Wedding Flowers and Corsages!

I had a very special package waiting for me when I got home yesterday!! The corsages for my wedding arrived, safe and sound all the way from England! I know some of you may be thinking, I thought the wedding wasn't until October? Wont the flowers spoil by then? And you would be right! But not to worry, these are not real flowers. These little beauties are made of felt so they will last a long time. :)

They were lovingly made by Lucy of 1940s Style For You. Lucy has a blog and Etsy shop with the same name. I've followed her blog for a while now and absolutely adore her little felt corsages. They are all hand cut and sewn using 100% wool felt and original 1940s patterns. I contacted Lucy this winter about making the corsages for my wedding and was delighted when she agreed. She sent me color charts and we discussed various designs. She also made a few samples based on our email conversations and sent me pictures through the process of making them. She was great to work with. The corsages are wonderful and match the felt I'm using for the bouquets perfectly!! Thank you Lucy!!! :)

Little felt corsages by Lucy of 1940s Style For You. The large red flowers are my creation. Please pardon the crummy cell phone pic, I couldn't wait to share these. Flowers are much brighter and prettier in person.

Although our wedding is going to cost more then we originally thought, (why does everything wedding related have to be so expensive!?? I mean really, who wants to pay the equivalent of a year of college tuition for one single day? OK, maybe that's just me.) Cori and I are finding ways to make the most of our budget, save where we can, and eliminate waste. I would love to have enormous bouquets of fresh flowers for myself and my bridesmaids but after pricing out a few of our local florists I started to think about other options. Thinking about that also made me think about what to do for corsages for the groomsmen, parents, etc. Pinterest was helpful for the brainstorming stage. There are sooooo many options out there for DIY wedding flowers. What made me finally settle on the idea of fake flowers was the idea that the bridal party will be able to have them as keepsakes after the wedding. Real flowers are beautiful but they don't last forever.

I thought about fabric flowers, bouquets made from brooches, and felt flowers. I wanted something seasonal and have always loved the look of dahlias so when I found some tutorials for making felt dahlias I knew that's what I would do. As I mentioned above, I've been a fan of Lucy's lovely work for some time now. Her corsages make a perfect combination with felt bouquets. Plus the idea of supporting a small business and fellow vintage blogger was too good to pass up. I discussed it with Cori and he loved the idea!

Funny story about picking our wedding colors.We didn't really have any specific colors in mind when we started planning and we didn't want typical fall colors. The only thing I knew for sure is that I didn't want my bridesmaids to look like cookie cutter copies. Or for everything else to be super matchy, it doesn't fit our personalities.  I would like everyone to look like real people and not a snap shot from a bridal salon. Some of you my remember my post on my friend Erin's wedding. The bridesmaids all wore different color dresses and shoes, I loved it!

The main colors for my wedding were actually inspired by the outfits Erin and I wore last October to a WWII event. (You can read about that event here.) Erin wore a 1940s dark red crepe and velvet dress. I had on a navy blue WAVE uniform skirt with a light blue/teal sweater. We were standing outside near some trees with bright fall foliage and thought "hey, we look pretty good!" So yeah, wedding colors. :) The plan, which so far is working out, is to have the bridal party all in vintage or reproduction vintage attire.

I'll be putting together a tutorial of sorts about my felt bouquets to post at a later date. I need to take a bunch of pictures of the process since I'm doing something slightly different from the tutorials I found online. Until then please enjoy a few more pictures of Lucy's corsages. :)

Update: You can read Lucy's post about the corsages here.

Sample corsages. We made a few changes to these. Photo by Lucy of 1940s Style For You

 Some of the flowers have wired stems and all have safety pins stitched to the back so they will be easy to attach.

The (almost) finished corsages. The ones on the right were waiting for their little blue flowers. Photo by Lucy of 1940s Style For You