Costco Flowers

MichiganderBride

This is a long shot, but is anyone planning on DIYing their flowers from Costco? I was thinking about doing a trial run just to see the flowers and how long they last and such. Would anyone like to go in on a trial run with me?

emarston1

Sue did!  They turned out fantastic from what I remember.  I'm sure she'll be by to give her review and other helpful tips

schweetiec

I was thinking of doing the same thing...Im not having many flowers in the entire wedding so I figure I could do my own bouquet with ribbon and diamonds and then the few flowers needed for the tables.
When are you doing this?

Sue-n-Kevin

Here I am!!!!

I highly recommend this if you are trying to budget your flowers. I did order bulk flowers to make the centerpieces, but purchased their 20 piece white wedding package for the bouquets, bouts and corsages. The 20 pieces are $399, and worth it if you are having up to 5 attendants. They are very flexible in allowing you to swap out the "pre-made" packages, ie we substituted 2 BM bouquets for the pre-packaged centerpieces with no problems. The only thing they can't change is the number of bouts and corsages. They supply a LOT, so we just gave corsages to the gal singing at our ceremony, and the violinist for the ceremony.

If you don't want white roses packages, they come in other colors, as well as other flower types.

Now, if you want to order bulk flowers for centerpieces, and maybe make bouquets, here's the deal. Go to your nearest Costco Warehouse and ask at the customer service desk who the florist is that arranges the flowers in the kiosk. I got this info from the desk at the Roseville location. You can then call that florist and inquire into how you can order bulk flowers for pickup. Ours told me to call about 2-3 weeks before the wedding, and give her a list. She can easily get the bulk flowers that are on Costco's website under "bulk flowers", but apparently she has access to other types as well. I didn't inquire because I only wanted white Asiatic Lillies, white Vendella roses, and bunches of baby's breath, all flowers that are on their website, sold in bulk. I felt like I had a 'secret source" like a drug dealer or something, but when I picked up the flowers I found out she does about 18 weddings a week in the summer!

You'll want to arrange for pickup at least 3 days before the wedding. I picked them up the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding. The reason for this is because they need time to open up. They will supply you with black plastic buckets that have water in them, along with floral food. You can just return the buckets when you go to the warehouse another time.

We got 80 stems of white asiatic lillies, 8 dozen (96) white vendella roses and 2 huge bunches of baby's breath for our ten centerpieces. It cost $173 (but cost me nothing because I have a Costco American Express card that earns points to be used at Costco).

So,  I got a bridal bouquet, 4 BM bouquets, a toss bouquet, 6 bouts, 6 corsages, and a centerpiece for the $399 package price. I got enough flowers for my ten centerpieces for $173. Combined that's $572. The vases, bowls, jelly balls and floral foam ran about $50 total. You can go to Dealer's Discount Floral on 10 Mile Rd east of Van Dyke and spend hours looking at their inexpensive vases.

Here are pics:

These are the tall centerpieces, the grass came with the lillies, also used baby's breath.


These are the shorter centerpieces, with the white roses and baby's breath.


For shorter centerpieces, in non-glass vases or bowls, you'll need green oasis foam to hold the flowers in place. For glass vases you'll need what's called "Jelly Balls", and I got mine from www.lacrafts.com, the cheapest place I found. One bag of jelly balls filled the tall (10 inch) cylinder vase. These little balls are about the size of a piece of rice, but "bloom" in water over about a 5 hr period. They hold your flowers in place nicely and are far cheaper than glass marbles or glass stones.

Feel free to send me a Private message below if you have any other questions. I have had gardens for over 30 years, and arranged my own garden flowers that entire time. It is really not that hard, and there are plenty of websites that have instructions.

I won't go into any more details here because it's already a long post, LOL. But if you send me a message below, I'd be more than happy to answer questions on anything I haven't explained.

Good luck.

schweetiec

GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you! I didnt even know that was a resource I kept telling my Fiance we werent affording flowers. Looks like we are!!!!!

MichiganderBride

Thank you Sue! I have been so nervous about this because I have heard so many horror stories. This makes me feel a lot better. I will have to go into the store and talk to someone. I am also only trying to order flowers that are on the website. I want calla lilies and they make me nervous because they are so fragile. I was thinking about looking at the roses also though. I need them for the bouquets and bouts. Schweetiec, I can order them whenever, my wedding is not until September, but I can do it at any time. What type of flowers were you thinking of getting from them? They have a bunch of combo boxes too if youd like to see a few different. Let me know if you are interested. PM me!

enid08

I am planning on doing this too, so thank you for asking! Also I found this video helpful.

http://video.about.com/weddings/Make-a-Wedding-Bouquet.htm

Sue-n-Kevin

MichiganderBride & schweetiec: If you want to do a trial run, I'd recommend ordering maybe 20 stems of the white calla lillies, handling them according to the instructions, timing their arrival 3 days before the day you anticipate arranging them. The minimum order on Costco's website is 50 stems, but as I said, the in-store-arranger/florist can order any amount for you. If you don't shop at the Roseville store and another store tells you they don't this, you may have to go to the Roseville store, just not sure about the other stores, but I have to believe they do it.

You don't have to order in the same amounts that are on the website........in other words, you don't have to order the "combo box", you can pick the flowers you want that Costco has readily available, even ask what other flowers she can get that are NOT on the Costco website, because she offered, but I didn't want them. Things I think of along those lines might be anemones, orchids, tulips, bulk pompon mums, stephanotis.

Once you get the phone number, I'd call and ask about your specific dates for the types of flowers you want. In other words, are they available? (I don't recall that Costco's selection online changes from season to season, but the prices might).

To be clear, the florist isn't usually in the store. The one I dealt with is an independent, she may even do more than one store, not sure, but she WAS there when I picked up my order. I have a feeling she was there for several brides, as my flowers were not the only ones in the area where she was standing.

Also, for those brides that don't have a Costco card, but maybe have Sam's Club, they might also do this, I just don't have their card so I don't know.

MichiganBride: You mention wanting calla lillies and roses. I wouldn't mix the 2 in bouquets if you were thinking of doing that, precisely for the reason you mentioned, the calla lillies are delicate. It might work though if you give it a trial. Roses have sturdier stems, calla lillies have more pliable stems. They may be crushed by the rose heads or stems.

Good luck.

SarahMayne

I have another question! What day before the wedding did you make the bouquets? and how did you store them?

Sue-n-Kevin

SarahMayne: If you read my first post, I purchased the bouquets, bouts, corsages in a wedding package online. Those I DID order online, the bulk flowers were for my centerpieces.

The wedding package arrived from Costco 2 days before the wedding, and was perfect. They used to have a video online about how to care for those, but they also send you a dvd. You remove the individual items and place the bouquets in vases or glasses in a cool place. My wedding was in August and the basement was cool. The bouts and corsages arrived in small glass vials, I placed 3-4 each of those in tall glasses in the fridge.

The bulk flowers require a new "cut" (taking about 1 inch from the bottom of the stem), then they are placed in fresh water with flower food. Those I also kept in the black buckets from Costco in the basement.

I assembled the centerpieces shown in the pictures on Friday morning, then took them with us to the rehearsal Friday evening. They had plenty of water in the vases and looked great the next night when the guests arrived.

If you are making your bouquets/bouts/corsages, I'd say assembling them on Friday morning and then placing them in vases with enough water to keep the stem bottoms covered, without touching the ribbon, would be fine.  

TheFutureMrsB81

Thanks for the tips. I'm going this route as well. I heard also, that the florist at the Costco in Bloomfield is really awesome to work with too.

Question Sue, did you use flowers at the ceremony too?

schweetiec

Im super excited now! I can spend a few hundred dollars on flowers and get the look I was going for. I was planning on doing my own boquet all along and a bout. for FI (no bridal party ) .

I just want Calla lillies for everything. Im actually using white pillar candles and hurricanes for my aisle and centerpieces instead of flowers (about 100 total) .

Im not sure if I need to do a run through on the boquet now that I see it is so simple. I buy flowers every other week for my house and think im a little florist at home. But if anyone needs any help please let me know!

Sue-n-Kevin

Question Sue, did you use flowers at the ceremony too?

Our ceremony was at the chapel at Greenmead Village in Livonia. I just used pew cones with baby's breath in them, we were limited because it's an historic building. I did have one square glass vase with roses that we moved to the reception venue onsite.


Pewcone above. They are from the David Tutera line at Michael's or Joann's, can't recall

PhoneCardLady

I believe that Sam's Club also offers wedding flowers like Costco.