June 5, 2018

Real Weddings

Shannan and Steve - 07/01/17

June 5, 2018

Real Weddings

I absolutely loved Shannan and Steve's bright summer palate. I have had so many neutral weddings that this was a fun change.

The girls wore pool blue dresses and carried coral and peach bouquets. The bouquets were coral charm peonies, white stock, light pink spray roses, coral spray roses, coral ranunculus, coral hypericum berry and white waxflower. The bridal bouquet also had blush calla lilies.

The flower girls carried bouquets of baby's breath and light pink spray roses

Steve wore a boutonniere of a blush calla lily and peach hypericum berry. The groomsmen wore boutonnieres of a light pink spray rose, coral spray rose and peach hypericum berry.

Shannan and Steve got married in the Christ the King Chapel at St. Ambrose University where they attended. That was my most popular ceremony location of 2017.

The wood sign is made by CraftSavy and was my wedding gift to the Campbells.

It's been almost a year, so instead of wishing you the best on your future, I'll wish the Campbells a Happy Anniversary :)

Live Love Flowers - Michele Signature (1).png

December 21, 2017

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Jennifer and Grant - 06/17/17

December 21, 2017

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Jennifer and Grant were another one of my couples during my 4 wedding weekend this summer. Julie from J. Blu Design out of the Peoria area helped me out for that weekend to make sure everything ran smoothly. Thank you to Seneca Epley Photography for these gorgeous images! If there was ever a wedding that looked like a perfectly curated Pinterest board, it is this one. Every single detail was absolutely on point.

Everything was very heavy on greenery, which is definitely the current trend! The ladies carried bouquets of white peonies, white garden roses and white ranunculus with silver dollar eucalyptus and laurel greens.

This is a seriously stunning group of ladies! We are going to be seeing a lot of purples in 2018 so I hope to see this look more often.

The paper products such as invites and programs all had touches of greenery on them to pull the look altogether. The men wore boutonnieres of white roses, white waxflower and laurel greenery.

Here is an indoor view of her bouquet :) This was the first wedding that made me fall in love with a new bouquet technique that makes it easier for me to hold when I'm working on and lighter for the brides to hold. Often with this garden type bouquet, you can do minimal flowers on the back side of the bouquet, which also allows it to be less expensive than full flowers front and back.

The reception was at the Stern Center in Rock Island. It featured several different styles of centerpieces. This is the head table, but we did a garland of greens down the center of some long tables as well. On the long guest tables, we included some flowers tucked into the greenery as well. These were garlands of silver dollar eucalyptus, Italian ruscus, and laurel greens. The cake featured laurel greens between the layers.

On other tables there were a variety of different gold terrariums - one with a candle inside and one with flowers inside and greens around the base. All of the tables had gold mercury glass votives around the centerpieces - remember when I said total Pinterest wedding?!

The third centerpiece was a gold compote vase with greenery, white hydrangea, white garden roses, white spray roses, white snapdragons and white waxflower.

Congratulations again to Jennifer and Grant! If your wedding is half as picture perfect as your wedding, you're in for a great future together! I hope I get to do more weddings that are this stunning because I'm still obsessed with this one! Thanks again to Julie for her help :)

August 17, 2016

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Samantha and Jake - 05/28/16

August 17, 2016

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Samantha and Jake were a referral from my mom! Samantha is my mom's massage therapist and my mom suggested she reach out to me during her wedding planning process. One of her bridesmaids also used to work for me at Claire's. Our paths were destined to cross.

When we first got together, Samantha pulled out pictures from my Facebook page and showed me a bouquet from a previous wedding that was exactly what she wanted. Ironically, they were getting married in the same church as well!

Jake was one of the few grooms to attend a floral appointment (they are always welcome!). To incorporate Jake's personality into their wedding, the groomsmen had their boutonnieres in shotgun shells. He found pink shotgun shells so they would match the wedding!

Samantha and her bridesmaids carried bouquets of baby's breath with white and light pink ranunculus. Ranunculus is definitely a hot flower right now and I'm so glad, because it is gorgeous!

Samantha and Jake are super cute together and are some of the nicest people. They took pictures with their dogs on their wedding which is clearly the greatest thing. After their wedding, Samantha and Jake sent me a thank you note that used a photo of her bouquet as the background. Ironically the couple that inspired their wedding flowers did the same thing! I don't get a lot of thank you notes so it was a huge coincidence!

Thank you so much for choosing to work with me for your wedding! I hope your marriage together is as perfect as your wedding day was!

June 28, 2016

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Chloe and Blake - 05/06/16

June 28, 2016

Michelle Mampre

Real Weddings

Chloe emailed me in early February when she was frustrated with her selection of florists near her. Her wedding was fast approaching and she lives in the Waterloo area. We did all of our communication via email but I knew she was an awesome girl from our first few emails. She was completely prepared with everything she wanted (including flower names, quantities, and photos).

Due to Chloe living over an hour away, she wanted to come pick up her flowers a few days before. That provided me with a challenge for how to keep flowers fresh for several days without water. I learned about tupperware being able to keep boutonnieres and corsages fresh for quite some time. That has greatly made my life easier because now I can get started on all my weddings sooner (you're my hero Chloe)!

Left - centerpieces of milk glass and baby's breath, Right - Daisy bouquets for grandparent memorialsImages by Alaytra Photography — Left - centerpieces of milk glass and baby's breath, Right - Daisy bouquets for grandparent memorials
Images by Alaytra Photography

Unfortunately, like a lot of brides, Chloe learned she had selected expensive flowers that didn't quite fit in her planned budget. I drew up another estimate for her substituting some of the flowers for less expensive ones. Chloe decided to splurge for the bouquet of her dreams and save some costs by choosing the less expensive corsages and boutonnieres. They opted to not have a bridal party to be able to invite more people to their celebration (50 tables worth!)

Ringshots - Images by Alaytra Photography

Chloe carried a bouquet of blush garden roses, blush ranunculus, coral hypericum berry, coral carnations (mounded together for a peony look), white spray roses, baby's breath, succulents and dusty miller. It's one you would definitely want to "pin" on Pinterest.

This wedding was amazing. Perfect weather, fabulous details (that dress and ring!!) and a couple (probably mostly bride) that knew what she wanted and where she was willing to splurge and save. I love the following picture, because weddings and the photos are so often all about the bride, but this is all about Blake.

Since the wedding, Chloe has helped me on a project I'm working on about what people think flowers cost vs. what they actually cost. So many couples (again probably mostly brides) get swept up in Pinterest and have no idea the cost of what they desire. Stay tuned for that blogpost coming in the next few weeks!

I hope their future together is as perfect as their wedding day was! It brought so much joy to me, knowing that Chloe and her mom drove over an hour to come pick up her flowers, especially when she had never met me. Sometimes, you just click and those are my favorite weddings to be a part of. Thank you again for choosing to work with me!