A Bride's Golden Moments: Confessions of a closet flower fanatic

I have a confession to make: During the early stages of my wedding planning, I was completely anti-flowers. Shocking, I know, but I just couldn't fathom spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on flowers that ultimately die.

I was even going to go as far as DIY'ing my centerpieces and boquets. I cringe at that thought as I type this now. In all seriousness, I was terrified to step foot in a florist and hear the price of flowers.

Here's a picture of the centerpiece I was going to attemp to DIY before I came to my senses. I still find it beautiful, but I no longer want to burden myself with a massive DIY project like that.

Ok, now I have a second confession to make (clutch the pearls): I booked my florist before I even signed the contract with my venue!!! Florist shopping was actually one of the most pleasurable wedding experiences thus far and I was able to recognize the flower fanatic living inside of me and I accepted her with open arms!

Actually I lucked out with the cost because:

1) I'm getting married in a garden with flowers and trees all around me

2) My venue provides the flower arrangements for the pews (even if the ceremony has to be moved inside)

3) They also provide the arrangements for the guestbook table and escort card table.

All I really had to worry about was centerpieces and personal flowers. Currently I have low centerpeices because the ceilings at my venue are low, but lately the flower fanatic in me is thinking about doing half tall and half low centerpieces (I'll keep you posted on that). The flowers in my arrangement consists of white hydrangeas, white roses, and cream roses. I wanted to keep the flowers light since I'm using a lot of champagne, gold, and bronze in other aspects of the wedding.

Here's an example of what they'll look like. (these aren't my actual samples)

And here's an example of how my bouquet will look. It will consist of white roses, cream roses, mini calla lillies, and stephanotis with swarovski crystals. Picture credit is from Flower Barn, which is also the florist that I booked with. For brides getting married in New York, be sure to catch the episode of "My Fair Wedding" on WE TV- November 16 @ 10pm. Flower Barn is going to be featured on there!