When her high school BFF gave birth to a daughter, a floral consultant promised to design the wedding flowers when the daughter married.
Thirty years later, lives, love, friendship—and flowers—aligned.
Not only did Kim Morrill joyfully keep her wedding flowers promise, she brought two floral design pros with her.
All photos: The Photography Shoppe
The results are versatile designs you can adapt: floral wreaths encircling wedding cakes on the reception tables, flower crowns and hand-held wreaths for the flower girls and bouquets—with the bridal bouquet featuring the rosary from a beloved deceased grandfather.
Promise kept with wreaths
“I told her I would do Amy’s wedding flowers,” says Kim, now a floral consultant in Seattle, of her South Dakota high school best friend Roxie Loftesness.
How did designing floral wreaths for cake centerpieces fulfill this promise?
“Of course, Amy had a lot of
Pinterest photos to give me an idea of what she liked!” laughs Kim. Brides used to bring in magazine photos. Now the images are from the internet on phones and tablets.
One of Amy’s chosen photos included miniature wedding cakes surrounded by a wreath of flowers for each of the guest reception tables.
Kim shares the how-to details of creating the designs on Amy’s list. The arrangements she and her talented team made can be upscaled, downsized or adapted with other flowers and color harmonies.
This is one lucky bride!
The secret to success? Working closely with your bride.
And it helps to have talented friends. To create the wedding of Amy’s dreams, Kim brought with her to South Dakota international floral designers Michelle Perry-White AIFD and Susan Standefer AIFD.
What tricks of the trade did these floral pros use to fulfill Amy’s wish list?
A rosary for the bridal bouquet
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“Amy wanted to include in her bouquet a crystal rosary that was a gift from her late grandfather” says Kim. “Using the
Elegant Bouquet Holder, I was able to secure the rosary by
wiring it to the cage that surrounds the foam.
“Amy’s grandfather was like a second dad to me,” shares Kim. She knew the red rose was his favorite flower. “I secured the end of the rosary into the foam by burying a small red rose deep into the bouquet with
cold glue.” Symbolically, Amy’s grandfather was able to descend the aisle along with her.
Celebrating heritage with flower girls
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“Amy and her groom are both of Scandinavian descent, so they chose to have the girls wear flower crowns and carry floral wreaths in a nod to their heritage.”
She made the four floral wreaths in advance. She started with a vine wreath of silk eucalyptus and added trim and ribbon to the back of each form.
She formed the floral crown bases from a circle of Italian Ruscus twisted around a chenille stem.
Aluminum wire could also be used. This same technique could be used to create the girls’ wreath forms if fresh materials are preferred.
On design prep day, the designers used floral adhesive to glue fresh flowers into all eight designs. “We used cold glue for all of the handwork–corsages, boutonnieres, etc., as well.”
A wedding cake for each guest table
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As on Pinterest, a small wedding cake atop a cake stand decorated each reception table.
“Amy chose midnight blue table linens with gold sequin runners. She wanted a blush and cream floral palette to soften the look,” Kim explains.
“We wanted to create a pleasing floral effect without overshadowing the 40 cakes. We designed several styles of arrangements and intermixed them throughout the reception.”
Quicksand roses, hydrangea, garden roses, spray roses, anemone, stock, ranunculus, sedum, lisianthus, hypericum and lots of peach carnations were used in the designs.
Kim’s two cents on carnations in weddings: “I like them. They hold up and are available in a myriad of colors, so I never mention them, I just use them. We use them deeper in the arrangement to provide color and texture.”
Floral wreaths encircling cakes
Design rings filled with flowers to form a wreath served as the base for half of the cakes. “They were great with the reservoir built into them, we could make ahead, spray, cover and we didn’t have to worry about water!”
To elevate the cake stands, a 4-inch square of 2-inch
Styrofoam was placed in the middle of each wreath ring then lightly greened with salal tips. “The foliage was placed flat to cover the Styrofoam and foam,” adds Kim.
“The base was then sprayed with Design Master Champagne Gold Metallic Paint to camouflage the green Styrofoam so it wouldn’t read through the glass cake pedestal. Any of the gold salal that did show now blended nicely with the color harmony.”
For the other half of the cakes, the designers used flower clusters in small decorative glass vases with votive candles scattered around. The finishing touch included three gold mercury glass vases filled with flowers and votive candles surrounding each cake.
A promise well kept
Doing something you love for someone you love is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Floral designers use flowers to help others celebrate life events in a beautiful way.
For Kim, Michelle and Susan, using their talents to create a wedding that Amy, her husband and their families will always cherish is a promise kept and a memorable gift that keeps on giving.
How do you deliver on the promise of beautiful flowers for your brides?
