Time to put the petal to the metal

We are making a trip home to California in 3 days. I'm so excited! The fiance is especially excited to be driving again. Me, I'm more excited about getting some wedding planning taken care of!  We haven't been back since March when we chose our wedding venue, so there's a lot to do. One of the big ones on my to do list is to find a florist. I am a huge fan of flowers. I love them, especially at weddings but I don't really want to spend a lot of money on them. So our flower budget is on the modest side.

Early in our engagement my Mom told me that a family friend, who was my girl scout troop leader when I was a little, does wedding flowers. I thought, great I'm not looking for anything fancy and I'd love to give her the work. So I didn't really think about it much after that. Then as the months started ticking down I decided to get in touch with her and find out what her prices were. I wrote her saying I was interested, and I told her a little about our wedding. Her response was, "I am looking forward to creating beautiful, elegant, and yet simple wedding flower arrangements and bouquets to add to your special day!". I kind of felt awkward because I didn't say I wanted to use her yet... So I wrote another email asking specifically if she had any pictures from previous weddings she had done and how much she charges for her services along with pictures of flowers I liked. I got no response... It's been almost two weeks since I sent that email and I am kind of feeling a little nervous about using her now. To be on the safe side I'm going to meet with some other florists on my trip to California. I don't know when I'll be back out west so I need to make it count. And with only 8 months left the clock is ticking! I can't wait until we get that one figured out. Then I'll have another big one to cross of my list!

But in the meantime, let me show you what I like!

Gerber Daisys, LOVE

 Love all the different types of flowers in this bouquet

 

 But then I love the simplicity of this bouquet. Just the orange roses, *sigh* beautiful.

I really like this simple centerpiece. It's a nice blend of the green and orange I want

All above Images via theknot.com

For the life of me I can't remember where I got this picture. I love the idea of my bridesmaids having a bouquet of mostly greens, with pops of orange.

I have a ton of other pictures but these are my favorites. I also like the trend right now of putting fruit in with centerpieces.

Image via theknot.com

In the end I'll probably go with a less is more type of feel with the flowers. I've even considered doing my own flowers and ordering from fiftyflowers.com... But we'll see if it comes to that.

How important are wedding flowers to you? What's  your favorite flower? Any advice on selecting a florist?