Anthomanic Wedding and Event Boutique Unique Floral Designer Artist

As a professional wedding and event florist, on a regular basis I meet with potential wedding clients. Part of our initial meetings involve obtaining a list of their wedding day vendors that may be relevant to their floral setup, including my favorite – the photographer (and/or videographer). When I am chatting with a client, and they tell me who their photographer is and they follow it with a comment about how cheap it was… ‘Jo Schmo Photography had great prices, so I went with them!’, I cringe. The cringe is followed by a deer-in-headlights look on my face if I secretly don’t approve of their photographer choice, followed then by a fake smile (because everyone knows I have no filter and it’s very difficult to bite my tongue). If you’re thinking this is very judgemental or nasty of me, just give me a minute and you’ll understand why.

Because I have worked with so many local photographers, I have an idea for professionalism, quality of work, equipment quality, assistant photographers, artistic or unique flair, costs, and how those factors vary amongst each one. Because I have worked with so many wedding photographers in the past few years, I understand why they charge what they do. In my observation of photographers here locally, as with most goods and services, you get what you pay for. I have had brides crying to me after their wedding because they were so upset about the photographer choice they made in order to save a buck. Complaints from lost files, terrible image capturing (shadows, etc.), no-shows/late photographers, six month waits, the list goes on of all the issues I’ve seen with Jo Schmo type photographers.

Just a few short weeks ago we had a wedding for a very fun and unique client, and set to be one of my personal favorites in terms of theme, a Tim Burton inspired wedding celebration. Yes, cue the heavenly sounds! This wedding was mostly an effort amongst family and friends that offered their services – there was no professional wedding planner, caterer, or baker, and the event was not held at a wedding venue — simply at their home. All these elements combined saved them a large chunk of money. They did, however, hire ‘professionals’ for certain aspects they chose were most important to them: the photographer and the florist. Then, the unimaginable happened. A week and a half after the wedding, the newly married bride lost her husband to a very unexpected and untimely passing. Prior to the funeral I went to the bride’s home to meet with her mother. The photographer, The Photography Smiths, (one of my local favorites) had provided a large, beautiful print of the bride and groom together to be placed at his memorial service, as she knew they only had phone/camera images of the groom. The image was just beautiful – a perfect flash, perfect capturing of the light, beautiful couple right in the middle of a natural embrace and smile, beautiful composition/layout of the subject in the frame… everything was perfect about the picture if put up for photography critique (in my basic understanding of photography – excuse me if the terms are uneducated). The images that the photographer captured for their engagement shoot and their wedding were the very last images of the bride and groom together.

But, what if she had chosen Jo Schmo photography? What if Jo Schmo lost some of the images, what if the images were out of focus or not of the best quality? What if she had limited her photography budget to splurge elsewhere? (I know this may bring up the point of ‘well, we take pictures all the time of each other’ … understood, but how often do you hire someone to take ‘professional’/great quality images of you as a couple?). Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of getting the best bang for your buck, cutting cost where possible, etc. — everyone has a budget — but if you splurge on anything, it should be your photographer – not your dress, not your florist, not your venue (yes, my vendor friends are hating me right now). Will you really be that concerned about what you wore, or the venue/setting of the photos, or that you rode in a stretch hummer that day when and if your husband passes (at any point in your lives)? Let’s be honest, you won’t. You will stare longingly at the image, at every inch of his body and his idiosyncrasies — his face, his eyes, hoping to see the detail that you would see as if face to face – the fleck of brown in his blue eyes, the shape of his hands, the way he holds you as you have your first wedding kiss. You would want the images to be clear, variety of shots, capturing the light properly — all things a professional and EXPERIENCED wedding photographer will know how to do, and do well. This also applies to videography — personally I wanted a video to capture the sounds, the speeches… here it would be in the instance of hearing his voice again, watching him move/his mannerisms…

This may be a very sad and morbid way of analyzing how to choose your vendors (mainly the photographer and/or videographer), but my point is to simply share with those planning a wedding (especially my own clients) — please don’t take money away from your photography/videography budget to increase your floral budget. I would sleep better at night knowing you will have beautiful images or video to treasure forever.

I was not prompted to write this by a photographer or videographer— I was simply inspired and felt the need to share. I will not share names of the parties involved unless they would like their identities shared or would like to comment below.

This was a shoot we designed ourselves, with inspiration from Tim Burton — dark, yet fun, romantic and whimsical. The color inspiration was plum, black and white with gold accents. Do you see how the flowers tie together and compliment and complete by adding a softness and a romantic element to this very edgy look. Oreo cookie favors with milk, top hats, black lace, black and white striped cake, gold flatware, and a plum and red amaranthus bridal bouquet! See more from this set, here. This bad boy was published on Rock N Roll Bride!

Flowers are more than just another ‘obligatory’ wedding item. They have the power to tie together and bring out personality, character and style to your wedding. If you choose a florist that understands your vision, and can take your budget and make the best of it with the perfectly chosen flowers, your wedding photos will pop even more! Of course they aren’t ‘required’, but can make an amazing personality and style statement not only on the day-of to your wedding guests, but when you get your wedding photos back, it can really set the tone of the day by complimenting all other elements — complimenting your cake, your venue, the season, and of course — your personality!

Vendors:

FLORAL & EVENT STYLIST: Anthomanic, website: www.anthomanic.com Photographer: The Photography Smith’s. Stationery: Weswen Design, Gowns: Formal Envy, Vintage Furniture: Restrospect Vintage Rentals, Cake: Fat Girl Cakes, Makeup and Hair: GoGo Gorgeous, Head pieces: Two Back Flats, Florals & Event Design/Styling: Anthomanic, Linens: Memorable Moments

We designed a bouquet to fit the lightbulb, dreamer theme — complete with cotton and light bulbs in the bouquet and soft, fluffy floral such as peonies, sweet peas, lisianthus, and dusty miller in the pale pink, grey and white theme of the shoot. I think this came out so dreamy, soft and cozy!

Flowers are more than just another ‘obligatory’ wedding item. They have the power to tie together and bring out personality, character and style to your wedding. If you choose a florist that understands your vision, and can take your budget and make the best of it with the perfectly chosen flowers, your wedding photos will pop even more! Of course they aren’t ‘required’, but can make an amazing personality and style statement not only on the day-of to your wedding guests, but when you get your wedding photos back, it can really set the tone of the day by complimenting all other elements — complimenting your cake, your venue, the season, and of course — your personality!

This shoot: Shel Silverstein inspired styleshoot. See the whole set, here on Wedding Chicks Blog: http://www.weddingchicks.com/2012/08/07/make-a-battery-powered-light-bulb/#comments Photographer: Abby Grace Photography Event Designer: Capitol Romance Venue: Black Horse Inn Makeup: Dainty Artistry Hair: Jewel Hair Design Dress Designer: Fabulous Frocks Flowers: Anthomanic Groom’s Attire: styled by Ethan Field Shoe Designer: Payless! Stationery: Weswen Design Veil or Hair Accessories: Two Back Flats

Anthomanic is a unique wedding floral design business located in Stafford, Virginia – providing florals and decor — available also for destination weddings.

Image Copyright Stephen Gosling Photography

Hi there newly engaged or bride-in-planning!Welcome to our website — where you can check out all of our past work to either get ideas for your wedding or to see if we are the right fit for your event! We love weddings, and hope you will contact us about yours. Just use the links to the left to take you where you want to go! This is the time when we book the most of our weddings, so please don’t wait if you are ready to reserve Anthomanic for your wedding day!

• Want to setup a planning session to get a quote? Just click on the ‘Get an Estimate‘ tab.
• Want to make a deposit towards your upcoming event? Click the ‘Make a Payment’ tab.
• Want to see our work? Click the ‘View our Work’ tab, it will take you to our 80+ albums on our Facebook page!
• Want to know the cost of flowers, to get an idea for our pricing? Click the ‘Investment’ tab!

Happy Planning!

- Amanda, Owner

I am so excited that I was chosen to write DIY posts for the super-cool blog, Green Wedding Shoes! For the past year [or so], I have worked with many different wedding and event vendors on styleshoots in an attempt to not only get some cool pics of our designs to show off … but to also get the chance to earn the coveted position on being on one of the BIG, well-known wedding blogs in the nation. One of which, is Green Wedding Shoes. They have a discerning aesthetic and only the coolest of the cool makes it on to their website. The great thing about it, is that the ideas they share for weddings aren’t un-realistic or too far fetched for the ‘average’ bride to purchase, make or obtain all while being GORGEOUS and cutting edge. I love their blog because it also has a sort-of [and this is just MY opinion] edge to the things they post. So, I am super excited that I have been chosen to contribute to their DIY section some flower ideas for weddings! Not to mention being listed as one of their recommended ‘Floral Artists’Our posts will be done bi-monthly starting in January, and I will post a link on our Facebook page, as well as here. We hope you will find our ideas fun and inspiring– Amanda