Floral Fate: Choosing the Florist and Finding Inspiration

After Mr. Seal proposed, my aunt and I took a couple of floral design classes together and briefly entertained the idea of arranging all of the flowers for my wedding. Ha! As it turns out, though I am still deeply in love with flowers, my patience for floral arranging is nearly non-existent. So, to a local florist it was!

The Sealman attended a bridal fair with me sometime early last year (what a champ!) and as it so happened, we ended up meeting three of our vendors there. Amongst the three was our florist - I am a sucker for sparkle and was immediately drawn to the bouquets she had on display.

One was an amazingly full beauty with a supremely blingy bouquet holder, a bit similar to this one.

Image via A Love's In Bloom

Anyhow, I wasn't the only one zeroed in on the beautiful display of bouquets, so I quickly introduced myself to the florist, grabbed a business card, threw it in my swag bag with the millions of others and navigated my way out of the crowd. Finding a florist was really low on my list of priorities at the time, so I kind of forgot about it and moved on. 

Thankfully I tend to believe in "signs" and was later nudged back in her direction.

About six months later, I was browsing through my invitations' designer site (her fun story to be told later), and she had only one "creative recommendation" for a florist listed. Would you guess who that one person was? Yep, you got it. The same florist at the bridal fair with the beautiful bouquets! (Cue the creepy music!) OK, not that creepy, but it gets a bit creepier.

Recall how I mentioned taking that floral design class with my aunt? Well! Our instructor frequently told tales of helping out a friend with a floral business and my aunt even met said friend at one point during the course. Who was this friend with the floral business? Oh yes, hive - the florist from the bridal show! Oh, and the coup de grâce? She lives in/works out of my hometown. CUHREEPY.

Based on all of the aforementioned coincidences, I figured I needed to, at bare minimum, schedule a consultation. Oh and wouldn't you know that her preferred meeting spot is at the Starbucks within a two minute walk from my apartment? Oi! 

The consult went swimmingly! We discussed tall, luscious centerpieces framed with a tiny hint of ostrich feather.

Image via Style Me Pretty/Floral Arrangement by Exquisite Blooms/Photo By Joielala

Intermingled with shorter centerpieces.

 

Image via Style Me Pretty/Design + Planning by Amber Events/Photo by Picotte Weddings

And feather kissed bouquets...

Image via Blow out Party!/Flowers by Jenny McNiece Flowers/Photography by Allyson Magda Photography

 

Image/Photo/Bouquet via Karen Tran Florals

Do you sense a theme here? Yeah, I didn't know it before the meeting, but I was head over heels for ostrich feather accents! 

Valarie of A Love's in Bloom had so many creative ideas and was so easy to talk to that I was quickly 99% certain that we'd book her...and then she amazingly gave us a quote on the spot (an affordable one at that), and I was completely sold. We put a deposit down before hugging goodbye. (We became fast friends and hugging is my thang.)

Anyhow, I am sooo glad I had some signs pointing me back in Valarie's direction because I am absolutely confident in her abilities and so excited to see the finished products!

Did some sort of unknown force point you in the direction of certain vendors? What inspired your florals?