Florist...

ivedonethisb4

I met with a florist yesterday... Originally we were planning to let FI's cousin in law do the flowers but I realized idk anything about them to know what I want or how to budget for them. So FMIL suggested I go to this shop and talk with them. The people that own it weren't there...so I couldn't even get a quote when it was all said and done!!! I went through all these books and didn't really like anything..I have my own ideas. I wanted a mixture of bright pink and light pink. In mine I want in the middle a red rose with 4 light pinks around that and from there I had no idea. So...we picked to go with light pink roses the bright pink what I think of as fuscia miniature roses and a couple of stargazer lilies because that have that same fuscia color with a little white. She kept telling me I liked expensive flowers..and then couldn't even ballpark a figure without talking with the owner...so that's frustrating! I know its all going to be out of my budget!!!

lenergyrlah

That sounds really frustrating.  I would recommend going to a different florist to get a cost estimate.  Also if you make an appointment ahead of time the owners will probably be in (maybe you already did this and it's just a crappy shop).  At my appointment I printed off a lot of pictures that I liked from the knot photo gallery (it shoiuld be easy to make the center rose red without seeing a picture of it).  It might also help the florist if you give her a picture of your dress.

 I'm also doing roses, and my florist told me that they can be expensive flowers, but they are also a decent size so you won't need hundreds of them to make a nice bouquet.  If you need to get costs down, you can probably substitute cheaper flowers for your other decorations (I think carnations are really pretty) and still have the roses for your bouquets so you have a really nice portrait.  Also to cut costs you can re-use your ceremony decorations at the reception, especially if there is some sort of cocktail hour at a different location (such as outside the reception hall).  I'm reusing my bouquets as centerpieces (mine for the sweetheart table, and the others will be mixed with tall centerpieces).

My flower total was $1500, and this included my bouquet, bouquets for 7 bridesmaids, 11 boutonnieres, 6 corsages, cake flowers, and 7 tall stargazer lily centerpieces.  Everything is roses except for the tall centerpieces.  If you have a smaller wedding party I'm sure it will be a lot less; also I'm guessing that the DC area is more expensive than Atlanta.

ivedonethisb4

Well our WP is small 3 each FG and RB. But when you add 4 GMothers, 2 mothers, 2 ushers 1 father, 2 Gfathers...it all adds up. I wanted to do it under 300. We're not using ANY floral ANYTHING for the reception. And only greenery for decorating in the church and some pew bows...

lenergyrlah

Sorry for all the long posts...I'm full of advice, which may or may not be good advice

At my sister's wedding, each BM carried a single long-stemmed rose (these were fake but you could do real) rather than a bouquet which really saved on the cost.  You could also make your own bouquets out of silk flowers; if all you want is roses bunched together and tied with a ribbon it can't be that difficult to DIY.  Start really early though because if they don't turn out you'll need to find a florist to do them.  I would recommend having a florist make the bouttonierres and corsages; my sister tried to DIY and they turned out well but were extremely frustrating and took forever.

FG doesn't need real flower petals; I saw some last week at JoAnn fabrics that weren't very expensive.  These also won't get ground into the carpet the way real petals will so cleanup will be easier.

You could also ask your florist if she's willing to use silk flowers, because then obviously you don't have to pay extra for "expensive" flowers.  I suppose you could spray them with rose-scented perfume right before the wedding if you want them to smell real.