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photo by Erin Summerill Photography

Go on over to theldsbride.com and check out the upper left-hand corner "weekly love" - you'll see our bouquet from this wedding there!

Get to Know Polka Dots and Daisies

Polka Dots & Daisies was started in January of 2007, after Mollie Openshaw noticed a lack of color in the wedding invitation industry. When planning her own wedding in 2006, she couldn't find wedding invitations that complimented her wedding style or color scheme and since she wanted a cohesive look for her entire event, Mollie put her graphic design training to work and created the perfect custom designed invitations. Since then she's helped hundreds of brides make their wedding invitations unique and customized with thousands of color options, top notch printing, & excellent customer service.

Polka Dots & Daisies offers an array of pre-designed invitation styles that can be customized with your wedding colors and font selections or they can even create brand new designs and graphics just for you! If you're the lucky winner of the Giveaway, you'll get 100 Group A invitations/envelopes (select from pre-designed styles) that can be tailored to perfectly suit your wedding! And if you're one of the finalists (those that do not win the Grand Prize) you'll still receive a special bonus... $50 off your wedding invitation order through Polka Dots & Daisies-- good through 2011. Check out the giveaway post for additional offers.

And now for post #2 on Christmas arrangements: Pine Cones. This is kind of a "no-duh" addition to a Christmas arrangement, but I decided to include it nonetheless. You can see them in the wreath from the last post or in this photo, with roses, seeded eucalyptus, fern, hypericum berries and other fillers, from GoodHouskeeping.com.

Pine cones often come scented at Christmastime and are even great for just around-the-house use. I like them for some of the same reasons I like pomegranates - they add interesting texture to an arrangement, and I LOVE texture in arrangements. There's not much else to say about them, other than as with pomegranates, you have to use a pick or some sort of floral pin to add them to an arrangement, necessitating the use of floral foam as well, but they are great to work with.

Get to Know Jessie Alexis Photography

As promised, we will be posting little bios about each of the vendors involved in our giveaway. And, as a tie-in, since this is a floral blog after all, I will be posting favorite things to use in Christmas arrangements at the end of each post.

So first, let's get to know Jessie, from Jessie Alexis Photography, in her own words:

-Growing up, I was the girliest of little girls, and having a "boy's" name was a tragedy in my eyes. In preschool, I refused to respond to anything but Princess Buttercup.

- I adore Disneyland with my whole heart and spent the first two years of my marriage as an annual passport holder.

- I love the thrill of photographing weddings, and I always cry during the father-daughter-dance.

- Potatoes and popcorn are my two favorite foods, and I love any sort of fruity candy except anything grape flavored. Yuck.

- I drive a Jeep and my husband drives a Prius, I guess you could say we balance each other out.

- In June of 2010 I became a mom, best job ever second only to being a wife. Photography is a close third :)

See Jessie's amazing photography here.

And now, favorite inclusion #1 for Christmas arrangements: pomegranates.

Proof:

This arrangement from Canada Roses,

and this one from Delightful Deliveries.

Aren't they just lovely? They get used a lot because they are in season and they smell yummy, and they dry well, and they are hearty. They work fabulously cut in half - the texture is just amazing - and they give you rich red color in your arrangement without adding extra flowers. So there you go - pomegranates.