Our wedding weekend in Wimberley, Texas was absolutely magical. My husband and I currently live in Lincoln, Nebraska, but both grew up in Texas and the hillcountry has always held a special place in our hearts. When we were in the initial stages of planning, we knew the hillcountry would be a great place for our friends and family to gather to celebrate with us. We were very fortunate to find Inspiring Oaks Ranch and even more fortunate that we were able to secure it as our venue. It was the perfect venue not only to host the wedding and reception, but also being able to stay in the onsite lodge for the entire weekend meant more time shared with our family and friends. Once we had the venue selected, we decided we wanted the wedding to be simple and classic, with a touch of vintage charm. As the days passed, and more and more wedding to-dos got checked off the list, it came time to plan out the flowers. I knew I wanted beautiful flowers that looked natural, effortless, and not out of place at our semi-rustic/outdoorsy wedding. I also knew I did not want to spend an arm and a leg to make this happen, and the DIYer in me was somewhat excited by the challenge of seeing if I could pull it off. So, I decided to go down the path of DIY wedding flowers. To tie in the vintage feel, I started collecting and thrifting antique brass candle holders, vases, and any sort of container that I thought would hold flowers. Between my mom and I, we were able to find more than enough pieces to use as center pieces, ceremony decor, and beyond. I loved that each piece was unique and undoubtedly had an interesting past before it came to be apart of our special day. After countless hours of perusing Pinterest boards for wedding flower ideas, it was time to order some blooms! Fifty Flowers was the perfect place to order my flowers from. Not only did it make working on them from out of state a breeze, I also loved the variety of flowers that were available to choose from, and was excited to see that they carried the flowers and greenery that I had been envisioning for my bouquet. They were super helpful in planning out what kind of flowers pair well together, and how many I needed to order. It was also helpful to be able to browse through fellow brides' flower stories for inspiration and to get an idea of number of stems needed, what a total budget might look like, etc. I made my order, and about a month later, just a few days before the big day, several large boxes arrived at my mom's house filled with beautiful, fragrant flowers and eucalyptus. We got them all trimmed and prepped and placed in buckets ready for transport out to the ranch which was actually quite relaxing and gave my mom and I some girl time to chat before the hecticness ensued. Friday, our family and close friends began to arrive out at the ranch, and it was a fun filled day of catching up and setting up, culminating with the Rehearsal Dinner that evening. Bright and early the next day, the day of the wedding, I was up and at em. I began working on putting my bouquet together, and there was something so calming about sitting in a quiet room with just a cup of coffee, surrounded by beautiful flowers. The creative juices were flowing, and I was just finishing up my bouquet as others started emerging from their rooms. My mom soon joined me, and helped me put together the boutonnieres, which went fairly quick but required a bit of concentrated dexterity that early in the morning. Soon after that, my husband's sisters (now my wonderful sister-in-laws) were all there helping out with the centerpieces. I was so grateful for their help, and since all of the vases and containers were different, everyone got to put their own style into each of the pieces. They turned out so beautiful! Once we had the centerpieces assembled, we moved them and the eucalyptus branches down the reception hall and began to decorate. We laid out the various eucalyptus branches, and intertwined them so that they made a runner of sorts down the middle of the dinner tables. We then evenly scattered the flower vases and candle holders on top of the eucalyptus runners, and had enough leftover that we were able to deck out the cake table, the bar, and other spaces in the reception area. I was able to use some of the leftover eucalyptus branches to create a bunch that would tie onto the chairs to help designate the family seating at the ceremony, and one of my sister-in-laws used the leftover spray roses to make adorable flower crowns for my 5 nieces, who were our flower girls! Everything looked spectacular, and better than I ever could have imagined. I was proud to say that our wedding flowers were DIY-ed, but it definitely took a village. A few hours and mimosas later, I was walking down the aisle to my wonderful groom, and we celebrated the night away with our family and friends. It went by too fast, but we could not have asked for a more memorable occasion. Sunday came, and after a late morning of breakfast tacos, photo sharing, and laughs we had to say goodbye to our family as we departed the ranch. Todd and I can not say thank you enough times to our family for all of their help throughout the entire weekend, but we look forward to making many more memories with them throughout the years to come.
