Anthomanic Bride Series: Alicia & Rob

Over the next….forever… I’m going to be sharing my past weddings with you! I’ll be including commentary from the bride about her flower planning experience! I think this is a great way for new brides to get some advice or feedback from those that have been there and have planned their wedding flowers.

First, we are starting with Alicia and her purple infused vineyard wedding with the best weather you could ask for when getting married outdoors!! Alicia & Rob’s wedding was one of my first weddings – probably #30 or so… and I’m so thankful she trusted me to be her florist!! We still keep in touch via social media (she was even the model for one of our Katelyn James Workshop Styled Shoots) – I love when a bride and I keep in touch long after a wedding day!

Alicia loved soft, lush florals in bold purples – because her wedding was in May, she got to have the ever elusive peonies! Her bouquet was made of purple lisianthus, purple hydrangeas, amnesia roses and some sparkly crystal jewels to coordinate with her gown (the pics don’t do those jewels justice – they sparkled like diamonds!). Her bridesmaids bouquets were made of white hydrangeas, vendella ivory roses and white peonies — so soft and fluffy!! When choosing your wedding flowers, it’s best to choose flowers that individually fit the look you want – here we went with anything soft, rounded and fluffy!! Alicia hired us for her bridal bouquets and boutonnieres, as she planned to do some DIY non-floral centerpieces.

“Our wedding was held at Potomac Point Winery in Stafford Virginia. We were blessed with the most beautiful sunny day and were lucky enough to hold the ceremony outdoors near the vineyard. I met with one florist before finding Amanda, and the experience was a huge turnoff! She didn’t understand my vision and definitely did not even try to stay within my budget. I immediately knew I would be looking elsewhere and found Amanda through the magic of Facebook! Her shop was fairly new at the time, early 2011, but I was drawn to her as a fellow JMU graduate around my age. After our first chat on the phone, I knew I was headed in the right direction – she was so kind, understood my language, and only worked to enhance my ideas while respecting my budget boundaries.”“I didn’t have any specific flowers in mind when I first met with Amanda, but she guided me in the right direction based on the color scheme I envisioned, as well as what flowers were in season. Pinterest also didn’t exist at the time (the horror!!) so I had to bring in images printed offline from a Google search. She combined my pictures, color scheme, and venue, and turned out some of the most beautiful bouquets I had ever seen! My bouquet was full of a variety of purples, ranging from roses to hydrangeas and topped of with a tasteful diamond cuff (her idea!). The bridesmaids had all white to offset my colorful bouquet and their lavender gowns.”“I have one major regret about the whole process, and that is not setting aside more funds for flowers. At the time I thought it would be more financially savvy to have non-floral centerpieces, even though that isn’t necessarily what I wanted. I realized, shortly after working with Amanda, that she is so great about providing different options to stay within budget, that it could have worked if we just scaled back a bit in other areas.”

Wasn’t her wedding so beautiful?!

Venue: Potomac Point Winery

Photographer: Carly Arnwine

Florals: Anthomanic