On Making Flower Arrangements : Bloom

I have always had a love of flowers.  From the time I was a littler girl following my NaMaw around her back yard watering Azaleas and learning about Touch-Me-Nots to seeing my Grandfather’s Camellia garden {where this blog gets part of it’s name} and massive Gladiolus growing every year.

So when the leader of our Moms Blog group messaged me a couple of weeks ago about making flower arrangements for our event, Bloom: An Event for New & Expecting Moms, I told her ‘Yes’!  I knew it wouldn’t be that hard…I just needed a vision.

So of course I took to Pinterest.  On the way to Shelton Vineyards {that lovely weekend getaway!}, I was pinning flower arrangements that I thought fit the profile of what we wanted.  I messaged a few to our leader for her approval.

As the event drew near I got a little nervous…wondering how I was going to pull this off I recruited a couple of gal-pals who are much more creative than I am to see if they would be willing to spend a Friday night helping me create these arrangements that I had so willingly committed to.

With Dana and Breanna “in” for Friday night I came up with a quick plan of action.  Wednesday I squeezed in some time to go to Carolina Pottery to purchase my mercury glass vases.  Friday afternoon I had planned on Andrew getting the kids so I could run my flower-picking-up errands without the wild banshees.  That didn’t happen.  They tagged along and were fantastic about it!  Their reward for helping mommy pick out flowers?  A cookie at Publix {thank you, Publix!!}.

We ordered take out salads and pizza and Breanna brought over some home-made Sangria.

We ate as three crazy families would on a Friday night – casually and loudly…  then we sent the men and children into the den so we could get to work!

We brought in our bounty to assess the situation.

Breanna said to me…”So…what was your vision?”

I think she doubted the vision.  I doubted the vision myself, mainly because there were NO GOOD FLOWERS ANYWHERE!!!  I really wanted something pretty and pink.  Not like baby girl shower or bridal shower, but something really sweet to celebrate moms.  I purchased all of the bunches of Eucalyptus at Trader Joe’s, the Snapdragons and Hydrangeas came from Fresh Market.   Truth be told, I really wanted Peonies.  REALLY wanted them.  But they’re not quite in season.  The one bunch F-M had was like $15 and I just couldn’t do it.

So here we were with all these bunches of flowers, that on their own were ‘ok’…

I tried to explain my vision to Dana and Breanna…and they agreed by saying, “let’s just all make an arrangement and see what happens.” 🙂

If nothing else, we had a great time!

And at the end of the night…I think we came out looking pretty fantastic!

They were really pretty.  Simple, elegant, classic.  Everything I had wanted.  They were lovely.

Transporting Saturday morning was fun.  I used a laundry basket, that would hold 6 vases at a time {carrying from the bottom, of course}, and I drove the slowest I’ve ever driven in my entire life during that 3 mile drive.

The larger vase was a little trickier.  I looked at Andrew and explained to him that I was already planning to drive like a 90-year-old lady, so I would just hold the vase with one hand.  That didn’t fly with him.  He said, why don’t we just buckle it into one of the kids’ carseats?  Er, yeah, that’s what I was going to do…

They all made it safe and sound.  Even on the way back home after our event. 😀

While I’m no master centerpiece maker or floral arranger, I felt pretty great about what we were able to create for all of these new and expectant moms who were attending Bloom.  I hope they had as much fun attending the event as I did in helping with it!