Hi ladies!
The wedding was on the 13th, and I bravely decided that we should do flowers ourselves. I just wanted to let you know about my experience--
I ordered from Sam's Club in bulk-- Roses (white and green), delphinium, and hydrangeas. I also ordered from a place called 'wedding flowers of america' online. Their flowers were fantastic too. My only complaint was that shipping for them was way expensive, but it was the only place where you could order JUST bunches of 10 or so, which is all I wanted for the accent flowers-- raunculus, some foliage I can't remember the name of, and hanging amaranthus.
All arrived on time, and beautiful- we didn't have to throw any out except ones we broke. I ordered 250 roses and 100 delphinium, 20 hydranges--- i had flowers coming out of my ears!! I went way overboard and there were about 100 roses we didn't even use. We made one main centerpiece, my bouquet, 1 MOH bouquet, 2 small mom bouquets (I don't like corsages), 4 bouts, and another large arrangement, plus flower cones for the seating. I had enough flowers to send home an arrangement with both the babysitter and my grandmother BESIDES the 100 roses left over. We definitely would have had plently for more bridal party and centerpieces for the 5 tables too, but the restaurant provided arrangements there.
I followed the instructions-- cut them all as soon as they came in on the Wed. before the wedding, changed water and recut daily and kept them in the basement-- I probably should have moved them upstairs so they'd open up more, but they were fine. We didn't do a trial run, and just winged it the day before the wedding-- fortunately the women in my family besides me are super artistic and they turned out beautifully. We went to a small local florist for small aqua tubes for the hydrangeas (which started to wilt anyway but still looked lovely), and he just gave them to us.
Basically, in spite of the stress (I was wound pretty tight and pretty much drank wine and arranged my bouquet. The ladies in my family did all the others) it was the only thing I had to do the day before, and it was a nice chance to spend some time with everyone who was in town.
Total I spent $450 on all the flowers and vases, supplies, etc. I could have definitely gotten away with $300 if I'd known how many roses we'd have left over. Pics of bouquet in pro pics:
http://blog.lillyphotography.com Here are the two large arrangements
Centerpiece above--NO REGRETS!! (btw, the roses we saved are still opening and not drooping at all)
