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If you're planning an informal or beach wedding, a floral anklet might be just the whimsical touch you're looking for. Luckily for you, they're extremely easy to make!

You can find full instructions to create a simple anklet at Elegance in Bloom. You can choose beads and flowers in the colors that best suit your wedding. You could opt to make your own paper flowers, of course, for greater variety, or, for the string-them-together simplicity of fabric flowers. Look beyond the craft stores for supplies. If you purchase a branch of artificial fuchsia, for example, you'll have several dozen little blossoms you could use, generally for less than it would cost to purchase them individually.

via: Wedcraft

Using fruit as your centerpiece is an easy way to add a dose of rustic chic to your table settings - in addition, arranging fruit in square glass vases will dress up even the most inexpensive flowers.

We recommend using fruit that will hold up well over time - citrus is a good bet (in fact you should check out this citrus-themed wedding at The Knot, it's just beautiful!) - but really, use your imagination and don't skimp on quantity. More is better!

Do it Yourself Weddings has some clever ideas for you - we like using limes because they're green and will camouflage the stems very nicely.

Tie it all with some raffia or pretty ribbon and - voila! You've got centerpieces!

When they started showing up at Whole Foods Market not so long ago, even though they were more expensive than others of their kind, according to the Utne Reader, they "few off the shelves."

What are they? Roses. Lush, gorgeous roses, huge roses with heads bigger than your fist. More than that, they're fair trade roses. The farms in Ecuador on which they're grown have agreements with TransFairUSA, agreements which ensure the flowers were produced in compliance with strict environmental and labor standards. And they're just plain gorgeous!

Increasingly, production costs are sending flower farms to other countries with far lower costs. Unfortunately, they also have far less strict labor practices. So, if you have the choice of choosing flowers that were produced on farms where pesticides are sprayed when there are workers around, or a farm that adheres to higher, worker-friendly standards, which would you choose?

From the Real Simple Weddings guide, here are several ways to make a beautiful bouquet for your wedding out of flowers you can buy at the grocery store. The key is to mix and match grocery store bunches in elegant ways. Choose sophisticated color combinations and vary the size of flowers, or go with something simple like all baby's breath. Finish it off with a pretty silk ribbon and you're aisle-ready without spending a fortune with the florist. For complete instructions and a photo gallery, visit the Real Simple Weddings guide website.

Your cream, navy, and gold color scheme sounded like a great idea -- until you got to the flowers, right? Cream flowers are no trouble at all, but what if you don't want monochromatic blooms? Where on earth do you find navy blue flowers?

They are out there, but your selection will be limited, and you may have to pay a premium if they're not in season. Perhaps a cheaper, easier alternative is to go with silk flowers, which can be dyed any color in the rainbow, regardless of what occurs in nature. There's also the option of decorating the cream flowers in your bouquet with navy and gold ribbons.

We spoke with a florist about getting authentic navy blue flowers for a wedding. She was able to name a few blossoms for us, but warned that the selection is going to be quite limited. Available year-round are delphinium and dark blue iris, which will have a yellow center. Some brides go with hydrangea for their navy blue color scheme, but these flowers usually come in lighter shades, or look more purple than navy. You may be able to find berries that would fit in with your bouquet. The florist we spoke with specifically recommended privet berry.

When you have your wedding on the beach, you can dress and accessorize however you like. Many couples opt to wear the same formal attire that they'd wear in a church wedding, and others go a lot more casual. You can wear anything from a skimpy bikini to a traditional big white dress -- you have tons of options.

The same is true for your flowers. Lots of beach brides and grooms opt against traditional boutonnieres and corsages in favor of something a lot more beachy -- the lei. Leis can be the perfect accessory for the bridal party, and they also make great favors for your beach wedding.

Leis come in all different types of floral and leafy designs, so no matter what your beach style is, there's sure to be a lei that will complement it nicely. We found gorgeous selections here, here, and here. Browse the gallery for some of our favorites.

A white wedding can be so many things - ethereal and innocent or crisp and oh-so-chic - it's a wedding theme beloved by both traditionalists and edgy modernists because it can be anything you want it to be.

Of course, most weddings have at least one major player dressed all in white: The bride! From the white dress to her dazzling smile, a bride in white is a very special and lovely sight. Imagine the impact of an all-white event!

It is said that white roses are the flower of true love. Flowers don't have to be bright to be completely stunning. For your white wedding, the bouquets, centerpieces, and floral arrangements are sure to be breathtaking, whether you select white roses, calla lilies, daisies, silk flowers, or any of the hundreds of other floral selections that come in this essential bridal color.

A simple bouquet of white roses or calla lilies is a bridal classic, but you can make stunning bouquets by mixing different types of flowers, and by stepping outside of the box and selecting non-traditional (but still white!) blossoms. Additionally, you can dress up your bouquet with pearl or crystal accents, and of course, yards of white ribbon.

Need inspiration? Flip through the gallery below for ideas!

As the economic crunch continues to hit us all, it's natural that brides (and grooms) will look for ways to stretch a wedding budget. And who can blame them? Gas will probably approach $5/gallon before the end of summer. And as gas costs rise, so does everything else. What's a bride to do?

Think about doing some of your flowers yourself. When my husband I got married, I went by Costco and got a couple of dozen roses in two colors. And then I arranged a small bouquet myself.

So how can you make your bouquet? Try something simple:

1) Trim the roses and bunch them together. If you're using two colors, alternate them throughout in a pattern that's pleasing to you.
2) Add some of the greenery that usually accompanies the flowers, putting it around the outside of the flowers. You don't need to use all of it, just enough to add some additional color.
3) Did your flowers come with babies breath? Stick bits of it here and there to accent the arrangement.
4) Secure the bouquet with string, or floral wire if you have it.
5) Now cover the flower stems with a bit of florist's tape and then wrap with some pretty ribbon.

It isn't that hard, nor is it expensive. Flowers from a place like Costco can be of a decent quality. And the price is definitely right - you can spend well under $50 for a nice bouquet.

Flowers are beautiful, but you don't need to buy a lot of expensive arrangements for your wedding, especially when on a tight budget. And in these times, saving money is going to be important to all of us.

Image: SimonShaw (creative commons license)

We've just discovered a new obsession -- Mikiye Creations on Etsy. We love floral hair accessories (especially after taking out the veil before the reception), but using real flowers can be tricky. They can wilt, and it can be tough to pin them in just right because of the stem.

That's why it's so fantastic to find all of these fabulous flowers all in one place -- they're all designed to be worn in your hair, so it'll be a cinch for your hairstylist (or maid-of-honor) to get them in there just right. Plus, just look at them! With the crystal, pearl, and feather embellishments, they're just begging the fashionista bride to wear them.

Check out the gallery for a sample of the different gorgeous hair accessories available. Which one would work best with your dress?

We're super excited about the upcoming Sex and the City movie - not only because we miss the girls, but because as we all know by now, there's a wedding! The filmmakers have been understandably coy about what exactly happens (and let's be real here, do you really want them to spoil the surprise? We thought not!) but the wedding itself will be a rich source of inspiration and we'll be taking notes!

The movie's floral design was executed by Tess Casey of Aisling Studios who has worked on such films as The Devil Wears Prada and The Nanny Diaries as well as real-life weddings. (Take a look at her amazing portfolio right here.) She's not spilling any SATC movie secrets on her website, but she does share tons of behind-the-scenes pictures of her work in the film. Here are a few of our favorites, but be sure to visit www.tesscasey.com to see all of her work.

South African designers Julian and Franz Grabe have a way with flowers. And leaves. Plants in general, really. At a show in Johannesburg, they stole the show with their designs, most particularly their "floral couture."

We can't deny that it looks pretty, but this is one of those ideas that's better in fantasy than reality. With about a two-day shelf life before the whole thing starts to wilt and go brown, any alterations had better be done on the spot! And, though the gown reportedly smelled divine, for the bride's sake we hope that bees prefer to steer clear of walking, talking flowers.

Oh, well: for all its practical failings, you can't argue its environmental virtue. After you slip the dress off, just lie it somewhere in your garden. A month after the honeymoon, there'll be nothing left but a few petals in the wind ...

via: The Human Flower Project

Bouquet jewelry is one of the hottest new trends in wedding flowers and another way to customize your wedding to you. Swarovski crystals are one of the most popular choices, attached to the bouquet on posts or with stems or hand-tied ribbons. You can also use them to dress up boutonnieres, center pieces or your cake. Choose your initials, shapes, colors anything that reflects your style. It's wedding bling you can use after the ceremony to dress up your house, too.

Challenge a bunch of florists to come up with floral art for the feet, and you'll get some pretty wild creations! Unlike the gem-studded beauties we showed you earlier, these are not intended to be worn -- but who wants to bet they're a whole lot cheaper? Yeah, some of them are a whole lot uglier, too, but given that the contest theme was "My feet are killing me", that's only natural.

Still ... the bride with a passion for flowers could find inspiration in these works of floral art. The picture to the right shows one that would be simple to incorporate into your barefoot sandals for your beach wedding. Other "shoes" show how you might add floral embellishment to a basic pump or mule.

If you seriously want flowers from head to toe, why not experiment on a cheap pair of shoes? Get yourself a few silk blooms and a glue gun, and see what you can do!

Luxury is in the details, and what is more luxurious than a perfect flower submerged in champagne?

Wild Hibiscus flowers in syrup are grown and hand-made in Australia, and will add a glamorous touch to the champagne toast. Each flower is hand-selected and preserved in sugar in preparation for the eventual champagne bath. The flower arrives closed, and when dropped in the bottom of a champagne flute slowly "blooms" as the bubbles gently free the petals from their sugar coating. The flowers are fully edible, and taste of raspberry and rhubarb for a tasty finish.

They're a decadent feast for the eyes and palate - and surefire conversation starters.