Hello Fellow Wedding-ers! I am the maid of honor for my sisters wedding coming up in November. She is on a very tight budget, and doesn't have much to spend on flowers. She has already purchased the main centerpieces, and needs to just add flowers. Does anyone know if you are able buy flowers and take them and the centerpiece to a florist and have them put it together? Basically have them do the labor? Any info on that would be greatly appreciated!
Re: On a budget with Flowers!
Check out flowers at Costco. They have wedding packages.
I usually get flowers from my grocery store and hand carry them to people. Their prices can also be budget friendly. I have selected flowers at the grocers, given them the vase, and watched them make the arrangement.
Daisies and carnations are cheaper than roses and orchids.
No professional florist will let you buy the flowers. They wouldn't want their work/name on centerpieces that they had no way of controling quality of the flowers. I did buy my own vases for the centerpieces from a fellow bride after her wedding, and my florist was perfectly happy to use those to cut costs. But, they supplied the flowers.
Websites/blogs where our wedding has been featured:
http://www.dapperq.com/2013/11/a-very-dapper-wedding/
http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/10/wedding-christina-g.html
http://4realequalityweddings.com/2014/05/16/g-christina/
We went to a more traditional florist for bouquets and bouts and found that they were actually much more reasonable than expected. I ordered from Costco after getting scared off by a few of the florists I had checked out. I ordered the centerpieces a few months ago and didn't go back to looking at bouquets until last weekend. We actually came in below budget!
My sister got married in the winter, so we stored flowers in the garage the week of the wedding until they were ready to be arranged. I got married in the summer, so the garage was too hot and we stored them in the basement. The grocery store let us bring the big buckets home with us and we used the powder that comes with flowers to preserve them. Bouts/corsages went in the fridge and our bouquets went in vases with just enough water in the bottom to keep them alive without getting on the ribbon.
Especially if you are DIYing your arrangements, I would keep it simple. Maybe a pro florist would know how to preserve the flowers without water, but it would make me nervous to try it on my own. Can you do trials well before the wedding just to make sure everything works?
A family friend is doing my flowers. She also did the flowers at her daughter's wedding and she used the website fiftyflowers.com. Bulk flowers at a lower cost.
Do your vases have to have cut flowers? I am making my own planters for my centrepieces out of wood and then ordering potted plants to go in them (Gerber Daisies). All I have to do is call the guy 6 weeks before the wedding and he is having them delivered a few days before. I was able to get them for $5.00 each