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Flower Question (for brides who used hydrangeas)

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idreamofcushions

Brilliant_Rock
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Hi Ladies,

After drooling over your pictures from the Bouquet thread (specifically calicushion and rachie''s
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), I decided this was probably the best place to post my question...

For those of you who had hydrangeas in your bouquets and centerpieces, did you find that they wilted and turned brown in a short time span?

My FFIL is doing the flowers for my wedding (he manages the country club where we are getting married and gets his flowers wholesale from Miami). When he saw my inspiration photos for my bouquet and centerpieces, he said hydrangeas are a terrible flower to work with because they turn brown so quickly. My FSIL also said she was in a wedding where the bridesmaids bouquets were mostly hydrangeas and they didn''t last past the ceremony!

Did any of you have that problem? If so, what did you do with your bouquets to prevent it?

I''ll post my inspiration photos, just to give ya something to look at
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absolutefavie!.jpg
 

idreamofcushions

Brilliant_Rock
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And calicusions bouquet...

I hope you don''t mind that I''m using your picture! Please let me know if you do and I''ll take it down. And if you remember, can you guesstimate how many peonies you used? I want an exact replica of your bouquet! Thx!

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meresal

Ideal_Rock
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Unless your wedding and reception are outdoors, I wouldn''t worry about it...

Here are a few pictures of mine thruout the evening:

There are a few hydrangea in here. This was after being out of water for at least an hour.

meresalceremony72509.16.1.jpg
 

Bella_mezzo

Ideal_Rock
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I didn''t have hydrangeas, but one of my best friend''s did, and another is about to. They didn''t have any problems with their blue hydrangeas.
 

meresal

Ideal_Rock
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At the reception, the BM''s bouquets (3 of which were white hyrangea), were put back in vases after being out for almost 2 hours.

meresalweddingdetails72509.9.1.jpg
 

meresal

Ideal_Rock
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and one of my centerpieces...

They all stayed white the entire evening.

meresalweddingdetails72509.16.1.jpg
 

idreamofcushions

Brilliant_Rock
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Okay meresal, now I have to use some of your photos for inspiration too! Your flowers were tdf. And I love the idea of re-purposing the BM flowers for the reception. Was that table used for something else (ie guestbook table, escort card table, etc?)

Thanks for the reassurance, bella. My FFIL can be pretty headstrong so if he says he doesn''t want to use a particular flower, I''ll pretty much have to put my foot down. Father knows best, eh? Nice to hear others haven''t had problems though!

Our wedding will be in Naples, FL in October. We will be outdoors for some of the time, only for pictures though. Ceremony and reception will be indoors. The weather usually doesn''t get higher than the mid 80''s during the day, low 70''s at night...at least that''s what I''m hoping for!
 

meresal

Ideal_Rock
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Date: 1/14/2010 11:40:00 AM
Author: idreamofcushions
Okay meresal, now I have to use some of your photos for inspiration too! Your flowers were tdf. And I love the idea of re-purposing the BM flowers for the reception. Was that table used for something else (ie guestbook table, escort card table, etc?)
Thank you! In case you would care to know, we actually used White Hdrangea, White Stock, and a White/Cream Roses.

The place that we used the BM flowers actually wasn''t a table at all, it was a cradenza that was about 4 feet high and 5 feet long. There was a wall between the ball room and the buffet room that has two very large entry doors on either side of the cradenza, that were opened when we began serving. People usually just put candles or picture frames, but I liked the idea of adding lots of low vases and candles.

Here is a picture of our guestbook table in the entrance:

meresalweddingdetails72509.10.1.jpg
 

Smurfysmiles

Ideal_Rock
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I didn''t have that type of flower but just wanted to share that we put the vases for the bridesmaid bouquets on the head table so that 1. we didn''t have to spend extra for decorations :) and 2. they would stay in the water all night while we danced, safe by their seat and then they could take them home after if they chose to to keep as a souvenir of a great time
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We also let them keep the vases as well
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kstar512

Rough_Rock
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Jul 11, 2008
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I did not end up using hydrangeas, but did look into them. I had many of the same concerns as you did. From what I gathered, as long as they are in water and out of direct sunlight, they should last. So centerpieces and arrangements should be fine because they are never taken out of the water. The bouquets may start to wilt so they should be put in water as much as possible (directly before and after the ceremony). They are a gorgeous flower, just very delicate. Like Meresal said, if its indoors it should ok, my wedding was outdoors in a garden and the sun would have probably wilted them.
 

Lynnie

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
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Hi Idream!

I used hydrangeas in EVERYTHING, and didn''t really have any problems with them.
I did have an outdoor ceremony, too. It wasn''t too hot that day, though... I think it got up to 79 degrees. I''d be a little more worried about them if they''re exposed to 90+ temperatures for extended periods of time.
But - my mom works for a florist, so the hydrangea was top-knotch... there are cheaper ''brands'' of things in flowers, as with anything else you buy. Is there any way your FFIL can order a bunch of hydrangea? That way you can do a test-run of things beforehand, and see how they hold up.

I''m attaching photos...
My bouq, the spray on the arbor, centerpieces, cake. The last one was taken while DH & I cut the cake... that''s one of the BM''s bouqs about 7 hours after the ceremony. I think the hdrangea held up better than the roses!

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idreamofcushions

Brilliant_Rock
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Thanks for the ideas, smurfy! I think I''ll put some vases around the guestbook table and add the bouquets after the ceremony
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I love the idea of sending the vases home with the BM''s too!

Hi Lynnie, your flowers were gorgeous! We''re definitely going to do some mock-ups of the centerpieces beforehand so we''ll see how it goes. Do you know (or would you mind asking your mom) how to keep the flowers watered when there are no stems in the vase? You can see from the first picture I posted that the vase is clear, so I''m not sure how the flowers will stay hydrated. Especially since they''ll put together the day before the wedding.
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swimmer

Ideal_Rock
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Nov 9, 2007
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I found that Hydrangeas looked fine even the next morning if in vases. We had wedding flowers all over my folks'' house for the morning after brunch and they looked great in florist foam in vases. The boutineers that were hydrangeas however, just did not make it much past the ceremony. These were all blue hydrangeas that I cut on saturday afternoon, delivered to the florist at 5pm and they looked great for our 5pm sunday wedding. The bushes needed to be trimmed and we saved a fair bit on the florist bill. Just a thought if you are getting married in the spring when they are out.
 

aliceinwonderland

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
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112
Hi!

The bouquet that doesn''t appear to have stems is likely in an oasis bouquet holder....they are in floral foam that is wet. I worked in the floral industry for 10 years. You will def hear lots of great reviews about Hyd., that being said there is a good chance that if you are doing hand tied bouquets that they will wilt. I have seen it happen and it''s not pretty. I think putting those flowers in your arrangements (aka in water) and using other flowers for your bouquet would be a better bet. Also peonies can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes they don''t get shipped with that open bloom look you see in the picture and come in looking like tight little bullets. They can be tricky for florists to work with as they have to be timed just right!

I assume that you are doing your own flowers based on your comments. Just as a caution you will want to know that your hands will likely be all stained and some flowers tend to dry out your hands b/c of the stuff they are treated with. Also if you do your own flowers and you are shipped stuff of poorer quality (which happens to florists too) you have no backup plan like a florist would as they often order from multiple supplies and use the extra stock in the store. That can be a pretty big undertaking the day before your wedding. Not trying to discourage you just want to make sure you know the inside info as it looks like the bouquets you are looking at are pretty artistic and somewhat labour intensive.

Beautiful inspiration choices though :) Alice
 

Rachie

Shiny_Rock
Joined
May 23, 2006
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367
I''m so happy that you liked my bouquet! :) We exclusively used hydrangeas in the bouquets and center pieces and had no problems. I kept my bouquet and my MOH''s bouquet (which were both hand tied) in water until about 10-20 min before the ceremony and did not put them back in water until about 2 hours later and they were fine. Obviously the center pieces were fine b/c they were in water the whole time. The boutonnieres did wilt but it wasn''t a huge deal since they were small and had some curly willow with it too. HTH!
 

OUpearlgirl

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
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3,081
Hi! When I worked for a florist we used a lot of hydrangea. In a bouquet, it either needs to have oasis or very wet cotton tied around the stem to give it water. This was very easy to hide and the flowers always stayed beautiful!
 
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