DIY Monday: Flower Series pt. 1

So I'm going to spend a couple weeks laying out ways to decorate with flowers that are budget friendly and that might help you think about decorating in a different way. I grew up with flowers. My grandmother was a gardener. She taught my mother to be a gardener. And I too love to putter in a garden. For many years my job was to weed the flower gardens around our house, and some of the flowers in those gardens had been planted 100 years ago.

Because we had so many flower gardens, we almost always had an abundance of cut flowers in the house. No matter the season, we could go outside and find something in the yard. I can't count the number of wilted violet bouquets I took my mother. Sometimes, while they were still wet with morning dew, we'd gather armloads of French lilacs to perfume the house. And the grape hyacinths, with their fruity smell, remain a favorite today.

Mama always taught me to look at objects in a way that didn't always conform with their intended use. Certainly a tiny pitcher is lovely for pouring an individual serving of maple syrup, but it was also lovely for those grape hyacinths. Those little violets would be lost in most bud vases, but they were lovely in a child's teacup. Quite often silver sugar bowls or biscuit boxes would be pressed into service as centerpieces for teas or dinner parties. If it could hold water, it could hold flowers.

I've noticed more and more bridal and decorative magazines are featuring "found objects" as centerpieces. Martha Stewart Weddings dedicated an article to tea tin centerpieces. Eco-friendly brides are opting for tin can vases. I've even seen Mason jars pressed into service in some layouts. The key is in the groupings, the color and texture of the blooms and in being creative in how you define the word "vase."

*Photos property of Martha Stewart Weddings, Celebrations and Kathryn Leach Home.

Inspiration Thursday! UK Wedding Flowers Magazine

I'm going to try to share something that inspires me every Thursday. Since there are many things that inspire me, I'm hoping I can keep this up for a while!

This week, I present the British magazine called Wedding Flowers. Available at Barnes and Noble and sometimes at Michael's each issue is a treasure trove of flower arrangements, wedding tips and snippets of real weddings.

Occasionally, I help friends with their wedding flowers and stumbled across this particular magazine when I was looking for a portable resource to show brides which flowers I was describing. Each issue focuses on a season - usually a season ahead - and gives layouts that contain new and interesting arrangements that follow the trends of that season. I've often found that this alerts me to trends a little ahead of the bridal magazines here in the US, which inspires me to make arrangements that are ahead of their time!

Every issue contains an article that highlights a particular aspect of a wedding. For example, one might have a section on wedding cakes. Another might have an article on scents for your special day. Others might talk about trends in bridesmaid gowns or new trends in favors. Each article, though, is beautifully laid out and truly inspirational.

My favorite section, however, is always in the center of the magazine - the arrangement

section. There are always flowers that would be readily available in that season and each is more creative than the next. Sometimes it's an interesting vase, sometimes it's what they put into the vase or the way they arrange the flowers in the vase. Bridal and bridesmaid bouquets often have interesting wraps or ribbons. And each is photographed on a white background so that there are no distractions from the beauty of the arrangement.

This month in particular, there's an article on the current trend of personalizing a wedding by using a variety of containers for centerpieces, such as old tins, teacups, tiny creamer pitchers or silver pieces. An example of this concept is later included in the center arrangement section. And at the end of each magazine is a color coded flower guide to help explain a bride's choices. It's helped me explain more than once the difficulty of finding a true blue flower!

So that's one of my creative inspirations. Do you have a magazine that inspires you? I'd love to know what it is! Share your inspiration in the comments below!