Pre-ception Wedding Flowers : Wedding Talk

Happy Friday guys! 

October has FLOWN by and I'm currently getting ready to leave out of town again for work, ugh. This time I'm going back to Mexico where I was about a year ago. If you don't know how that trip went you can read about it here, oui freaking vey! You'll be happy to know that I booked my hotel myself this time, we have our secured driver cleared and lined up and a full schedule laid out for us. I'll be carrying on my luggage, I have a work cell that can call, text and FaceTime internationally so basically things should go much smoother than last time. Fingers crossed yo!

Last month we had our pre-ception party and I've thought about how I wanted to share things with you all, the pictures, the video footage and cost of everything. I personally am never afraid to ask someone how much they spent on things. If we were having coffee or Chipotle together, I'd straight up ask you how much you spent on flowers, your dress or your hair and makeup crew. I really have no shame in my game. If I want to know something, I'll ask, plain and simple. I'm not judging you for what you've spent or haven't spent, I just want to know if I'm getting a good deal with the research I've been doing!

While planning our pre-ception I knew I wanted fresh flowers but refused to spend an arm and a leg on them. I love flowers and I understand why people obsess over them, I really do, but the thing is, THEY DIE, and they die within a week no so.

After talking to my mother and sister in law who are flower experts, I knew I wanted to use Trader Joes for the pre-ception flowers. I always hear about how expensive flowers can be and I knew I wanted to use something local and something not a bajillion dollars. In comes Trader Joes and for a very reasonable cost and an abundance of flowers to choose from!

For $130 I filled 20 small vases (pales) and by I, I mean my florist. Let me introduce you to the owner and flower extortioner, Amy of MI Honeybee Flowers, AKA my sister from another mister and that mister would be my soon to be father-in-law. Basically, one of Jerek's sisters.

Here is some background of Amy in case you haven't met her before, which in if you haven't than that is very unfortunate! 

Amy graduated Kimball in 01' and worked at Dynamic Flowers in Royal Oak for over three years. She has done flowers for a variety of special events (baby showers, wedding showers and weddings.) Since having her son earlier this year, she is making her business more official! MI Honeybee Flowers is focused on floral design and event consulting. She wants to make your event vision come to life and ensure that it's beautifully unique to you, easy and affordable. She would love to grab a coffee or a drink and sit down to char about all things wedding flowers and decor! She can be contacted at amy@mihoneybeeflowers.com.

Call me bias but Amy is the bee's knees, okay, pun intended but in all honestly, she is one of the most hard working women I know. Her resume is killer, she graduated from Michigan State with her bachelors and then proceeded to work and volunteer in Detroit for basically pennies while getting her masters in Urban Planning at Wayne State. She's also worked for Governor Granholm! This lady has done and is doing it all and I'm proud to call her my florist, best friend, and most importantly, Godmother to the boys. She also recently added mommy to her resume to my beautiful nephew Emry. If you watch any of my vlogs you've probably gushed over his smile, cheeks, rolls...I could go on and on!

Amy was there with me picking out the flowers the day of the event, telling me I needed more eucalyptus and to worry less. She spent hours at my mom's house prepping and arranging everything from flowers to decorations so that I could relax and drink my Starbucks. The vases (pales) were borrowed from a girlfriend at work and the wooden coasters were cut from branches already at my moms, so like I said, all of the flower arrangements were legit $130!

From my small event of 80 people she then turned around and prepared all the bouquets, table arrangements and decorations for a huge wedding in downtown Detroit at the yacht club a week later. If you are planning a baby shower, wedding or corporate event consider hiring Amy! I'm not promoting her because she's my sister-in-law, I'm just letting you all in on this hidden secret of Metro Detroit! Because when she books more events, than I get to watch Emry, and if I watch Emry then my need for #3 is put at bay and Jerek would appreciate it greatly I'm sure.

In all seriousness, Amy does amazing work and can accommodate any budget (did I mention she did all of mine for $130!) so drop her an email and set up a coffee date to discuss your needs and Amy will make it happen. Plus, coffee dates also mean I get to watch Emry. BOOM!