My Favorite Things: Ode to the Ranunculus

I think that when you start planning your own wedding you learn so many things you were never aware of prior. I guess this is partially due to the fact that who would have time to spend all day thinking about flowers and dresses and trends and styles and cake types and invitation suites, etc. other than a full-time wedding planner! Sorry guys, working a full time job in addition to planning, this isn't me either. So when I began planning my own wedding last year, it was fun to make time for such a learning process (it's amazing how you can make time when you want to isn't it?!).

Flowers were one of the first things I took an interest in. Blame it on my mother, but I'm actually pretty knowledgeable about flower types, when they bloom, and what looks good arranged together because she spends every amount of free time in her amazing English-style garden and so when we want to talk to her or spend time with her it equals grabbing a shovel or some pruning shears and helping out. While I am NO green thumb, my friends do find it entertaining that I am pretty good with flower knowledge.

So going into my wedding I was pretty sure what kind of flower I wanted...for an August wedding I couldn't have my beloved peonies (they bloom typically May-June naturally unless you want to spend the extra expense of flying them in from somewhere) but I would settle for a variety of roses and dahlias, mixed with some other fun aspects like billy button. Like any other soon-to-be-bride I also started looking over blog after blog and magazine after magazine for other floral inspirations, when a special type of flower caught my eye. The ranunculus! How come I'd never seen it before? It was love at first sight, let me tell you, but imagine my despair when they told me it only grew May-June as well. I'd never seen it around my mother's garden or in local flower shops because it's a bulb, and other than tulips or dahlias I really hadn't seen a lot of bulb flowers in the Northwest.

As you know, my wedding was called off last December, but I've decided that I love the ranunculus so much that when I do get married again one day I will be having my nuptials in May or June (likely inside because in Oregon that's still rainy season) so that I can include them in my bouquets and arrangements along with my peonies. Only a planner would pick her wedding date based on the flowers.

In case you are not familiar with ranunculus, or maybe just didn't know that's what you kept seeing across the blogosphere, I thought I'd include some great pictures for your inspiration. If you share my love of ranunculus, let me know! Or if you included it in your own florals, send me some pictures, and maybe I'll share them on the blog.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

~A

This bouquet by JL Designs.

This bouquet is a DIY bouquet from Ruffled Blog.

The Red Ranunculus on the left are from 100 Layer Cake blog.

The huge reddish-orange ranunculus is amazing in this arrangement from Design Sponge.

This arrangement is from 100 Layer Cake blog.

Another from Clarissa at JL Designs.

This beautiful, vibrant bouquet is from Nouveau Flowers.

I really love what this little pink ranunculus head does for this place setting, thanks to Jordan at Blum in Portland, OR.