I don’t know if it’s considered breaking the rules or not, but I am thinking about not having real flowers. I am thinking of something that will last, and not have too much clean up. I am only doing the main bouquet and the one for the brides maids, and the bouitneers. I don’t really need extra decoration, since the wedding is going to be at an outdoor Garden Venue. The place is a peacock preserve, so I even have LIVE peacocks for decoration. I think that is pretty awesome.

Even still the thought of arranging flowers is daunting. I have never arranged flowers in my life, being more of a the tom boy than a girly girl. (however there has been a part of me that secretly wants to be a princess, : D) I don’t really have any friends who can sit and make flowers with me, most of my friends are either male or live hundreds of miles away. These tips have really given me inspiration and ideas. I am really looking forward to sitting down with my future mother and sister in-law and getting all of them ready!

You can TOTALLY do this. Me, my friend, my aunt and mum did about 20 arrangements in 3 hours. And at least one of us had never arranged any flowers before. And the results looked really good!

You will need more vases than you think is possible. I went to several charity shops the day before my wedding when I realised this and bought any old thing (most of which were glass and looked like they came from Ikea) for about ÂŁ1-2 a go.

Get lots of gypsophilia or babys breath. It’s really cheap and pulls what might look like a random collection of flowers into a cohesive arrangement and looks professional.

Cover the floor/ table with loads and loads of newspaper to make it easy to pick up the leaves afterwards.

Don’t fill the vases til right at the end. Moving waterfilled vases around leads to spilled water. Use a watering can to fill the vases when they are in position.

When you go to the flower market have a look around for the rubbish bins. I am a bit ashamed about this but we found loads of stuff lying around and in the bins that we could use. Some of it will be bashed and damaged, but not all of it will be and it will save loads of money.

Don’t forget leaves and foliage. They make your expensive flowers go further and add balance to the arrangements.

I’m doing all my flowers, centerpieces too. We’re doing long tables which means more centerpieces, but smaller ones. And when I say “I’m doing” my own flowers, I mean of course, we’re having a big party to do them. For me, it’s going to be a women’s only party, much like the henna decorating parties the day before the wedding… it will be a chance for all our female relatives to kevel over the bride, socialize, and feel like they have contributed to the wedding. After the dry run my mom said “Oh, I love this! Then when we all look at the flowers the day of, we’ll feel like we really were part of the wedding, not just guests.”