Freestyle Flower Arranging

Betcha didn't know I could freestyle! Well, actually I can't, but I do like to freestyle in my own way with flower arranging. I was a bit lazy yesterday and used a flower shop for my friend's (Katy--my baking buddy) birthday arrangement. And when I found out they purchase flowers from the same whole-saler I used in my wedding, it was a bit of a punch in the stomach! Sometimes, though, you can't do it all on your own and its nice to have somebody do the work for you--and in effect I'm filled with inspiration and desire all over again! I'm sure I'm not alone here.

So back to the point of this post. I first felt the desire to do my own arrangements during wedding planning. I realize florists are artists, but I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with the overly structured arrangements being flung in my face. Seriously, it was funeral like to me. So with that (& the budget!) I said toodles to the florists and found this wholesale site. I picked up some fake flowers and played around with yet another good friend, Suzy (ahhh, I am so blessed with good friends!!) and together we figured out the floral scheme and feel to my wedding. Now the weekend of the wedding I had no part what-so-ever in the arranging (because I was super stressed and distracted by a bajillion details), lucky for me Suzy is a mind-reader and cranked out some amazing arrangements. If you need a refresher, here's a link to my wedding post with photos of my flowers throughout. 

Totally just went off track again. 

Here are some photos of arrangements I've free-styled:

This is an oldie from one of my very first posts here! Awwwww....

(these last 2 pro photos were obviously not taken by me...

thanks AshWhite Photography!)

So that's what I mean by free-styled flower arranging. It's not exactly as free-spirited as free-styling sounds, but basically I just use whatever flowers are most readily available (store bought or cut from the yard) and smoosh them together in the prettiest fashion I can come up with in a two minute time span. Pretty sure I did not invent this concept, but I have fun doing it so...who cares?! I definitely have my fair share of flower failures too. Like trying to line inside the vase with leaves or fruit and having them float around, or even just floating stems like these guys from Thanksgiving:

You win some & you lose some. Hopefully in the process you learn some!

P.S. I totally realize I linked the crap out of the post...funny how writing everything out makes you realize how  connected all your thoughts are! Reminds me of this analogy: woman are like spaghetti (everything in their brain is inter-twined and linked together) and men are like waffles (everything in its own little square). Totally true, dontcha think?