Your eyes lit up the room when I gave you flowers.

Next up on my list of vendor reviews - our florist, otherwise known as The Flowerbox!

Wedding planning and sticker shock are like best buds. Where one goes, the other is likely to follow. Kind of like that annoying younger sibling that insisted on tagging along while you and your 7th grade BFF spied on your 18 year old neighbour, aka beau-hunk extraordinaire. I'm kidding, I'm kidding - I love my little brother (now)!

Anyways, where I'm going with this is that I thought I was prepared for the sticker shock of wedding planning. And for the most part, I really was. I didn't bat an eye at the estimated cost of photography, invitations, catering, formal wear, party rentals, limousines - none of it surprised me.

That is, until I started researching the cost of flowers. My newly engaged self (aka pre floral research) happily thumbed through magazine after magazine of the most gorgeous floral designs. So much inspiration to be found, and oh the spectacular things that could be done with flowers. And sure there are "expensive flowers" but I didn't need those! Heck - just look at what people are doing with carnations these days! Right?

Hah! Consider me shocked. Now, I must point out that I understand the reason behind the cost of flowers, I really do. But I guess I never truly *thought* about the cost of florals until I started googling. Oh I googled alright, and gaggled and gurgled. Gah. Unfortunately, there wasn't room in our budget for big, lush, fancy flowers designs. And so it came to pass that our centrepieces would be DIY potted florals and ferns. I even considered arranging the bouquets and boutonnieres myself - until my bridesmaids lovingly shoved nudged me back from the brink of "DIY on your wedding day will make you insane" insanity.
Thus, it was with an embarrassingly (at least to my mind) meagre budget that I called to set up appointments with 3 different florists in Vancouver. And so, armed with all the clipped out, printed off, and dog earred inspirational photos of wild and woodsy floral designs, I carefully explained my ideas to each of the florists in turn.

The first florist was very sweet, albeit a wee bit scatterbrained. She was fairly new to the business, and although she had grand ideas, her proposal came in at more than double the budget I had given her. Strike One.

The second florist had been in the biz for a long time, and wasn't shy to admit it. Although her proposal was more in keeping with my modest budget, she just didn't *get* my ideas. When I showed her the photos of the wild looking bouquets, she said "oh yes, we can do something like that, only less messy and wild - you don't want it looking like that". Um what? Were you not just listening to me?!? Did I not just say that's exactly what I wanted? Aaaaand Strike Two.

By this point, I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to get the look I wanted for the price I could afford. And then I met with Sacha Thompson from The Flowerbox She chatted with me about my ideas, looked at my (piles of) pictures, and quickly put my worries to rest. She would use local, in season greenery and flowers. She'd make sure to incorporate my colours, and she'd do it at a price that would fit my budget.

Hoooooooooooooooomerun!

Without further ado - check out her amazing work!

(All photos taken by the amazing Gracci and Rico Pelaez)

Aren't they gorgeous? They were exactly what I wanted. Woodsy, textured, green, wild, yellow. I'm pretty sure the first thing that came out of my mouth when I saw them was [high pitched girly squeal] ahmaigad they're peeeeeeeeeeeeeerfect [/high pitched girly squeal]

A+++++ for The Flowerbox. I would work with them again in a heartbeat. Half a heart beat even!

PS. Bonus points for anyone who knows the song that this blog title refers to!

We're Glossy!

Considering all the money I've spent on glossy wedding magazines, its very surreal knowing that our wedding is now featured in one of them! I know I hinted at the possibility before, but with the issue out on the stands, I can now confirm that we are indeed featured in the Spring/Summer 2010 edition of Real Weddings Magazine (local Vancouver wedding magazine)!

Needless to say, I was thrilled. All our blood, sweat, and tears (no exaggeration - all three occurred during the planning process) finally paid off. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Really? Did you really do all that work to get yourself featured in a wedding magazine? Wasn't the beautiful wedding day itself pay off enough? Well of course it was. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

But, really, let's be honest. Those details? You know the ones. The details that you slaved night and day over? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you may be horrified to discover that they can go overlooked on the big day (yes ladies it's true). So who is it that notices the details? Let's see, how about event planners, magazine editors, photographers, and of course the brides themselves. Scanning the magazines, blogs, and websites for inspiration. Oooing and aaaaaahing over each and every delicious detail. That's who notices. And now that many of the details of our wedding are laid out on two gloriously glossy pages of Real Weddings Magazine, I must admit, it feels goooooooooooooood.

And of course - kudos to our photographers - Rico and Gracci Pelaez! Without their amazing photography, we would never have been selected. I can't say enough good things about their work. Instead - you should just visit their blog and see for yourself.

Real Weddings doesn't have their current issue online yet. As soon as they do - I'll link to it ;) In the meantime - this is what the cover looks like! They chose some really nice colours to go with this issue don't you think? heh



And now - on to vendor reviews with plenty of photos!