Suggestions on transporting wedding flower arrangements??

jennthia

Starting to get very nervous here about arranging our wedding flowers and transporting them to the hotel. I am having them delivered on Wednesday, we plan on starting to arrange them Thursday late afternoon and will be taking them to the hotel on Friday. Our wedding is Saturday, June 29. If anybody has any suggestions it would greatly be appreciated.....

mlarchweds

Are you transferring them in the vases? How many? This is something I've had to think about as well, but haven't decided where or how I'm going to order my flowers. 

If you know someone with a SUV or van, I would suggest that. For the most part, it's more scary than an issue and and I think you could possibly lay down the back seat, put a few and have someone hold them?

If you transport them in buckets, or something with a larger base at the bottom that would make it a lot easier and stable.

professorscience

I think it would be best to stock up on some large buckets (like the 5-gallon kind they sell at Lowe's) so that you can have them in water up until they need to be used. Another option would be getting your hands on paper boxes (I used to collect them from the copy room at work) and using those (the bottoms for tall vases, the tops for short ones).

jennthia

Thank you for your suggestions. We ordered over 300 stems from Sam's and will have 5 arrangements in wet floral foam taped to a plate on top of 13" vases. 2 in 15" vases and 1 in 10" vases. Bouquets can be in 1 vase. Only 3 and will just be tied flowers. We bought the buckets already to hydrate the flowers for 24 hours before we start arranging them.
This pic shows the look I'm going for but with my colors. Blue and purple hydrangeas, orange roses and pink orchids.

jennthia

Sorry, here's the picture

ccarwan42

@jennthia My fiance wants to do all the flowers for our wedding (about 12 centerpieces and 5 bouquets) and I'm quite concerned about the logistics of it, even if it saves us a ton of money. How are you storing the flowers at the hotel overnight before the wedding? Our centerpieces will be pretty simple - a few roses in wine bottles, but I'm still worried about keeping them fresh. Don't they need to be refrigerated? And who will set up the centerpieces?

professorscience

ccarwan42 said:

@jennthia My fiance wants to do all the flowers for our wedding (about 12 centerpieces and 5 bouquets) and I'm quite concerned about the logistics of it, even if it saves us a ton of money. How are you storing the flowers at the hotel overnight before the wedding? Our centerpieces will be pretty simple - a few roses in wine bottles, but I'm still worried about keeping them fresh. Don't they need to be refrigerated? And who will set up the centerpieces?

Does your venue have a coordinator, or have you hired a DOC? If not, you will be responsible for arranging the setup. You would likely leave the floral arrangements with this coordinator the night before or have them delivered really really early. I strongly recommend hiring a DOC so that a) you don't have to stress about details on your wedding day and b) you don't have to ask a family member or friend to work for you on a day they should be enjoying themselves!

ccarwan42

@Professorscience: Our reception site does not provide a coordinator and we were trying to avoid the extra cost, as we are on a tight budget. However, maybe we should weigh the cost of a DOC versus going through a florist. It might be unavoidable. My mother-in-law and fiance are doing our cake too, which adds another thing to worry about. Our ceremony is at 1:30 p.m., at a different site than our reception, which really limits us on time for getting ready and setting things up. Oh my. I never thought getting married would be so complicated! :-)

laurakay0705

We are also using Sam's for our flowers but the florist int eh store is making the arrangements for us.  We plan on picking them up and transporting them in large ice chests.  You can set the flowers in side while they are already in their containers and the ice chest should protect them form sliding around or getting damaged.  It will also help keep the flowers cool, you don't need to put ice in the bottom but you could I suppose.

TXWalker

laurakay is right, ice chests or big boxes, and you can weave towels between the vases to help keep them upright and from banging together.