So I ended up going with the DIY with my flowers and one of the things I have been really worried about is the ease of placement of our centerpieces.
I took the advice given to be back in January and went with the 3 height centerpiece variation, but because the containers for the two taller ones are not here yet, FMIL is bringing them out when they drive from Illinois, I could only do the shortest one.
This works out fine because these are the only centerpieces I need a fire permit for and since I am seeing Christina tommorrow to discuss the details of my event, I figured I'd show her the mock up and then go in and get my fire permit.
I am very glad I did a mock up beforehand. It made me realize I need to go with slightly brighter colors for my flowers. And the crazy thing was I originally was thinking way darker roses(a combination of black magic, freedoms and hot pink roses). I also think I am going to stay away from stargazer lilies for this type of an arrangment because the larger blooms feel a little awkward in the short arrangment--I may replace them with tulips or gerberas(not sure yet).The color of the filler was not the color I had in mind, but the wholesaler I get my flowers from only had the dark purple statice, hence the dark colors. They also had no hot pink roses today, so I used hot pink carnations instead.
I didn't hit my local Trader Joes until later today because I had so many errands--so all their nice mixed bouquets which I like to use because of the variation in texture were gone.
The other thing was I got to see how it looks with the satin overlays we purchased for the wedding.
Clovis, my kitty, gave them his official seal of approval.
I am still kind of torn for the decor for our aisle. I was kind of leaning on the idea of vases with blue lepto branches(they look like cherry branches), FMIL suggested nice potted azaleas, I am also thinking small little potted plants on the side of the aisle. My mom wants me to choose something that is a combination of cost effective and doesn't take a lot of time(it would be nice if it looked good too--yeah that's asking alot).