boldly going where I try not to go

In an attempt to solve my flower dilemma, I've been cruising The Knot. Which I usually prefer to think of as The Not, as in "I'm NOT going to get caught up in the 'how can I compete with that?' crap that they not-so-secretly promote." But from previous forays into their territory, I do know that they're an excellent resource for almost too many photos, broken down by category to the nth degree.
I like the ivory roses, and the blue leaves tucked in between them are called dusty miller. Its incredibly hardy (always a good thing) and comes from Italy, which would be a nice detail since I lived there for 4 years.

The blooms are pretty tiny, but I really like the color of these blue tweedia. They look great tucked between the fluffier white flowers.

I like the hydrangeas' look much more when they have other things mixed in.

The simplicity of these is also gorg -- magnolia blossoms & leaves.

Another hydrangea mix, with orchids & lilies. Not the orange, but I love the balance of this.


Just a simple mix of roses & lisianthus. I'd go with jade roses (the pretty pale green ones) instead of all-white, but I played with lisianthus when I made my trial run to the L.A. Flower Mart, and they're great.

Another thought: I'm mulling over the various merits of planning to buy the flowers when I get to S.F., which would give me one more thing to do up there, versus getting them the morning that I leave L.A., since I'm obviously going to be driving up with all of my d.i.y. crap. I guess it all depends on how to store them for the ride, and whether I can get the hotel to provide a frig that's not filled with airline liquor bottles and $5 cokes.

And now, a confession: I went to another place I've been deliberately avoiding for months. I shopped. In my defense, I've been helping out with the merchandising at S lately, and I spend my Mondays in a stockroom filled with goodies that taunt me. And I've been very good: no non-wedding related purchases since ... well, since I started making wedding-related purchases. And I get a pretty sweet employee discount ... oh, hell -- I'm totally trying to justify this, when really I think that all I need to say is this:
For the record, it's very hard to photograph a shoe on your own foot, and yes, that's my giant stuffed St. Bernard in the background. His name is Bernard (British pronunciation, with the accent on the 1st syllable.)

All bouquet pics from The Knot except the last one (which I lost -- let me know if that's yours!) Shoe pic by me.