NYC Flower District

My trip to the NYC Flower district this past Saturday was extremely educational. I did know that most of the places there were wholesale florists, but I also knew there were a small handful that were wholesale/retail: it was just a matter of finding them. Pretty much all the stores we went into for the first hour were only wholesale and could not sell to anyone without a tax id number. They told us they could even be fined if they were caught telling us prices!! However, we still looked around each place because there were some amazing selection of flowers available, and it was great to get a sense of what Kerry and I liked.

Of course, my two FAVORITE flowers are seasonal right now, and will therefore be challenging (and more expensive) to get in May. I'm getting married in the wrong month!

The Anemone: which is perfect for my color scheme

Believe it or not, this is kale, and I loooove it:

However, not all the flowers I liked were out of my Spring Season. Look at this gorgeous purple and green hydrangea!

I couldn't tell what these were called, but they were really cool!

After a while, Chris's mom started asking each store if they could direct us to someone who does arrangements for weddings. This led us to a small flower shop right off of 28th street. The owner, Maria, was a cute older lady and she allowed me to briefly discuss with her what I was looking for and what I needed for the wedding. There are two reasons, she will not work out. 1) She doesn't usually take wedding orders until a month before the actual wedding, because she won't know what flowers she'll have in her store until then. Ummmm no, that would make me have a panic attack! and 2) she also did not give me an estimate much different than what I had been given at the flower shop on Long Island we visited.

So we headed on down the other side of 28th Street going in and out of each shop because there was just so many cool things to look at! The owner of one place told us three names of companies on their block that rent studios above the florists and do arrangements for events. He introduced us to the owner of Celadon and Celery Events, Bess, who was awesome!! She gave me her card and told me to call and set up an appointment to discuss my wedding. I have no idea what to expect price wise, but I'll certainly check it out. We were also recommended to check out Ovando Floral and Event (which looks kind of pricey to me, but I'm merely speculating) and a place called Cherokee, which I cannot find the website for.

There were also just some amazing shops that were already filled with Christmas items that we couldn't help but go into!

Christmas is right upstairs?? We couldn't resist!! How cute is this little gumdrop wreath?? I want to try and make something like this for the holiday!

Of course, by the end of the morning...we got a little goofy:

Lastly, we visited a place called Starbright Floral Design which I knew did arrangements because I had called them last week. The owner was kind enough to sit down with us, but his prices were OUTRAGEOUS and honestly, I was DONE-ZO by the time we got there. We had been up since 6:30, I hadn't eaten anything, and was getting quite cranky-pants. So we asked him for a card and told him we'd be in touch (not).

We grabbed some lunch at a sandwich place called Toasties, and headed back home. All in all, it was a really fun, and very educational day. My Saturday felt soooo long because we were in and out of the city by noon, and that's usually when I just get my butt in gear on Saturdays! I kind of loved it, I wish I could wake up early every weekend! It was also great spending time with Kerry and our future mother-in-laws. I'm so upset I didn't get any pictures of the four of us ladies together on Saturday; Major Fail!

BUT, you SHOULD DEF. check out Mike and Kerry's engagement session teaser on their photographer, Betsi Ewing's, blog! They got them done in Central Park last week and I can't wait to see the rest of them! Click below!

Mike and Kerry's Engagement Session