Trader Joes Floral Centerpieces

This past weekend J.D., Virginia and I headed to Atlanta for a friend's "Sip & See."  (For those who have never heard of a Sip & See, it's similar to a baby shower but you get to meet the baby.)  We were so excited to see friends we had not seen in a long time, and we of course couldn't wait to meet our friend's beautiful baby.  We stayed with the girls who were hosting the party, and Virginia was sure to get us up bright in early to start getting ready for the shower.

While half the crew got started cooking, I tagged along with my friend Kirsten who was responsible for flowers.  (This friend plans parties, big parties, for a living and has gone to floral school.  We were in design school together in college.  She's creative and very talented.)  I was pumped because we were set to go to Atlanta's big wholesale flower warehouse where they have everything, but we got there that morning and we were seriously disappointed.  The flowers just didn't look special or jump out at us.  We were super bummed and kinda scrambled to come up with plan B for decorations.  Our Plan B was Trader Joes.  Guys, we got so many flowers for such a deal and my friend came up with all of the beautiful flowers for the party in what seemed like just a few minutes.

Okay, for the centerpieces above, Kristen used 2 bunches of gerber daises (they felt so baby showerish), 2 bunches of beautiful orange tulips, and 2 bunches of alstroemeria to use as filler.  She used most of the gerber daises in mass in the largest vase in the center and just tucked in a few of the filler flowers as an accent.  In the medium vase she used most of the orange tulips in mass, and she didn't add anything to the big tulip arrangement because tulips are beautiful on their own.  Then, she made a bunch of small arrangements with the remaining flowers in simple julep cups (you could use any cup) to scatter around the table.  I thought it looked so beautiful!  I tend to overthink flowers - they can be tricky, but seriously this came together really quickly and made a big impact.

I snapped these pictures as they were getting set up so not everything is "done" but it was a beautiful party.  Pink and orange decorations because this sweet baby girl will someday become a Tennessee Vol, of course!  :)

~Mary Keller