July sown Zinnia will surely give you good blooms in September... and you can have light purple or indigo colored flowers from it...

Cheers~

Izhar

I am sure you can make a wonderful contribution to the wedding, but I wouldn't do table arrangements, if I were you.

I am now professionally trained as a floral designer and have been growing flowers and greens for make at home arrangements and I would not even take that on, especially not in September, when so many flowers and greens will be struggling from the heat. Don't forget if you want to enjoy the wedding, you would have make the arrangements ahead of time which means conditioning flowers and greens and then cool storing the arrangements.

Now if you are talking something more countrified than formal arrangements than you could certainly throw zinnias and some other flowers in something like iced tea glasses and it would be really cute.

You could also use potted plants as centerpieces. You could make up "arrangements" with the potted plants well ahead of time so you wouldn't be time pressed like you would with fresh-cut flowers. You could even buy annuals inexpensively at a garden center while they are in bloom and then plant them afterward. Or let the guests take them home and plant them.

When I got married 7 years ago, in November I wasn't professionally trained but I still wanted to decorate my own backyard wedding "garden" wedding. I used a florist for the actual table arrangements but then also did a lot myself. I grew roses in pots. Roses can be pruned in order to force them to bloom at the right time, although September blooms wont be spectacular. I used the potted roses on both ends of the aisle.

In addition to the formal centerpieces, I themed each table as a different herb, (My tables names were rosemary, sage, thyme etc.) I spray painted little clay pots to match my linens and then grew the herbs in them. Of course for a September wedding you would either have to grow some of the herbs inside or have less choices since so many herbs wont make it through the hot summer.

The other thing I did was place a long stem rose in each napkin. In order not to take chances, and because I wanted to keep my roses on the bushes, I ordered them straight from a grower, and just had to cut off the thorns and they were ready to grow. Grower's roses smell so much better than florist roses. I got them from 2groses.com.

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can provide any more info.

Michelle

I think it's very nice that you want to contribute flowers for the wedding and I understand your desire to be involved. But I agree that trying to plan flowers for a fall wedding will be tough. Please don't set yourself up for failure!

Here's something else to think about too: women planning their weddings are not totally sane. It didn't happen to me of course, I was absolutely calm and fine (ha!), but it happens to most. If you are feeling left out you really have to remind yourself that it's all about her (especially in her own mind) and anything you do to try to change her mind will only result in tears. If she says she isn't planning on having many flowers, she means it. It might be better to tell her what you've told us about feeling left out and ask her what you can do to make the wedding more perfect for her. Let her know you want to be involved.

As it gets closer to the date of the wedding she might be more open to floral suggestions and maybe you can help her set that up with very simple arrangements for the tables. Even a lovely fall mum or two in small vases on each table would be nice and not very costly. White mums or a single ivory rose, with teal and purple ribbons around the vases would be nice.

Kate

Thanks for all the responses.
The late sown annuals and or just purchasing annuals that
are fresh is probably the easiest route.

I didn't real plan on doing all the floral arrangements for
her, I just wanted to 'help' or 'in addition to' type thing.
While on that note I actually did arrangements for my aunt's
florist shop when I was younger,she's actually the one to
'blame' for my lifelong interest in gardening. I wouldn't
call my self a professional,but I've done some pretty good stuff over the years. I'm quite aware of the fact that most things will be stressed from the summer heat by Sept.That's why I posted a big help sign here.

I like the ideas of zinnas or mums in a simple glass or a small vase though. I'm lucky about the rose thing,she doesn't like roses and never really has.

Will standard garden mums grow good here, I've lived here 8
years and have never tried growing them here. I used to grow
a lot of them when we lived in MI. I know several plants for
that climate that would fit the bill, but none of them would
survive the summer here.

My very favorite picture from my wedding is of my mother arranging the roses from her garden on my cake. We spent a week with the fridge full of every single rose bud in the garden, to make sure she had enough. The wedding was in the backyard, with table arrangements of potted annuals stuffed in a variety of baskets she spent six months collecting from Goodwill. The neighbor's kids and my maiden of honor did the stuffing the day before. It was all very informal - I didn't have any colors per se, so it worked.

While roses would be hard here, orchids come in lots of great purples. And depending on her cake ideas, they're edible, so they could decorate the cake.

Another super easy purple is Persian shield. Not a flower, but the leaves are a stunning deep purple, and you could buy one plant and then root gazillions from the stems in glasses of water. Little pots of persian shield might make lovely informal table arrangements.

hmmm I just remembered having elderly relatives make tissue paper carnations to line the stage and write Jim N Tan in a big heart on the Fire Hall wall.My flowers were daisies and carnations a friend made and we wore daisy halos (70s)an enormous cake a relative and cake decorator made,complete with Gazebo on top. The soloist was a friend of my brothers and All the photos were taken by the art teacher from high school! The only ones we didnt know were the band! Polish relatives made enough food for an army!
It was great!