Practice?

I love arranging flowers.  I find it very soothing and meditative; its very be in the moment yoga-ish for me.  And then for 5-10 days I have a small bit of loveliness in my home (this is especially important during the long Rochester winters).  I love doing it so much that I'm seriously considering putting together my own arrangements for the wedding.  The reasons I might not:

• I have no idea how I would get the flowers to the venue - I really don't want to have to deal with it
• I'm not convinced I could make a bouquet, maybe with multiple practice sessions
  
• I'm a med student, therefore I have some OCD tendencies, thus there is a 50/50 chance of me freaking out and becoming some crazy bridezilla while attempting to arranging the flowers

Yesterday as I was doing my shopping, I passed through the flower area and they had two of the three flowers I want at the wedding in the right color, plus some filler that went well, so I clearly had to get some to do a trial run of the flowers in the antique bottles.

Flowers purchased:

• 1 bunch (3 stems) white hydrangea ($14.99)
  
• 1 bunch (10 stems) white lisianthus ($9.99)
  
• 1 bunch (4 stems) dark purple "filler #2" (might be aster) ($2.99)
  
• Total cost $27.97 - made 2 large and 2 small arrangements
• I think I will need around 12 large and 12 small arrangements for all the tables - estimated cost: $170
• I compared the Wegman's prices to American Floral Distributors (a wholesaler) and Wegman's beat them in each case.  For the lisianthus, AFD charged $7 MORE for a 10 stem bunch!  If I DIY the flowers I think I might order them from Wegman's

(At the wedding I also want to include ranunculus in white or light purple.)

Results:

(I'm still loving this rectangular prescription bottle)

What I learned:

• Even the wide mouth bottles are a little too narrow - I would have liked the option of fitting in more stems, so that I could vary the fullness of the arrangements more; mason jars might be a good option for tall bottles with a wider mouth
• The narrow mouth bottles are very narrow - only 2 or 3 stems fit in, but it works in groupings with the larger arrangements
• I generally like the look - simple, elegant, a little rustic (like our venue)
• I need to get more bottles, especially some shorter bottles with both wide and narrow mouths to allow for more height variation among the arrangements 

*photos by me