I really wish I would have taken better pictures of how this all turned out, but I was a wild woman from the time the flowers were delivered to our door (Thursday) to the time I put them on the tables (saturday).  It all turned out really pretty though, I think.   I learned so much from Caroline and helping her with my sisters flowers, and then tried for the first time on my own doing the florals for Shannon’s boho bridal shower.  I have always loved to arrange flowers and have done on a small scale many times.  But this was my second time at the helm of a big floral order, and it ended up being so fun.  I do feel like you are racing against the clock, and there’s some nervous energy because I’m always worried the flowers will open too soon or worse, die.  But I think they turned out!

Here are a few of my tips:

• I am one of those people who often “wings it”… my dad says I got it from him.  I don’t know why I’m like this, but if I think I can do something, I just kinda believe it 100%.  So with the floral order, we ordered through Fifty Flowers, and I counted up the total number of blooms, divided by the number of arrangements needed, and always over order greenery because I feel like you can never have too much.  But one thing (of the many!)  I love about Fifty Flowers is that you can call and have a specialist really help you with this number, and they’ll answer any questions, or even suggest less expensive but a similar look to get closer to your budget.  They have the best customer service!
• Then you need to think – what can be the cooler?  our playroom, which is a full on about to be a demo’d disaster, was our cooler.  You can shut that off from the rest of the house, and crank the ac to 59.  So that we did, and it worked!  You definitely want a smaller room that you can crank the ac/ or use a wall unit somehow to freeze out the room.  Without this our flowers would have opened a bit too soon.  We kept the peonies in the fridge outside until the very end.  and once a few arrangements were finished I kept them in the outside fridge as well to preserve them longer.
• On Wednesday, a day before the flowers arrived I cleaned out all of the buckets and all of the vessels with clorox to make sure they were super clean to minimize bacteria growing in the buckets and vessels.
• Get your supplies all ready!  Make sure you have a couple good clean shears, oasis floral foam, water tube picks, quick dip, and flower food.  
  
• When the flowers arrived on thursday I trimmed each stems leaves so none would touch water in the buckets, and cut the end and dipped in quick dip.  Then they went in the bucket, in our playroom/cooler.  My sister and I started arranging a few, but mostly with the hardy greens, that thursday evening.
• That Friday is when we finished the majority of the arrangements.  I always like to start with greenery, and then add in the blooms.  Oasis helps tremendously in creating stable arrangements, and providing some hydration too.
• The Saturday of the event I waited a bit so they wouldn’t be in the heat very long, and brought them all to the grounds for the tables.  I brought a watering can and watered them once they were on the tables, and also spritzed it with crowning glory.
• The day of I also made a floral backdrop with water tubes, this photo backdrop, and my scissors.  I literally just stabbed the backdrop, put the florals with water in the water tubes, and jammed the tubes in.  It actually turned out really fun!  and I’m totally doing it again for a shower or a celebration.
•   For vessels we used a mixture of what I had, mint julep cups, blue and white vases, some preserved boxwood, big footed bowls, and even my champagne bucket served as a vessel!  I found quite a bit at goodwill too.  
  
• You can see more by looking at my highlight “diy flowers” on instagram

Thanks Fifty Flowers for working with us on this order for our schools Derby party!