Iris Inspiration

So we went shopping today, and bought this gorgeous bunch of Irises:

I love irises - I remember my mum growing them in our front garden when I was younger, and the colour of these is gorgeous, and happens to be the exact shade of purple I want for the wedding.

It made me realise that we could have iris heads as the flowers in our wheatgrass centrepieces - I don;t know why it didn't occur to me before now, since the original tutorial for the centrepieces I found involved irises!

from lindseyrose on WeddingBee

 Anyway, as far as I know, Irises are available all year round, so getting them for our wedding shouldn't be too difficult. The bunch we got from Tesco was £3 (well actuallly it was reduced to £1.95, but it should have been £3) and has maybe 8 usable heads. I wonder if it would be worth finding out how much a huge bunch from a florist would be, since we will need about 5 or so heads per centrepiece (possibly 3, I've not decided yet). It might work out cheaper to buy one big bunch, as opposed to lots of small bunches form the supermarket. 

The other option, of course, is to grow our own. I have no idea if irises are difficult to grow or maintain, but I might do some research. It would be lovely (and cheap!) to grow them ourselves, but it would add the extra stress of worrying about whether or not the flowers will turn out ok.

Either way, I definitely like irises for our centrepieces - and as an added bonus, the song I'm walking down the aisle to is also called Iris! Just a little detail that absolutely no-one else would ever notice, but it makes me smile!

P.S. I have decided that we need to have that ring bearer book in our wedding somewhere! I will update soon with an explanation of how I'm going to make a few changes and includ eit in the ceremony!

Wheatgrass Centrepieces

I breifly mentioned using wheatgrass for the DIY centrepieces in a previous post, and I have gone away and done some  more research.

I really like this idea because they look fresh and natural but are still quite simple and fun.

Basically, we would get some square, wooden boxes or trays and paint them our wedding colours. Then we'd grow some wheatgrass, trim it to length and pop some flower heads on top. Easy peasy.

I found an amazing post on Wedding Bee where a bride explained how she made her own wheatgrass centrepieces. You can read it by clicking >here<.  It seems simple enough, and I also really like the fact that we could let guests take them home if they wanted. Either that, or our living room will have a wheatgrass theme for a while!

I suppose that we could even take them home and make them into wheatgrass juice for the morning after!

 Although I've never had wheatgrass juice before... I know it's full of nutrients and very good for you, but it looks a bit gross!

I've had a quick look at the prices of wheatgrass kits and I've found Juiceland which sells a kit that they claim will make about 8 trays of wheatgrass for only £15.95. Bargain! I thik we could probably even find some old bits of wood lying around and my dad would be able to cut them to size and turn them into containers, meaning we will save even more money!

For the flowers, I think I prefer the look of just a few flower heads in the grass, rather than completely covering it. I will just pop down to Sainsburys and buy a few bunches the night before.

Probably white roses to match the bouquets, and some purple flowers. Obviously this will depend on whats available on the day, but I think if we are flexible and don't have our heart set on a certain flower then we'll be fine. I suppose we could always use silk flowers, but it seems a shame when we could have fresh ones for just as cheap.

I was also thinking that we could stick some sprigs of herbs into the wheatgrass, maybe some lavender as it matches the colour scheme, and then they would smell amazing too!

I figured that we could have some long trays of wheatgrass to decorate the top table with aswell - something like this maybe?

Ooh - and I have just found this picture of wheatgrass being used to serve food on!

Is there no end to it's uses?! lol I think I should stop now, before i start thinking about wheatgrass table linen and chair covers! Ooh, now theres an idea....

Cheap Centrepiece Idea #2

Following on from our decision to have non floral centrpieces, I have been trawling the internet for inspiration.
I think it can be difficult to find centrpieces that look elegant without spending a fortune, so the plan is to make them ourselves. This means that we're looking for something cheap and simple that will still make an impact.

Here's a few of my favourite ideas so far:

Candle bags from Martha Stewart

I quite like the idea of using herbs as centrepieces. I think give a fress and natural look to the table, and we could make it a bit more colourful by putting them in bright containers. Plus they would smell amazing!

I've mentioned using limes before, and this lemon centrepiece looks quite striking. However, when Martha Stewart does it, it looks classy and unique. When I do it, it looks like a bunch of fruit dumped in a bowl...

I love this idea, from Martha Stewart (again!). It's family photos printed on really thin paper and framed. You stick 3 frames together to make a triangle, then put a candle in the middle. Simple, but very cool.

Fabric flags (in purple and lime for us, obviously) stuck in a jar. So simple, but I actually quite like the look of this.

I think I saw goldfish bowls somewhere - maybe at a wedding fayre? At first, I thought it was a very unique idea, but when I actually think about it, I'm not sure I like it...
What happens to the fish afterwards? Is it cruel? What if a fish dies during the day? Can you imagine - a dead fish floating in the middle of the table?? Eurgh!

Wheatgrass! I've never thought of grass as a centrepiece before but I love this photo so much! I know it has flowers in it, but only the head and I could buy a bunch from Sainsburys on the day, lol.

So far, wheatgrass is definitely my favourite idea. I'm off to find some more pictures!

Cheap Centrepiece Idea #1

I am gobsmakced at the cost of flowers for weddings! If we have real flowers for our boquets and centrepieces, I will be speding more on flowers than on my dress! I love flowers, but I'm not sure I love them that much.

So my solution is to either use artifical flowers, or not use flowers at all.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards non floral centrepieces. My first thought is Candles:

I absolutely love the look of candle centrepieces. They are so simple, but the effect is very elegant. My only fear is that it would still be daylight during our meal, so it might look a bit odd to have a table full of candles and no need for them to be lit...

Also, I think i'd like a bit more colour in our centrepieces. Of course, we could always use coloured candles - I love this picture:

From Martha Stewart