Well, our wedding has come and gone.  It was a wonderful day, a fun reception, and worth all the planning and anxiety.  Before saying good-bye to this blog, I wanted to share some of the fruits of my last two years’ labor and show everyone how all of the little details I’ve been obsessing over since November 2008 came together on The Day.  I’m devoting this, my penultimate post, to my wedding day flowers.  The floral arrangements and bouquets were some of my favorite details about the wedding.  You can see why in the photo above, which shows my predominantly ivory bouquet next to my attendants’ colorful blooms.  They were so lovely!  My wedding flowers deserve a discussion all their own.

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When it comes to the kinds of flowers I want at my wedding, my thoughts have evolved dramatically since my initial “vision.”  Since we’re getting married in the Fall, I at first craved lush, dramatic blooms with deep, rich colors.  I wasn’t interested in the traditional Autumn pallet of burnt oranges, bright reds and earthy browns; I was thinking more along the lines of red-black Baccara roses and eggplant or “black” calla lilies.  I wanted tall, tree-like arrangements of curly willow and birch and accents of gold or copper.  This vision, however, quickly disintegrated after I fell in love with the Branford House.  One of the mansion’s features that I like best are its dark, hand-carved wood wall panels; these, however, prompted me to choose a color pallet for the reception decor that would provide more of a contrast.  Not only would the dark-colored flowers that I initially envisioned get “lost” in the dark interior of the Branford House and, for that matter, of Harkness Chapel (whose interior is even darker than that of the reception venue), but I would be in danger of it all looking quite dreary and gloomy.  So, I eventually settled on a more tradional “white wedding” pallet that includes cream and ivory roses and hydrangea, ivory ostrich feathers and gold accents and plenty of candles.  Here are a couple of photos of traditional “white wedding” details that I think are dramatic and fetching that I’ve used in my own musings for inspiration (note the ostrich feathers and lush florals in the centerpiece!):

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A few months ago, while I was perusing theknot.com for some flower and bouquet ideas, I spotted a photograph of a lush hand-tied bouquet of roses that had one particularly interesting detail — a collar of ostrich feathers!  At first I didn’t quite know what to think of the combination of flowers and plummage.  It seemed rather “edgy,” especially since most of the weddings I had been to in the past (primarily family weddings) featured more traditional arrangements.  In fact, when my sister got married six years ago, her hand-tied bouquets seemed especially “modern” and exciting.  I am, after all, old enough to remember when every bride, pretty much without exception, carried a cascading bouquet mounted on a little plastic handle thingy.  In any case, I eyed this perplexing rose and ostrich feather bouquet for several moments and then emailed it to my sister and Lead Attendant Victoria with the accompanying message, “Do we like this?”  She responded tepidly a few moments later, “I don’t know.  I’ll have to look at it for a while.”  Well, it turns out that she hated it and continues to do so.  But me?  I love it!  I’m definitely having a bit of a love affair with ostrich feathers right now.  I think they look especially lovely with my favorite flower, roses.  The combination is ultra-feminine and soft, like in the photo below (which also features an adorable array of bridesmaid bouquets!  If only I could convince my own maids to fall in love with plumage.  Hmmm …):

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