Wedding Bouquet flowers

Hi All, I have been asked to provide the flowers for a friends' wedding in late June of 2010. I live on southern Vancouver Island and I have just been looking in my garden to find that most late spring flowers are nearly done and summer flowers not yet open. The bride says she has no preference and will leave it up to me. Yikes! Anyone got any brilliant ideas? I could grow stuff in pots in the greenhouse if neccessary - but what??? Also if anyone has any hints or tips on making up bouquets I would be eternally grateful.

I watched Thomas Hobbs and a florist making up small rose centerpieces on his news spotlight yesterday. They were lovely and were combined with flowers from the garden such as Lambs Ears. I learned a tip on the proper way of 'cutting" roses for a bouquet. Have tried it out already. We'll see if the blossoms last longer in a vase now. Wish I was in Vancouver to take in the World's Rose Festival. I'll bet there are tons of ideas there.

I love the blue petunias with white bacopa.

Don - is the World's Rose Festival on NOW. I have a flight to Vancouver in a few hours.

I think it was just on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Ann. :(

On Saturday I made the trip to the rose greenhouse...bought 4 doz. roses...my goodness a lot cheaper than at stores...

If you are thinking roses, perhaps there is a growing greenhouse in your neck of the woods...

many had been cut and ready to cull when I arrived...

Here a group of ladies were pkg. the roses...

short stemmed roses - $3.50 doz.
Long stemmed roses - small inperfection (but where) $6.60 doz.
Grade A long stemmed roses.....$10.50 doz

Shirley,
With a greenhouse it gives you a lot of flexibility to get things blooming earlier than usual. If you have an extra fridge you can keep spring bulbs chilled and get them to bloom a few weeks later than usual. Annuals are probably the easiest to grow because they flower for a long time so the schedule doesn't have to be so precise.

I got married last summer and grew most of the flowers for the bouquets. My bouquets were long stemmed flowers tied together with ribbon (wrap the end of the stems with a wet paper towel and plastic wrap, then wrap the whole thing with a wide ribbon and tie a big bow.) They included Lisianthus, Roses, Iris (which I had to purchase because they were out of season but I wanted them to match the designs on my dress), goldenrod, and delphinium with some assorted greenery. We were married in an arborteum garden so I bought a huge stack of tin pots at Ikea and grew bright colored annuals in them. They were used to define the "aisle" in the garden and placed along the sides of the footbridge that serves as the garden entrance. Then someone picked them up and brought them up to the reception where they were placed on the tables with some vases of cut flowers. At the end of the reception I gave away the potted plants and cut flowers to all of my friends who had helped us with the prepping and decorating and cleanup.
Here are photos of my friends making the bouquets, the cake my mom made, and tables at the reception.

Lovely, and some great ideas, Katlian.

Thanks everyone, Katlian your pictures are lovely and your ideas great

Thanks, you'll have to post some photos next year so we can see how it turns out.

Katlian - lovely pics. How about one of YOU and your bouquet?

Um, ok. Here's one of the wedding party. My siblings on the left and the groom and his best man on the right. It was a pretty casual wedding and no tuxes for the guys because they might have passed out in the heat.

Thanks. Lovely dresses, lovely flowers and it looks as though you were really sensible.