In full bloom

With just four weeks to our wedding eve (!!), it's time to start hammering out those final details. Today's task: flowers. This task was listed way down at the two-weeks-to-go category of my final month to-do list, but everything changed yesterday when I walked past some florists. First I saw these, and was completely smitten.

Why, hello, king protea. And how are you today?

The king protea is the national flower of South Africa, where it originates. It is part of a ancient flower family that originated over 100 million years ago, and it certainly has the looks like it could have been plucked straight out of Jurassic Park. These large, pink flowers have become particularly trendy in wedding bouquets over the past few years, though brides in the Southern Hemisphere have been using them for much longer.

Then I walked into these gems, and immediately fell for them.

Rainbow roses! Who'd have imagined?

I shouldn't have been surprised that in the gay capital of the UK (Brighton), florists randomly stock rainbow-colored flowers. After some consulting with family members as to whether straight people are allowed to decorate their weddings with rainbow roses, I had the go ahead. So today, I filled a trial vase and placed the floral order for the floral arrangements for our reception table.

Floral arrangements for the reception? Designed and ordered, check and check.

Then I was off to the big league: Hunter Florist, home of Brighton's stock of king protea. I tried to place a pre-order for my bridal bouquet, but it turns out that this notoriously difficult flower is hard to come by, and can never be guaranteed. Noooo! I'd already spent an hour finding the perfect king protea bouquet inspiration the previous evening. Here it is, by the way.

Wedding bouquet inspiration, courtesy of theknot.com

As I watched my bouquet dreams circling the drain, the florist informed that the king protea dry beautifully and can still be easily incorporated into a floral bouquet after drying. Problem solved! Now the guest room just has some unusual décor for the upcoming month.

The focal points of my future bridal bouquet, adorning the guest room

With the reception flowers ordered and my bouquet's central flowers chosen, the rest is in my floral expert of a mother's hands. She'll be making the bridal bouquet as well as all boutonnières and corsages for family members. For now, I'm checking flowers off the ever-shortening to-do list and keeping an eye on that countdown clock. 29 days to go!