Personal touches make all the difference!
Penny and Jared pulled out all the stops when it came to adding personal touches to their wedding. From curated playlists to tapping talented family members to add flair, they definitely created a wedding day that was singularly their own!
While for the majority of us December brings frigid temps, but when your home base is New Orleans, like Penny & Jared, they were fortunate enough to enjoy an outdoor garden space for their venue and wedding! Choosing our Fall and Autumn Collection for their flowers, Bronze Football Mums, Burgundy Carnations, Beige Roses and Blue Thistle, created a depth of color that perfectly suited their wedding colors of rust and burgundy.
Keep reading to hear directly from Penny and Jared about their DIY wedding flower experience!
What was your favorite part
about DIYing?
The best part was getting to add special little touches to everything. I had hand made a pearl headpiece for myself to wear, and I added some of the pearls in the same style to Jared's boutonniere. It was lovely to have that little matching detail shared between us, even if we were the only ones to notice.
Why did you choose to DIY
your flowers?
It was really a cost saving option for us. Our venue was a beautiful outdoor garden so we didn't need huge floral centerpieces, just bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. When we reached out to local florists we got responses saying they have a $2,000 to $3,000 minimum for their services. It was just way beyond what we needed, so DIY just made sense. I picked Flower Moxie in part because I saw your video decking out a wheelchair in florals. It spoke to me since I'm a physical therapist who works largely with individuals who have sustained spinal cord injuries. Seeing the respect and care you all took with the wheelchair in that video made me decide to go with y'all over any other company.
Who did you have help from?
My mom, mother in law, a close friend and a bridesmaid. We worked in teams where my moms were paired with my friends. My friends were better at holding the bouquets more loosely to help create that organic natural shape and my parents were great at arranging the colors and giving input in the bouquet.
Photo by: Olivia Yuen
Where did you get married and why did you choose this location?
We got married at Paradigm Gardens. We wanted an outdoor space because we weren't sure what was going to happen with COVID, and we found the garden and were just in love. It had a lot of natural beauty without feeling pretentious. The gardens are focused a lot on sustainability and we loved that too. They actually grew many of the ingredients that were used in our amazing dinner. While Jared and I were taking pictures with our wedding parties before the ceremony Joel (the head gardener) was pulling up onions and bringing them to the outdoor kitchen. The food was amazing and insanely fresh.
Was it a destination wedding?
No. Jared and I are local to New Orleans, but we had plenty of family come in from out of town.
Photo by: Olivia Yuen
Photo by: Olivia Yuen
What was your favorite part of your wedding day?
My favorite part was our first look. I wasn't nervous, but there definitely was a tension all day long. Then I saw Jared and all that tension just melted away. Jared's favorite part was actually having all our friends and family in the same place. We both have large families and it was the first time we had ever had everyone together.
In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?
Not bought 100 blankets on amazon two weeks before. We had a cold snap before the wedding and I was panicked our guests would freeze on our wedding night so I bought a ton of blankets and hand warmers. By the time our wedding rolled around it was 70 degrees.
Tips for future DIYers?
Watch lots of videos and follow lots of florists on instagram. It helped me get a sense of color, scale, and what I liked. I also made a practice bouquet from grocery store flowers before I committed to the DIY flowers. It really helped me feel confident with my choice.
Were there any funny or strange mishaps you can share?
Luckily, we were mishap free. A little bit of rain, but it cleared out by the time our guests arrived.
How did you add personalized touches to your day?
My sister, Molly Stone-Ashe, is a graphic designer. She helped a lot with our wedding. She designed our save the dates and invites, our place cards on the ceremony chairs, our koozies, and helped generally with the creative vision of the day. We did a lot of DIY and she helped it all look cohesive.
Which part of your wedding are you most proud of?
The absolutely killer playlist. Jared and I spent months coming up with all the songs we wanted and Jared then spent even more time organizing them into an order that would flow. We didn't have a DJ, just rented speakers and my step brother Phillip Benson to help MC. So Jared made sure all our music really flowed. We also got to pick songs that we loved and that really spoke to us. In case you're interested here are some links to the playlists we made:
Anything else you would like to add?
I really like that I can actually count flower arranging as a new skill of mine. And I get to offer my help to all my other friends who might need flowers for their weddings, bridal showers, and parties.
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About the Author
Jessica has a BFA in Art Education/Printmaking and her MFA in Studio Art with a focus in Non-Toxic printmaking. She brings 10 years of floral experience to her roles at Flower Moxie, having worked in Boston, NYC, and Newport, RI. We still don't know if she's a real person or a hologram but work keeps getting done.