I love hydrangeas!
We cut ivy out of our yard and trimmed my pretty-leafed shrubs for garlands on the staircases and tables! (i know, it’s that &^%$ DIYer again…)
I love hyrandrea too…but really…they are at a LOT of weddings these days. So what?
I feel the same way bout the greens on the tables. So what if they are at lots of other weddings. Our wedding guests won’t be at all those other weddings!
@CountingDown S and fiancé are thinking DIY for table garlands. I have many eucalyptus trees of different varieties with different color leaves. Another option is they found a local wholesale floral place that sells one day a week to the public. They have assembled greenery garlands that price out well. They are using a florist for bouquets, chuppah and a couple of arrangements for food tables.
A friend went to the Philadelphia Flower Show and one of the displays was of a Woodland Wedding. All white flowers and lots of greenery. A crazy tree trunk table support and a birchbark and succulent “cake”. Pretty wonderful stuff!
We used the wholesale floral market in Silver Spring plus greenery from home. It wouldn’t have worked if not for my youngest sister and SIL, both of whom have floral arranging experience. Lots of work putting together boutonnieres and wrist corsages – vases, bouquets and swagging were easier.
Each “look” has its pros and cons. Price, availability, color palate can all factor in. To me, it seems irrelevant if a wedding coordinator has seen a ton of Xxx or Yyy, unless the couple cares at all.
Just don’t get flowers that folks can be allergic to! Mr. B had to endure a dinner next to a geranium plant once, and it was not a very good dinner experience. 
Yes, flowers with strong scents can be torture to sensitive guests. I have had relatives who have endured many events including weddings well-sedated with antihistamines to minimize their health problems with strong scents. They still were uncomfortable but managed to endure.
Some of us notice increased scent sensitivity as we age.
No boutonnaires in our wedding. Guys are wearing vests. No corsages … no one wanted them as wrist or pinned to their dresses.
But we are very happy with the florist we chose who has really worked with the bride to pick the colors she wants for the bouquets.
Okay - D’s wedding is two months from today!!
So far, so good. Invitations are out and rsvps are coming in; all of the vendors are on-board and the transportation service between the church, reception venue, and the hotel (where most of the out-of-towners are staying) has been arrranged. The wedding coordinator seems to have everything under control…so far.
Two questions, though, for you guys:
- D is getting married in a church and is planning the nuts-and-bolts of the ceremony itself. She and her fiance do not want a soloist and they're not planning to sing any hymns. To this old-timey Southern churchgoer, that just seems ...wrong. Am I being silly?
- D's future mother-in-law is planning a shower for D in two weeks (and yes, I know Emily Post doesn't approve of mothers throwing showers, but too bad. Ms. Post is not invited anyway.) I am flying in for the event, which is being held at a restaurant. My question is, I want to bring/send the hostess a gift to say thanks - thanks for the shower, but also thanks for being so kind to my daughter (future MIL lives near to D whereas I live 500+ miles away.) What's a good gift? Wine? Flowers delivered to their home? Since I'm flying in, I'm tempted to have something delivered rather than bringing it on the plane.
I like hymns at weddings also, but I am in a denomination that considers weddings (and funerals) to be worship services at the core and so they have all the elements of regular worship. As a practical matter, it makes for a very short ceremony if there is no singing (depending also if preacher does a sermon length homily or just some scripture and a few words.) A hymn at beginning is nice cover for everyone getting settled at front of church and I remember our minister whispering some instructions to us. But at the end of the day, it’s their wedding.
Re hostess gift - I like flowers. Or if you have a great photo of your D and her S you could give that to her in nice frame. That would be small enough to fly with.
I attended a friend’s son’s wedding last year and there was no soloist. A cousin played selections on the piano at the beginning and another cousin read something, but I don’t remember what it was. At my own son’s wedding, there was no soloist in that the whole ceremony stopped while someone sang a song, but my ex (son’s dad) and my daughter (son’s sister) were part of a jazz string quartet who played before and after the ceremony, and Dad sang something while the bride walked down the aisle. When my peers got married back in the 70s-80s, the brides walked down the aisle to the traditional wedding march played on the organ. Do they still do that nowadays?
ETA: I think my boss said her D did not want an aisle at her upcoming outdoor wedding. I don’t know what the plans are. Maybe she will just appear from behind a clump of trees or something.
The only music at DDs wedding will be the pianist, and her trumpet playing brother. No soloist singing. It’s a secular ceremony so no hymns.
Fine with me!
D is having a friend (professional musician) play piano at her wedding. No soloist singing (D is really picky about singing & prefers no soloist to a so-so-soloist). I am not sure if there will be hymns - probably a couple, because it’s a religious ceremony taking place in a church.
D1 is having strings for the ceremony and pre-reception cocktail hr (she is having another cocktail before the sit down dinner). She is allowing me few songs I like from Phantom of the Opera, but no Springsteen on strings. She said the DJ could play some at the reception. 
S and DIL had a string quartet (put together by a friend who is a Broadway pit musician) for the pre-ceremony and procession/recession. I don’t remember the pieces but it was not traditional wedding music, at alll. At the cocktail party, they had a Juliiiard-trained guitarist the MOB found playing in the subway 
@scout59 : If I were you, regarding a gift for your D’s FMIL, I’d send something to her after the visit as a thank you. Something specific may come up while you’re there that will make sense.
I sing at weddings! But DD was NOT interested in having me do so at hers.
It’s fine.
I did forget…we are having acoustic guitar music during the cocktail hour.
I’m like you, @scmom12 - I like singing hymns at weddings, and since it’s a Protestant wedding, the ceremony is going to be REALLY short without solos or hymns! There will be organ music before the ceremony, and classical music for the processionals (“Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” and Pachelbel’s Canon) and the recessional (the Spring movement from “The Four Seasons”). So there will be music - just not singing.
I think this is just one of those things that (slightly) bothers me and no one else. Even H doesn’t understand my objection, but I think he comes from a non-sing-y denomination. I grew up in a church that emphasized singing and covered-dish suppers.
Thanks scmom12 and @VeryHappy - I probably will send something after the shower.