Hello December! Where did you come racing from? 

I'm sticking to my 'flowery first of the month welcomes' with another flowery post. Nothing too quirky or clever this time, but something a bit special. 

As most of you know I'm a florist so I guess it goes without saying that over the years I've often imagined how my wedding bouquet would look. Sometimes I'd prefer a simple posy of scented sweetpeas or gadenias, or something funky using fruit and sticks, or perhaps an armful of trailing vines entwined with colourful orchids,  or a big blowsy bouquet of peonies. In fact I used to joke that I'd have to get married 100 times to have all the bouquets I wanted. But until recently even though I've made a lot of wedding bouquets, I've never had one I could call my own. 

Last weekend Mr Daisy and I walked down the grassy aisle, and in a cathedral of trees we tied the knot. We've considered ourselves married in our hearts for a long time but this was the real deal ceremony that makes it official, so I got to have my very own wedding bouquet!

In the end, after all my flower fantasy bouquets, my choice of flowers was deternined by my dress. I tried on a few dresses of different soft pretty colours, but in the end it was an orange sequin dress that ambushed me and insisted it was the one. A simple style, but nice and sparkly. 

With my orange sequined dress as my muse, and knowing Mr Daisy was wearing a pale blue, grey suit, I planned my bouquet. 

An informal posy of seasonal flowers, with the majority of things picked from gardens the day before. 

Here's a list of all the bits and pieces that I used.

From our garden:
Variegated NZ Christmas Bush, Metrosideros 
Parsley flowers
Wheat (sprouted from stray chickens feed)
Lavender
Native Wooly Bush, Adenanthos
Native pink bell, Elaeocarpus 
Spanish Moss
Japanese maple 
Flannel flowers

From my friend Nadia's garden:
Various succulents 
Nandina

Hanging over neighbours fence:
Chinese Lantern, Abutilon
Grevillea 

From a flower shop:
David Austin roses in blush pink 
and also cream
Roses, 2 shades of orange
Orange carnations, I think the variety is Ivonne
Dusty Miller, aka Silver Suede

And,
Dried pepper berries, collected on a recent holiday



It's a wonder I could fit so much into a little bouquet.  It certainly made it fun to look at, with different angles revealing different things. 

I had some cream lace read to cover the stems but at the last moment I decided to tie it with a simple strips of 1inch cuts of fabric. Lovely unfinished fraying edges and a loose floppy bow seemed just right for the quilter in me.


I've saved and washed the ribbons with plans of using them in a quilt one day. 

And planted the succulents. Hopefully they'll take off and grow and be a happy reminder of a wonderful day.

I only got a few snap shots before it was time to run out the door. And none of my flowery headpiece, or the grooms buttonhole. We had professional photos taken on the day so there'll be proper pictures to share one day soon.

In the meantime I've got a lot of blog reading to catch up!! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to.