To me, flowers were a big deal for my wedding. They are in all your pictures and if you have the right combination, they will make your pictures pop that much more. My Florist was Karen Roa, from Aleen Floral Designs. She was recommended to me from my Husbands cousin. She went to college with her and she lived in my hometown! When I met with her for the first time I knew I didn't need to look any farther. She was SOO organized, had tons of ideas, had two huge books of flowers and knew what flower made another flower "pop" and she was just simply.....TALENTED. She had so many ideas on places to find awesome center pieces, and also had many pieces of her own to allow me to use or rent such as the little wooden box the ring bearer walked down with! :)
Also, on the day of the wedding, my husband, Aaron, also told me after the wedding what a HUGE help she was to him and the groomsmen! She helped each guy put on their amazingly beautiful boutonnieres. This might not sound like much, but to Aaron, it showed that she wasn't just there to drop off the flowers, she was there to help create a beautiful day and wanted to do her part in making sure everything was perfect. It meant the world that she went the extra mile and more than what we ever expected or paid her to do. She cares so much about the memories and people and it shows in her work.
Lastly, to show how much she cared, when we told her that we would need to take the garden rose out of each bridesmaid bouquets due to budget constraints, she said no problem and our budget went down thankfully! However, on the day of my wedding, the bouquets arrived and all had garden roses in them! I never told you Karen, but that blew me away and blessed me more than you will ever know! You did that out of the goodness of your heart and as a wedding surprise to us, and it was the sweetest thing ever. Karen also said the flower girls would be carrying down paper flowers, however, she even gave my 3 flower girls real flowers too as a surprise! They were SO excited to be like the "Big girls" and these surprises made my wedding that much more special and really blessed us. We had no idea how much we would love our florist and how much the flowers would be something we would look back on and love so much. Choosing the right florist really does matter.
To sum it all up...here are three things all future brides should consider when considering their Florist:
1. How organized is she? Does she have much experience?
2. How creative is she? Can she take my ideas and run with it?
3. What do others say about her? This will determine how seriously she takes making your day special.
To contact Karen Roa of Aleen Floral Design, go to her website http://aleendesign.com/ !
She is amazing and you won't regret having her as your florist! She is based out of Williamsburg, VA but is available for travel. She started as my florist and left as a friend! Happy Wedding planning future brides! :) It is so much fun!
xoxo,
Brooke
(all photography credit goes to the incredible: The Mango Pack - http://www.themangopack.com/ )
