Speaking of flowers...

I have a meeting with our floral designer in two weeks during my final OBX planning trip, and there's a lot to discuss. I want lots of strong red flowers at our wedding, mixed in with a palette of pretty blues and whites.

My first flower love is the dahlia. So full and spunky and me. But sadly, more of a late summer/fall flower -- like all of my favorites, apparently (hello zinnia). Flowers were not something I gave much thought to when picking our wedding date, obviously. So we'll see how prohibitive red dahlias in late May in NC are, but I'm not holding out much hope.

(Let's break for some dahlia love...)






























The florist recommended that I think about red gerberas in lieu of expensive dahlias, and while I really like gerberas (I buy them all the time), they don't quite feel like our wedding flower to me. Too... something. Maybe too much what I have on our table every week? Not sure. But anyway, I've tried to seek red flower inspiration elsewhere.

First up, red peonies. Gorgeous! One flower expert has already noted that it can be difficult to find truly red peonies - deep pinkish red is more common. Regardless, behold the red peony...



Via Brides and Rosenow Floral Design


















Next up for consideration, red ranunculus. Another favorite flower, but I'd never seen them featured so strongly in red until I stumbled upon Rosenow Floral Design (one of the best sites for floral inspiration, in my opinion). See what I mean? Precious!



Via Rosenow Floral Design














Another favorite flower full of personality is the anemone. May is the end of their season, so these may not be readily available either. They're as fun and lighthearted as the gerbera, but perhaps a little less common. And I love the variety in all their little faces.



Via Sarah Pepper



















As for blues and whites, I love french blue anemones, deep blue hydrangea, hyacinth, delphinium, white anemones, white ranunculus, white spider mums, white peonies, and of course, gardenias.

We'll see what we end up with... But I'm pretty excited to start playing with flowers.