Tag Archives: Vases

Don’t forget to decorate inside your flower vases

6

I’m of the opinion that while every flower lover loves a vase, that the vase itself tends to be wasted real estate. Seriously! So let’s start using up that vase to make the entire arrangement work hard at looking beautiful.

For example, from a past 25th anniversary celebration, you’ve got a sprig of yellow cymbidium orchids submerged in water on top of a bed of rocks. Simple, yes? And expensive, too — a sprig of orchids can run you about $25 each, I believe. Can you imagine an extra $20 per table, in addition to your arrangement. It’s just an option, and there are so many more…

Here’s another example, from the huge event I stumbled upon in St. Petersburg. Those are pink glass pebbles in the conical vases, and bigger glass pebbles submerged in water below an unlit candle in the cubed vase. Again, simple, high impact, and you add an extra oomph to the decorations. But, wait! There’s more!

[ad#top-of-post-adify-bridal-click]

Photo by Flickr’s Flor & Forma

These are really tall, cylindrical vases, but those roses aren’t the gargantuan type that would have such straight stems, right? So in the taller vases, it looks as though they wrapped the inside with long, green variegated leaves (meaning, it has the white stripe). I don’t remember the name of the leaf, but doesn’t it look like that one houseplant so many people have? Simple, huh? The slightly shorter vases look like they’ve got what could be reeds in it, but I’m not sure. The effect, though, is increased depth and stature to the entire arrangement.

Photo by Flickr’s lovyprincess

Fruit is increasingly being incorporated in wedding flower arrangements, and why not? It’s cheap, its colorful and its fun. However, I don’t know how the acidity of certain fruits, like lemons and limes, might interact with the flowers — I would imagine that it might decrease the shelf life of the cut flowers, but I have never done an experiment to find out. I’d also recommend possibly working with colorful vegetables, like carrots or eggplant. 🙂 My mom often liked to use green beans.

Photo by Flickr’s Tabbi Kat

This might be my favorite vase arrangement. Inside a punch bowl, there’s water, some dendrobium orchids, a second vase (presumably filled with another flower arrangement) and a fighting fish! It’s awesome. It’s fun. And it moves! What a conversation piece. But probably only recommended for the boldest (or most fun loving) of brides.
[ad#chitika]

Save a buck, get your own vases

2

Ever wonder where florists get those amazing vases — you know, the type that you’ve seen here, with all sorts of flowers inside of them? Well, there’s obviously a variety of places where you can get such vases, but if you’re looking for a cheap place to find them online, I’ve got the site for you.

If you love eBay, you’re in luck — HJK Imports has glass vases in just about any shape, color and size your wedding-crazed mind could possibly dream up. For example, if you really love the cylinder vases, HJK has a batch of 18, 6-inch by 6-inch vases at the Buy It Now price of $90. That’s $5 a piece. That’s a steal.

There’s a batch of trumpet vases available for even cheaper — $72 for 18 15-inch vases. Dude!

I doubt you could get a better price even at a wholesale brick-and-mortar shop. Even Amazon doesn’t have deals like this.

Here’s a close up of one of the vases, from a past post. I’m pretty sure that most of the vases that my mom bought have been trumpet vases, but in my opinion, cylinders are just as good as trumpets, especially since you can put more in a cylinder than simply water or flowers — you could put apples in them, or even pretty colored paper. Shoot, that’s a good idea….


Anyway, HJK Imports also has a non eBay website here. If you peruse their site carefully, you’ll see that they will be in Vegas for a trade show soon, and will be selling off all the merchandise they bring with them for more than 50% off their catalog prices. They simply don’t want to have to bring their stuff back with them, but their laziness can be your gain.

If you were wondering how I came upon this site, it was actually passed on to me by the bride I was a bridesmaid for a few years ago. She found the vases on her own and my mom agreed to use the vases for the arrangements. When my mom saw the quality of the vases, my mom urged me to find out who she got them from. Heheh.

So if this is the look you want for your wedding, but don’t want to pay the marked-up price for the vases your florist will provide, see if s/he will work with you — buy the vases on your own and give them to him/her to put the arrangements in. Depending on the florist and his/her markup, you can save as much as $1,000, I should think.
[ad#chitika]