We'd both been married prior, our respective kids were all grown up, & at our age, we weren't sure we'd get another shot at marriage (he's 57, I'm 51). We bonded over our love of the ocean, scuba diving, & cruise ships. After 2 years of dating, he proposed (yay). We picked Bella Donna Chapel which sits over the water in Adriatica Village, in McKinney, TX. The whole area is modeled after a European village and it is just gorgeous. We knew we wanted a nautical/ocean themed wedding. I picked our colors (navy & white) & then started looking for flowers. A friend recommended fiftyflowers.com as the lowest quote I got from a florist was $5000.00. I spent months trying to figure out what flowers to use with navy & white colors. Then it hit me, I would use flowers that mimic an ocean sunset. I ordered Pink Floyd roses, orange sherbet roses, peaches & cream hypericum berries, Sarah Bernhardt peonies, white & blue hydrangea, Sunset Pink freesia, white freesia, Don't Make Me Blush Orchids, Barcelona Pink tulips, Sunset Orange sherbet roses, Coral Seduction roses, & a few more I am forgetting (probably 1200 altogether) They arrived closed & tired/thirsty looking but they all opened up & ya'll these flowers are AMAZING! I invited my bridesmaids over the day before the wedding. We ordered pizza, played music, & I had everyone make 2 centerpieces using whatever flowers they wanted. Each arrangement was unique but they all went together. We had enough for 20 centerpieces, 7 bouquets, 9 boutonnieres, 2 large arches for the chapel, flowers for the bridal suite, restrooms, cake table, etc. I had a lot of the Pink Floyd roses leftover so we kept them in water & my ushers handed one to every lady that walked into the chapel (and some of the guys too ;) . I got so many compliments on my flowers. Everyone was shocked by the variety & especially the price. The Pink Floyd roses stole the show. They are this gorgeous, vibrant pink, open to the size of a small saucer, & they smell like heaven. The sunset colors popped against the navy bridesmaids dresses & were the perfect compliment. The crying pic of me is because the DJ asked my husband's mom to join him for a dance & my dad to join me for a dance (he forgot my daddy was in Heaven). My adult son came & walked me to the dance floor to fill in for my dad. It was one of the sweetest things & I couldn't stop crying. My husband lost his dad to cancer when he was 19, I lost my mom to cancer when I was 28 & my dad to cancer when I was 38. Our wedding flowers were so beautiful, we knew we wanted to share the happiness they brought us & all of our guests. Originally, we wanted to donate our flowers to the cancer ward at our local hospital, but due to COVID, they could not allow it. We used a service and they contacted a local Ronald McDonald House and we donated our beautiful wedding flowers in honor of our parents. There were enough arrangements to place flowers in the rooms of all the families that are living there while their critically ill children are receiving treatment at the hospital near by. We had so many left over, we donated the rest to an assisted living facility. The last pic is their post about our donated flowers :) #PayItForwardWithFiftyFlowers
