My Son Is Engaged Need Wedding Info

I would use the colors of the sun flowers for accent colors, probably not the MAIN color but for touches here and there. If it remains a summer wedding (dates can change) then in the centerpeices would be a great idea, guests can also toss sunflower seeds in place of bird seeds/rice/bubbles (could be cute). If done right and not too country cottage in the invitation could be nice as well. But the best way I could think of to bring it in would be to find a venue that is a garden that has a large amount of sunflowers. My sister hand makes wedding invitations and I will ask her for other ideas as well ... she's good with that stuff.

Having a specific flower in mind for a wedding makes it very easy. Everything just falls into place. Small sunflower garlands, centerpieces, bouquets, they all are easy peasy since she knows what she wants. Be careful, though. Two years is a long time away and her mind could change by then. I would clip out pictures and ideas and hand them off to her here and there - depending on how much input you think she wants. Let her be your guide. Maybe even go with her and her mom to a florist consultation and let the florist give you ideas. Most florists will charge a fee, but they will subtract it from your final bill.

Congratulations!

I have a friend who got married in June and she made her center pieces with sunflowers as well as the bouquets! Just took a bunch and tied them together with a few other colors mixed in. She put them in tall vases with the beads in the bottom. It was beautiful and so summery. She got married in a church too and tied one sunflower with a big piece of ribbon around each aisle. She had the bridesmaids in some pastel dresses that matched well with the flowers too.

I have another friend who said the most important thing for her was to figure out about how many people they would be inviting and find the reception hall before doing anything else. Lots of places will have florists, caterers, etc. that they work with and so you can get everything at a cheaper price. My brother and three of my friends have gone the official "wedding venue" route (where you can do the ceremony and reception in one place and all the place really does is weddings) because it was much cheaper over all. They all had to pay for the wedding themselves. They were also able to get a coordinator for the actual day for much cheaper then an official planner would be, which helped their day to go smoothly. You do have to use their services a lot of times, but it is worth it price wise.

I also have a friend that did a lot of things herself to make stuff cheaper. She put together the centerpieces, but got a florist to do her bouquets. She made this chalkboard thing with the food options on it instead of individualized menus (although I have heard that buffets are cheaper). She also did the rehearsal dinner at a family members house and they grilled. It's not super formal of a rehearsal dinner, but it is an option. Her friends and family made a "wedding book" from her engagment pictures. It was essentially a scrap book with different engagement pictures on each page and we all could write a little note and sign around the pictures. It was very cute!

Okay that's it for my ideas so far. I've never been married but i've been havign to go to LOTS of weddings recently and have seen some cute things. I got three more this year, so if I see cute things at those I'll try to remember to message you :)

Centerpieces, color scheme, jewelery for the bridesmaids, even the cake. Perhaps you could have the wedding at an arboretum or some other flower related place? That could be gorgeous. I got married at a local park with a mansion on the premises and it was very reasonable price-wise - and it was a county park so no alcahol was allowed which worked for us. - google "sunflower themed wedding" etc. and you'll find TONS of stuff - and click on "images" to see pictures of things (some are awful LOL, but some are BEAUTIFUL)

There are some great books out there - some about budget planning, etc. Honestly, weddings can get REALLY freaking expensive, so if they want to put some of the money toward something like a house or whatever, I suggest enlisting friends and family. If she's a little bit outside the box instead of the traditional "princess" wedding girl, it could be a lot of fun to figure out what you all can do.

See who has natural gifts/talents, etc and ask them for their expertise or whatever as a gift. I had a friend who was a great seamstress and she sewed all my bridesmaids dresses. Another friend got the flowers (I did daisies for my bridesmaids, roses for me). The park was naturally beautiful, and we decorated the home with Ivy and flowers from the gardens of friends. I made the centerpieces. I loved how much fun we had.

Just remind her to ENJOY herself. I did, but not every bride does if they get wrapped up in how the wedding looks to others. If she can build a day she'll enjoy, it'll be wonderful :)

I would get her a subscription of one of those brides magazines. They have such pretty ideas, photos and good articles about planning and marriage.

Your son and his fiance seem to be level headed, planning well in advance for the wedding. I would ask my son have they talked about planning a budget for when they are married.

Congratulations.....What might be fun and you can do it soon is to get together with her family and plan an engagement party.

Blessings.....

T

The only thing that would make that difficult is that sunflowers are out of season in May... they are more of a fall flower... but it can definitely be done!!! I have been to a wedding where they did a yellow and brown color scheme, sunflower centerpieces, sunflower bouquet, etc. It was pretty nice. :)

I have the best florist to recommend! She did some amazing specialized work for my daughters wedding. Like a hello kitty bouquet because my daughter loves hello kitty. Give her website a look. Shes also has decent pricing not out of this world crazy!
www.royaldesignflowers.com

It's not too early to go and talk to florists. She may be able to have a sunflower in the center or her bouquet with daisys around it. I definately recommend she book her reception hall asap. Check around for bridal shows and other events about weddings. She can go to bridal shops and look at dresses and tuxes, see what is available.
I know Hobby Lobby rents out bridal stuff like candle holders, arches ect. You can no longer rent the aisle runner you have to purchase it, Hobby Lobby has those too.
Attend as many bridal shows and events as she can, my daughter won a 3 day honeymoon but no airfare so they ended up not being able to go.

My experience with sunflowers is that they arent really ready till about late june and july. I guess florists have them all year round tho. I love them and grow the gigantic ones every summer.
Since she loves them, and I believe that are not an expensive flower, maybe you can splash them EVERYwhere from the center pieces and potted all around the venue that you are using.... and by the altar so there will be many pictures with the flowers included.
I'm sure a baker will give you some good ideas for incorporating them into the wedding cake as well.
congrats on getting a new dil. I love mine to bits!

Costco now sells bridal packages of flowers and they have a whole section on sunflowers. Check them out....

My best friend did her wedding with sunflowers as the theme. She had us all wear black dresses and the sunflowers really popped against the black. We were able to pick our dresses and her dress was accented with black. She used tons of sunflowers in large vases and got her flowers sent to her through an internet site dealing with flowers....much cheaper and she was able to afford so many more flowers this way. Since you have a good amount of time, she could (or a friend) would have time to take floral arranging classes to help out. Flower arrangements and bouquets can get very pricey.

Invitations would be another great way to "start".

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

A sunflower bouquet for her....incorporating yellow, black and white.....
Sunflower centerpieces with other yellow flowers...bright yellow with black ribbon table clothes and others with white ribbons.....

let her know you want to be involved and let her take the lead - God I hope she doesn't turn into a Bridezilla!! (SMILES!!)

incorporating the colors in the bridesmaids dresses maybe black and yellow....clip out pictures from bridal magazines - let her know you are VERY excited to have her join your family and are excited to help!!

You will have the best opportunities to get silks of sunflowers at the end of the season in clearance at Michaels and Joann Fabric and Hobby Lobby. Look for their coupons every Sunday in the paper and piece together similar but unique sunflower arrangements. If she can start choosing her full colors now, I am assuming it would be black and yellow, but don't want to assume. She could also do a similar but different for her bridesmaids as well as long as the colors work together they could have styles that work for each bridesmaids figure. Also you could year round house and experiement this coming year for "fresh" sunflowers and grow them at your home. Yes I know we live in the midwest but I think it could be done(consult with pros that do year round farming at either heritage prairie farms or at the green market in geneva), we use old storm windows to create a hothouse effect to grow things "out" of season. May can be a questionable weather month as far as warmth goes, they will need to decide a venue and what they picture as far as a low key wedding and reception or a full blown party. Once she chooses colors and theme direction, she should narrow down time of day so they know what type of food they are looking for. both Costco and Sam's have flower packages, mine were from Jewel after getting quoted almost 3k for flowers at a florist I then went to Jewel and got them all for 800.00 and was able to add a few. The more work you can and are willing to do the more they can have just make sure to spread out the work through the 2 years.
Congratulations.