Thinking Beyond the Flowers

Decor tips from floral designer Jessy of Fleurs.

By Vané Broussard

When I met Jessy from Fleurs a few years back, it was at a wedding showcase of course, and I was instantly enamored with her sense of style and humor.  She consistently comes up with amazing floral designs, and always has amazing tips no matter what your budget.  This week, I've asked her to share some tips, not just about flowers, but of the overall look of your event.



As a florist, you know that I love it when clients come to me asking to make the entire room into an enchanted gorgeous forest for their wedding. However, I wanted to talk today about design, and all that is involved when creating a look for the wedding. To design a look and transform a room, it is really so much more than a pretty floral centerpiece. Ladies, think about that black dress in your closet- it could be cheap, but with a fabulous necklace and earrings, and that perfect pair of shoes, you suddenly have a dress that has been transformed to look like a million. Think about your room this way- it is all about the accessories.

When you start planning for décor, you want to start by thinking about the look that you want, rather than a specific flower. That said, I wanted to show you two looks that are absolutely gorgeous, relatively inexpensive, and use very simple flowers. I picked up candle holders, mirrors and vases from Ikea and cb2. And I worked with the amazing folks at Classic Party Rentals in their showroom to show you what can be done with the right accessories.

The first look is glam! I love glamour, and I am delighted that this is coming back in style. For this look, I got:

    • these candle holders from cb2 ($2.95-$4.95):
    • these vases also from cb2 ($3.95):
    • and the "minde" mirror from ikea ($7.99) to use as a runner:

For the linen, I chose black, what could be more glamorous? (For the budget concious, please remember that you have to get a linen anyway, black is the same price as white.) I also added lots of votives candles for a little extra sparkle. I love working with mirrors, it makes each candle sparkle twice! For flowers, very very simple- a few stems of sunny yellow onicidium orchids in each vase. DRAMA! Here is the finished look
 

For a second design, I went for a more summer outdoor wedding design. I used most of the same elements from the glamour look (minus the mirrors), and I also added these two pieces from ikea:

    • ikea "salong" vase ($7.99)
    • ikea "sockerart" vase ($6.99)

For the table, we used Classic Party Rentals gorgeous farm table, and a beautiful teal blue runner down the center. Here is the finished look:


You can play with this look too, I think it would also look great on a white linen, white chairs, in a loft space. Clean and fresh! Or on your favorite color linen as well- simple and monochromatic, if you get the same color flowers.

Though these looks seem cost effective, please remember that they take an enormous amount of time and labor on the day of. So if you plan to do this as a diy effort, remember that all the pieces are very delicate and can easily break, and will require lots of wrapping/unwrapping, filling with water for the vases (lots of trips to the sink), soaking the labels off each one, and for the candles, melting them into place straight up and down, which takes lots of time (imagine this look with crooked candles? Ouch.) And transporting those mirrors- you need so many of them for runners, and they are truly heavy, and delicate.

So, think outside the flowers, and have fun with the accessories!


Thanks so much Jessy for popping by!    Check out the Fleurs site AND blog for more inspiration.