Advice from married ladies, please.

sonya+adam · October 2012

I'm in the process of budgeting my wedding, as that's one of the first steps that can never be done too early, and, lets face it, I hate math so I'd rather get that done and out of the way.

Anyway.. I'm budgeting out the 'flowers' part of the wedding, and I know that buying flowers wholesale and making bouquets and arrangements is much cheaper than hiring a florist. Does anyone have any experience doing this? If so, how well did it work out for you?

Note: I'm not trying to get ahead of myself, I'm just trying to figure out if this could be an option for me, or if I should budget out enough money for a florist.

QueerFemme · October 2012

It isn't always MUCH cheaper to buy wholesale and do them yourselves. I priced out doing them myself, and then shopped aorund for florists. I ended up finding a small florist that did my bouquet for maybe $10.00 less than I could do it, and the centerpieces were only $2.00 less per centerpiece. I might have saved maybe $50.00-$75.00 total, and for that small savings, it wasn't worth it to me.

Shop around, use in season flowers and see what kind of deals you can get. Also, costco has whole wedding flower packages with arranged flowers, etc. that you can get in a box and is shipped to you the day before the wedding. that is often a good budget choice as well.

lls31 · October 2012

I'm not married yet, but I did take care of my flowers already, being that our wedding is only 17 days away. I ordered natural touch flowers from Save On Crafts. I paid somewhere around $125 for enough flowers for myself and 3 BMs. I had the unwrapped flowers in a vase at my house and a friend who was visiting thought they were real.

Also, my sister's wedding was in July and we cut hydrangeas from my parents' yard. We were able to get enough for 20 center pieces. The florist wanted to charge her over $2,000 for what we did for free.

ETA: found a photo of my bouquet

sonya+adam · October 2012

Thanks for all your advice ladies! I'm planning on using carnations, and from what I've seen, they're a pretty standard inexpensive flower. I think I'll look into smaller florists and see what they have to offer before making any final decisions (which won't be for a long time), and see how much of a price difference it really is.

cwaggoner07 · October 2012

I know Sams has wedding packages as well.

QueerFemme · October 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_advice-from-married-ladies-please?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:14Discussion:939e172a-9ce0-4d7c-8296-cf2aaa1e350ePost:f4d99765-6322-4a05-a62a-0df8deb029bd">Re: Advice from married ladies, please.</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for all your advice ladies! I'm planning on using carnations, and from what I've seen, they're a pretty standard inexpensive flower. I think I'll look into smaller florists and see what they have to offer before making any final decisions (which won't be for a long time), and see how much of a price difference it really is.
Posted by sonya+adam[/QUOTE]

PS. I don't know much about Houston, but if you have a chinatown, or japantown area, try florists there. Every Asian florist I checked with were about half the price as other florists. And they did an amazing job on my flowers.

I had my bouquet, two BM bouquets, 6 corsages, 3 mini flower girl bouquets, 8 or 9 bouts, 18 centerpieces, 6 bridal party vases (tall loose flowers) and a floral cake topper... and it was less than $700.00.

Luckily, the flowers I wanted were in season all year round here. But, most of the other estimates I got were in the $2k-3k range.

WinstonsGirl · October 2012

We didn't do our own, as we did a DW, and the hotel package included everything. But I would think there's a lot going on in the days leading up to the wedding. There was for us even with everything taken care of by the venue. If you're creative and it's going to save you a lot, go for it. If you're only saving a small amount (for me, $75 - $150), I'd say just have someone else do it and then you're not stressing about it the week before.

jenajjthr · October 2012

My flower budget consisted of a real rose bouquet for me and artificial bouquets for my MOH and 2 BM's I think all together I paid less than $100. I didn't have bouts for the guys, anything for my parents (H's parents are both passed away), or flower center pieces. I'm not a flower type of person, so I didn't want them.

Avion22 · October 2012

Any GOOD florist will be able to work within whatever budget you give them. Obviously if you have your heart set on nothing but pink roses, there might not be much they can do. But if you're open to options, then a florist can come up with a plan within your budget using seasonal flowers, greens, etc. If you're not open to options, and MUST have a certain type of flower, then wholesale might be risky too. Also, the nice thing about hiring a florist is that once they quote you a price, they have to honor it even if the price of some flowers goes up right before your wedding. With wholesale flowers you are the one at the mercy of current market value...that may or may not work against you.

sonya+adam · October 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_chit-chat_advice-from-married-ladies-please?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:14Discussion:939e172a-9ce0-4d7c-8296-cf2aaa1e350ePost:8a08e275-3106-43d0-8892-037f254919a9">Re: Advice from married ladies, please.</a>:
[QUOTE]Any GOOD florist will be able to work within whatever budget you give them. Obviously if you have your heart set on nothing but pink roses, there might not be much they can do. But if you're open to options, then a florist can come up with a plan within your budget using seasonal flowers, greens, etc. If you're not open to options, and MUST have a certain type of flower, then wholesale might be risky to<strong>o. Also, the nice thing about hiring a florist is that once they quote you a price, they have to honor it even if the price of some flowers goes up right before your wedding.</strong> With wholesale flowers you are the one at the mercy of current market value...that may or may not work against you.
Posted by Avion22[/QUOTE]

<div>Really? I wasn't aware of this. That's definitely a good thing to know! Thanks!</div>

mcda04 · October 2012

My initial plan was to purchase from the farmers market the day before but then i completely freaked out about the idea of having to do something this important the day before our wedding.

I went on google and found an awesome florist that was able to work with my very tight budget. we paid $600 for 15 centerpieces, head table flowers, church flowers, my bouquet and toss bouquet, flowers to mary, FG Baskets, parents Boutinierres. I thought it was a good price considering i chose Hydrangeas and lilies which are pretty expensive. i agree with the PP that said a professional will work with your and give you options. mine did. but i wasn't picky. i just told him i wanted purple, white, and gray and he made it happen.

G.L.

Advice from married ladies, please.

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