Our Wedding Vendors: Flowers

originally uploaded by Peonies and Polaroids

Turns out anemones are in season in the UK from September through to May. So we had to have a little re-think of our choice of flowers.

Guess which flowers are only in season in the UK in June? And come in white? And can be grown on a farm in England, not shipped from Holland? And which mean I don't have to go anywhere near a florist?

...and a little extract from my EAD article this week:

"...this week I have made a decision of sorts about my flowers. I knew
that I wanted white flowers, hand tied, a larger bunch for myself and smaller
bunches for my bridesmaids. To be honest, it never occured to me that I would
need to hire a florist and it just wasn’t in our budget to consider it further.
I am ordering ribbon the same colour as my shoes to tie on the bouquets. So far,
so good.

Not knowing exactly which flowers I wanted was a problem. I trawled
wedding blogs and sites looking for inspiration and saved photo after photo of
roses, carnations, anemones. I visited florists in our university home town and
was met with dirision that I planned to do the flowers myself. It was bad luck,
I was told, for a bride to do her own flowers. To a bride on a budget to be told
that she should pay £75-£100 for a hand-tied bunch of roses or she would have
bad luck seemed harsh. To them, and anyone worrying about it, I think it is a
load of rubbish that it is bad luck. If you want to do your own flowers, go for
it, but if you don’t, that is also fine. It all depends on your priorities for
your money and for me, flowers are not so high up on the list.

Roses are traditionally English but expensive, even bought as stems and arranged myself. They are also quite expected and I quite liked the idea of something a little more unique, so I decided on anemones. At least, I did until I discovered that they are not in season in the UK in June. Which went against our wedding ethos of recycled/vintage/local. Not much point buying all the clothes second-hand and then flying in out of season cut flowers. So I decided to look up which flowers are in season in the UK in June. And suddenly the answer was obvious: Peonies. Beautiful, in season, feathery, they smell fab and look great in photographs. And better still, I can have them delivered to the wedding venue the day before to be made up into bouquets by the bridesmaids and myself the night before.

And then, I met a blogging friend for tea and cake and she recommended me a farm where I could purchase said peonies. They are a family run farm who will deliver as many or as few peonies as I would like and were so friendly when I contacted them, my mind was put at rest. The only thing is that their delivery is dependent on the British weather. No warmth, no sun, no peonies. The last two summers have been complete washouts so we are hoping for a better one this year, but there is nothing that I can do. So I decided that if the peonies don’t arrive I will go with a backup option: carnations from a local florist. Decision made.

And as for the buttonholes, I think we will just go absolutely simple and traditional: carnations bought from a local florist on the morning before and made up into buttonholes by my mother-in-law-to-be. All except for the groom who I think will wear a peony, to honour the tradition of the bride plucking a flower from her bouquet and poking it through his buttonhole on his lapel. Unless the peonies fall through. In which case he will have a carnation too."

{Image courtesy of the fab Peonies & Polaroids}