Floral inspiration!

I was playing around on theknot.com and got hit by a couple ideas for flowers for the ceremony.

First, I don't have any pictures on my work computer of the aisle leading up to the actual ceremony site by the edge of the lake, but it's a winding brick path that goes through some trees. There are flowers and bushes planted too, scattered about. It's lovely, but it could be dressed up a bit more, to make it fit more with the wedding. And this seems to be a neat way to do it:

Now, I don't know about the bucket, but a little cluster of flowers hanging from shepard's staffs that are spread out along the aisle? That sounds lovely to me. It'd be a way to incorporate the wedding decorations into the aisle as well as ceremony site, to make the aisle and the site blend together better so it's not like you're strolling down a garden path and then - wham! - you're in the middle of a wedding. I think it would help make the whole area more festive. Thing to consider: buying extra flowers, ribbon, and containers for flowers, plus needing to rent the shepherd staffs.

Once you walk down the aisle, you enter the tent, which is the actual ceremony site. It looks like this:

I really want to emphasize flowers and outdoors and garden themes, and keep tulle to a minimum - unlike the bride in the above photo. I mean that's nice and all but it's not really me. Anyway, I found two options for this part of the aisle.

One:

Lovely. Simple. Elegant. But also: how difficult would these be to make? How expensive?

Another option, which I kind of like more:

Okay, I know what you're thinking: these are pretty hideous and look more like an autumn wedding than a June wedding. But what if the pots were painted something other than gold, say.. white? And the plant inside wasn't dead-looking grass, it was pink hydreangeas? I think that would look beautiful. After the ceremony maybe the Auletto's people could take the flowers inside and decorate the reception area with them. And during the reception we could give the flowers to people for things like knowing trivia about James and I. Or whatever. And then they could plant a part of our wedding in their yard. It'd be nice! But things to consider: the potted plants might constrict the aisle too much, and buying enough to line both sides of the aisle might be prohibitively expensive. But still. It might work.

Another problem with this idea: my idea was to have peonies be the featured flower, not hydrangeas, although I do want to include hydrangeas. In that regard, the first idea might be best because it could include all wedding flowers, not just one. And the first idea would probably make more sense with the hanging flowers from the aisle. Right? Because they're much more similar - both hanging and all - rather than one hanging and one potted. So maybe the first option, then. Sounds good! I'm glad we talked this out. :D