one cake they were cutting into so I think one of the girls dismantled one of the smaller arrangements I did to pull these flowers off for the cake. Crisis averted!                                                               

I'll post the photographer's better pictures when I see them! Congratulations Kurtis & Bubby! We love you guys!