Orange Explosion

I went to the flower mart early Saturday morning to pick up these:

I offered to help Jeannette by picking up some flowers for her reception. I was told to just pick up orange flowers. Sadly this time of year, the pickings were slim.
My favorites are the Pin Cushion Protea.

[Not a bad photo for a point-and-shoot camera.]

As it turns out Jeannette had planned to make her own bouquet at the hotel the night before the wedding. I offered to make her bouquet. Keep in mind I am not a florist, nor do I aspire to be one. I'm just a friend who knows what its like to scramble over last minute details and I knew what kind of week she had leading up to the wedding.

I had only made one bouquet before this. So, I hit the internet for instructions and started prepping the blooms. Dottie even decided to help by picking out the best smelling blooms.
Making a bouquet was a A LOT more work than I remembered. The easiest part, believe it or not, was prepping the blooms. I got the majority of the thorns and leaves off while watching stuff on my DVR. The most difficult part was arranging the flowers. I arrange and wired the bouquet 3 times on Saturday night and twice on Sunday. I re-did it a second time on Sunday because I dropped it on the way to the ceremony. My bouquet wrap was not the prettiest, but I counted on the fact that she would be holding it most of the day. I'd like to think that despite the fact that I'm not a professional florist Jeannette liked the bouquet.

Here are photos of my finished product.