not long ago, on a rainy morning jane went off to madison for a la bella bride magazine photoshoot. this shoot turned out to be a great opportunity for me. jane planned on making 4 bouquets, and she let yours truly do one of them. i have to admit i was sorta floored she asked me if i wanted to. jane ordered a bunch of beautiful flowers for us to play with and gave me carte blanche to select mine. these photoshoots are a great opportunity to do fun things without the restraints of budget or using certain flowers. you're really allowed to be as creative as you want to be. one of jane's first observations about my bouquet was that i had chosen flowers that didn't have a whole lot of structure, so she showed me how to work in more structural ones that would help hold the bouquet together---the white garden roses helped with that. that's the sort of thing that i didn't think of, how would the bouquet hold up? i mean, if you think about it, the flowers have to not only look good, they have to survive out of water, respond well to travel and also look alive and fresh through the ceremony and photography (in the case of a real wedding).
the other flowers i used were red dahlias, ornithogalum (little white flowers with black in the center), red monarda, red and white anenomes. i also added thornless raspberries the colors of which i thought tied it all together while adding an unusual element. i finished it with a lace wrap. if asked to describe my bouquet in one word, i am not sure i'd be able to. jane came up with "quirky". i'd definitely need more than one word, but if pressed i might say it was: "victorian-rock-and-roll-berrylicious-debutante."
i'll share the professional photographs when we get them (can't wait!),but until then here's my bouquet and boutonniere.
