Talk to Me About Flowers...

Do you plan on dressing up the Mason Jars or leave them plain & just add the flowers.I bought my flowers from Sams preordered what I wanted & it didn't cost that much.From a frugal website it was brought up how to save on flowers & yes you can ask if there are day old flowers which are stored in back to be tossed out

Yep, When I do small weddings I purchase them at Costco. They are always beautiful.

You could even make them the day before your event. Store them in the coolest place in your home. Away from sunlight. . DO NOT put them in your fridge! The food is toxic to the flowers and they will be dead in the morning.

You will need Newspaper, floral Tape, some of the foam double sided tape,Cutters or scissors, some of those "flower food packets" and see if your craft store sells a product called "Floralife", . . It should be in a spray bottle.

To prep for them to come home. Have ready pitchers, or a clean bucket with cool water. Get some of those "flower food packets" ahead of time and only use HALF of what the instructions suggest.

Clear off a large space and cover it with newspaper. Have your mason jars ready by washing them and making sure they are dry, place a piece of the white foam tape on each jar, tie your bows on and the tape will hold them on . fill about 1/2 full of the floral solution.. You could use the divided box your mason jars came in to transport them to the wedding.

The moment you get home cut all of the stems at an angle and place them in the pitchers or buckets with the water with the "flower food" that comes with the flowers..

Make the arrangements and place them in the jars, place the bouquets in the pitchers with the solution.

Then spray all of them really well with the Floralife. They will be perfect the next day.

Hi L., I am a florist and here are my thoughts. I would order the flowers from your local florist. If you buy them in full bunches and not by the stem, you should get a good price. Have a list of the types of flowers you want and ask at a couple of shops to see which one gives you the best price. I know we do not do full mark up on flowers that are purchased in bulk. Also, I would not pick your centerpiece flowers from outside. I have seen this done and also seen the insects and critters crawling around on the dinning tables from these home made centerpieces. Good Luck and Congrats on your wedding.

I love do it yourself projects and plan on making my own with live flowers as well. I have a local flowerist (literally within walking distance of my house) that my brother used for his wedding. Same thing, live flowers, making my own centerpieces... I AM however letting them do my bouquet because I've never gotten the ribbon right ;) Good luck! Hit me up tmrw and I'll let you know what the florist says ;)

Just to let you know... not all florists will charge you huge amounts to do your flowers... especially for such a small order.

There are usually local wholesale flower gardens around too.

Laurie A. has great advice.

I have gotten bulk flowers from Sam's Club, Pick N Save and a small mom & pop flower shop. Those are the three places I check whenever I need bulk flowers and I go with the one that seems to have the best flowers at the time and good price (usually the prices are all so close that it is only a $10 differance).

We had a wedding of about 80 guests and I used Gerber daisies (they were GORGEOUS!). I ordered from Kroger. They had the prettiest flowers and the lowest price by far. Other floral shops (4 others I visited) wanted to charge me a RIDICULOUS amount for order and set up and did not have near as good of a selection as Kroger. So, we went with Kroger and we paid the girl in the floral department $50 to come help us set up the day of the wedding. I had to smile and bat my eyelashes at her manager to get him to let her do it, but it worked out in the end and was so worth it! With her help, my friends and I got the job done in about 45 minutes. And it was fabulous!

Good luck L. - cherish every moment of this fun time in your life!

I had mine done by a florist b/c I didn't want that kind of pressure the day before the wedding- you can't do them more than two days ahead and you need to have refrigerator space to store them!

I did the centerpieces for my sister's baby shower and looked around quite a bit before purchasing. I can honestly say that if you have a Whole Foods near you, they have beautiful and unusual fresh flowers, as would any other "specialty" market.

Funny story to make you laugh about wedding flowers... my grad school roommie is clinically diagnosed OCD and worried about literally everything. She was doing her wedding on a tight budget and several of us really like doing flowers, so the 'maids offered to do all of the florals for the wedding and we were all going to be in town for several days before. Very simple bouquets of pink roses for us with white lillies and white roses with pink lillies for her, all hand-tied and pinned ready-to-go the day before. The hotel offered to put the flowers in the cooler for us the night before- wonderful! We all head out to the rehearsal and my husband offers to bring the flowers from the hotel to the church the next morning.

Fast forward to the next morning... my cell phone rings and it's my husband in a panic b/c the hotel manager had put the flowers in the FREEZER and all of the lillies were dead- the roses thawed, but the delicate lillies were goners. Needless to say the good hubby that his is stopped by Food Lion and grabbed a thing of mixed day lillies and did his best to repair them in the car outside of the hotel.

She didn't notice that they were "wrong" until we got to the reception. Fortunately, she was on her meds and having a great day so she laughed!

Moral of the story... if you want to do your own flowers, make sure you have the time, talent, interest and fridge space to do it the right way!

One of the best things I found to help me plan my wedding was this book:
Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget, by Denise & Alan Fields

They have information in this book on ordering your own flowers and reputable online dealers, etc., as well as tons of other info.

Using this book helped us save A LOT of money.

If you don't have a Sam's Club or Costco membership, ask around. You can go with a friend or family member to purchase. If it was my wedding, I would not order online without seeing the flowers in person.

Have you checked out florists that deal in whole sale, or farmer's markets? They sometimes have great deals!
Is there a specific flower you are looking at?

Sounds like an incredible amount of work. I hope you are doing this because you really love it and want to. This could be a huge source of stress just before your big day.

Most major metropolitan areas have a large flower show around spring time. That might be a good place to go look and get ideas and possible sources. I can't imagine a Sam's Club having a lot of anything you can rely on, unless you have a really good one in your area. The warehouse clubs around here (BJ's, Sam's) have good deals but spotty supplies for fresh things. You're probably better off with a greenhouse that will work with you.

I got my flowers through a florist that was recommended by my bridal dress shop...I met with the florist and took a picture of my wedding gown and bridesmaids dresses and we picked the flowers from there. She showed us pictures of the flowers we were choosing and stayed within what budget we needed.

Forget it. Splurge and have them done, especially since you need so few.

I mean do you think you will have 36 hours in everyday the week before your wedding?

Give yourself a break! One less thing to freak out about!

:)

My daughter had very complex centerpiece/tablescapes in her head that her girlfriends were going to make come true the day of the wedding. Of course, every one had hangovers and beauty shop appointments, so my sister and I were left to make the dream come true, hours before the wedding. It looked pretty - but so stressful and so way not worth it!! My advice is to get wildflower-looking flowers from a chain store and store them in a tub of water (just like they do in the store). You can even have a florist bring some more unusual wildflowers, loose, to mix in and leave it at that - the mason jars will look very sweet. If you have the $ for it, my favorite flowers were the little flower girl crowns (and also what every one noticed) and of course, your own bouquet. Small nosegay bouquets for any attendants will save you a lot of $ over full size bouquets. My advice is keep it simple. The clock hands move fast on wedding day.