Anyone made their own bouquet?

alohagurl13

I have been debating this idea.... I would love fresh flowers and love peonies but don't think they will be in season in October.  Have contemplated silks, but don't really want to spend the money.  I have contacted Watanabe Floral and their prices are not that bad for orchids, and for a sub for peonies they suggest garden roses etc.  Have researched how to put a bouquet together..... really don't mind doing it the night before or day of.  Soo has anyone else been in my position, what are your thoughts?

TripleAubs

Watanabe did all our flowers, and we got married in October as well. I also loved peonies but knew they weren't in season, so I went with roses and ranunculus. I think that garden roses and ranunculus both look pretty close to peonies (the ranunculus fall open in sort of the same way).

I've never put together a bouquet but I know there are lots of books on it and it is definitely possible.

Also if you decide to go with Watanabe, you can purchase giftcards for them at Costco on Oahu and it's like you get a 10% discount. They also offer 10% military discount.

carrieoz_76

I ordered my bouquet, but we made our BM's bouquets.  Pics in bio.  I watched a YouTube video on it (searched for cymbidium orchid bouquet), then bout silks to try it out at home and make sure I had the necessary supplies, then we shipped the supplies to Maui.  We made the bouquets the afternoon before the wedding, and they were gorgeous - just make sure you have a bucket of some sort to put them in so they don't get smooshed, and a spot in a fridge to keep them cool.

alohagurl13

Thanks!  I think it's do-able and soo much cheaper!  We will be staying at a condo so we will have a full size fridge.  I'm thinking we can do it the morning of.  I have made a bouquet with silks before, but I might try and do a trial with real flowers maybe like the month before.  Thanks for the input!! 

carrieoz_76

I should add - we practiced with silks, but did the real bouquets with real flowers.  If there's any way to do your bouquets with real flowers, I'd personally go for that - they were gorgeous, and much much prettier than anything I could find in silk.

nickandjenn33

I took a flower arranging class, and it wasn't difficult at all! Watanabe is really really helpful and as someone said above, you can get 20% off if you buy the gift cards at Costco. You can get an additional 10-20% off if you go to a bridal expo and pick up their coupon (I got an extra 20% off -- hooray!) I went to the UH baseball game this weekend and could have sworn the announcer said that you could get an extra 10% off if you turn in your ticket stub, but then again, I wasn't listening that carefully.  Good luck!

alohagurl13

Sweet, don't know when the next bridal expo is but I will try and use my resources  Their prices for cymbidiums aren't bad at all!  Definitely worth it, thanks!

nickandjenn33

Oh - FYI - you can get cymbidiums at SAFEWAY, yes, safeway, for 15.99 a STEM!  Safeway has AWESOME flower prices. Yup! The only problem is that they WONT guarantee any particular flower and they can't guarantee stock.  The height of growing season is in sping, so it might be difficult to get it in summer.