the flowers...

...my beautiful mom working so hard and quickly to finish the bouquets...

...huge table full of buckets of flowers...

My mom was in charge of creating wonderful green and white bouquets for us girls to hold and for the mason jars on the tables. I found a local florist who would order flowers in bulk..as long as we told them how many stems we wanted and of which flower. Not only did we have to come up with the design from scratch but we also had to estimate how many stems we would need. This was a little daunting for me... but my whole life I had grown up with my mom cutting and arranging beautiful bouquets from our backyard so I knew just the person to ask for this project...my mom. She was able to take my inspirational flower pictures and make some phenomenal bouquets.

...my mom making my special bouquet to hold the day of the wedding...

...the tables with wine bottles full of water and lemon slices...

I wanted simple bouquets with only white flowers and all different types of greenery. Throughout the whole wedding I only had shades of green and turquoises...then the natural browns and whites.  Matt and I had collected jars throughout the year for the tables.  My mom chose: white peonies, white snap dragons ( which actually weren't fully opened...so they looked like adorable little green buds), cut leafy green stems from the yard.  She had ordered sugar snap peas also, but they died...so the florist substituted them with more peonies. My mom recruited help to make the bouquets the morning before the wedding...anyone who happened to be walking through the living room put together at least one arrangement. She also made boutonnieres for the boys....but we forgot to put them on and ultimately it felt more like us-a little less formal-not to wear them...so that was perfect. All together the flowers ended up costing $600.00. We were able to pick them up from the florist's refrigerator the morning of the wedding, which eliminated the stress of all of the flowers wilting before the big day. It was incredibly convenient...and budget friendly for us to do our own flowers...plus in the end I had beautiful bouquets that were exactly what I had dreamed of.

What did we do with all of these awesomely beautiful bouquets after the wedding? We gave about 8 of them to the cute little coffee shop in town that let our guests borrade their little shop using their internet throughout the week and the rest went to the hospital that I work at to any patients the volunteers felt like needed them most. It was a great way for more people to enjoy the creations... I imagine it put a smile on their faces...perhaps not as big as mine though.

...my lovely sister holding my bouquet and her own during the ceremony...

[all photos from Kevin Apparetti, Matt's talented uncle and professional photographer]