Huge flower problem!

seaotter910 · April 2013

So I thought I had my flowers all squared away. We were using a friend of a family friend, who does flowers now on the side out of her home...so presumably this should have been budget friendly. However, I just got back the proposal and it was what seems astronomical for flowers! I'm sure people will ask so it was around 5,800! That seems crazy to me!

A few things to know...
1. I do not have a favorite flower, nor care what flowers I get, as long as they go along with my color scheme and look nice...so its not like I"m wanting something crazy and out of season.
2. I am having a chuppah which needs to be decorated, which I understand adds some cost and I was willing to budget that in. However, after getting this...if all flowers are like that, the chuppah can maybe have fake flowers.
3. I do have 6 bridesmaids but I am open to using their bouquets for centerpieces later and such.

I had read flowers should be about 10% of the budget costs. Is this accurate? Around what did you spend if you don't mind asking? My budget is around 15,000, so is 1,500 accurate for flowers? Give or take some?

Does anyone have any florists or flower people to recommend that would not be so much money? I'm kind of annoyed that its nearly May and now I have to find someone else all while I'm out of town. My wedding is June 23, so at least its a Sunday and maybe people will be available. Any advice on getting this cost down would be great because no possible way can I spent half my budget on flowers!

Klharris011 · April 2013

Flowers are crazy expensive! I am having a good amount of flowers and am particular about the color and type of flower. My flowers cost me about 2500 and that is exactly what I budgeted for.

My florist is Emily from Petals Couture and she is amazing! I met her at the Dallas Bridal show when her set up was incredible and caught my eye. She set up a meeting immediatly and spent a lot of time talking through what flowers I wanted and how to make everything fit my budget. She went me a proposal that same night! She would tell me when certain flowers were not possible in my budget and would give me alternatives with similar looks. She is always very responsive and has been willing to meet with me to make sure my day goes perfectly. Of all the stresses I have she is definetly not one of them.

Her email is emily@petalscouture.com, just shoot her an email and she will get back ASAP and help make your budget work!

professorscience · April 2013

I agree that flowers really can be expensive. We did everything we could to save costs on flowers, including using a toss bouquet that was made out of dictionary pages and only having floral arrangements on 12 of our 25 tables, and we still spent around $1500.

There are several cost-saving options, from total DIY through somewhere like Sam's or Costco, using Market Street/Central Market/Tom Thumb, or just shopping around for some more affordable options.

I'm sorry this happened to you, but you really can't assume that because someone is an acquaintance or "works on the side out of their home" that the work will be cheap. If anything, a person who does floral out of the home would be MORE expensive simply because of the cost to gather materials.

I used Out of the Garden, and they were very helpful because they wholesale their flowers, so I was able to go through their freezer and pick out flowers I liked right in the shop. I didn't really have a specific vision for floral, so this little "extra" was especially nice.

tiffanygoss · April 2013

We really loved our florist and she was VERY affordable. I was like you didnt have a favorite flower and wanted budget friendly. The result blew me away!!

Her name is Gladys Rodriquez and her info is below.

http://zoeysgardenflowers.weebly.com/

zoeysgarden2010@gmail.com

214-454-5282

aeliza06 · April 2013

That certainly seems high to me, although I have seen some brides spend way more than 10% of their budget on floral.

Have you talked to her to see if there are ways you two can bring the quote down? Perhaps use more inexpensive filler flowers or not have as many flowers for the chuppah?

One girl I contacted for my wedding gave me a quote of 1500$ for everything including peonies, dahlias, and rannaculous (sp?). Her business is Flor by Melissa (click).

fallbride1109 · April 2013

Flowers are one of those things that can be 1k or 10k. I came in at around 8 percent or 2300 in 2009 but flowers were very important to me. I suggest speaking with her first and going over the proposal flower by flower to see where you can cut costs before panicking but if it's still too much, there are lots of other options.

seaotter910 · April 2013

I understand flower costs vary. I just think that it's too much given that I asked for basic things and whatever was in season. I'm seeing if it can come down but until I get an answer I'd like to research other people and get other quotes before it gets too close to the wedding. We were promised good deals and stuff cause our good friend knew her but I'm not convinced that for what I asked for this was the best deals available. Thanks for these suggestions so far. I'll check into them. Let me know if there are more.

tcam2012 · April 2013

I DIY'd our flowers. I screwed up and made a mistake while ordering in bulk so we went to SAMs and bought bouquets the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding. The flowers were beautiful!!! Everyone liked them and when we said our guests could take them home at the end of the night, they all got taken. This was even though most of our guests had about an hour drive home.

DIYing takes time though. I would say we spent about 6 hours going to garage and estate sales to buy vases (which we liked doing!) so we spent about $60 on about 40 vases ranging from very small to very big. I would say I spent about 11 to 12 hours cutting and arranging the flowers, including all centerpieces, bouquets, boutennieres (sp?), and the wedding cake topper. About 4 hours just buying the flowers. We spent about $500 on the flowers themselves (we had somewhere around 450 stems) and we had several bouquets left over for our hotel room.

I think our flowers turned out so pretty, prettier than what I saw in many floral shops but it was a lot of work and my fingermails were definitely green by the end. Of course, a french tip manicure took care of that :-)

tcam2012 · April 2013

Oh, I forgot to say that we had an arch and just used fabric in one of our wedding colors along the top. It cost $10 at Joann's. Everyone liked it. Turned out very simple and pretty.

cmmadison · April 2013

Where is the wedding/ where do you live? My budget is $20,000, but flowers are low on the list for us. We're going to order flowers from the Flower Market on 7th in Fort Worth. They offer many options, including full service, but we're going to order flowers and build our own bouquets. I'm not picky and honestly just want some flowers wrap in ribbon. We have a former florist in the family, but they also offer classes to learn how to do bouquets, table arrangements and boutonnières. I just spoke with them last week and plan to take my mom in when she's in town, but they were super nice and well priced. I have a friend who did all her bridal party flowers for a couple of hundred dollars. They also offer storage in their coolers, so you can do your flowers Earlier and have them kept fresh until the wedding.

seaotter910 · April 2013

I live in Ohio but the wedding is at The Orion Ballroom near downtown Dallas. Unfortunately, since I do live out of town some of the DIY options won't work because of issues with transportation, time, etc. I can DIY a little, but I can't possibly do the whole thing for flowers since I won't be in town early enough to shop around/make it all. As for the chuppah, it is going to be fabric, I just want flowers like on the gathering part of each pole to tie together. Not a ton, but like just some where the fabric comes together. But I might just make those with fake ones or make a nice bow or something. I did talk to my flower person and she says for my budget all she can do is the bouquets. I still find 1500 to be a lot for just bouquets when I am not asking for anything specific or out of season. That's just me, maybe I'm wrong but it seems like a lot.

seaotter910 · April 2013

As an update, my florist contacted me today and claims that she was wrong and actually can't possibly do anything with the 1,500 budget...not even just bouquets like she previously mentioned. I find this very hard to believe; however, I am definitely starting the florist hunt all over again! So any other references if anyone has them are welcome!

fallbride1109 · April 2013

$250 for BM bouquets? Um, yeah, that's ridiculous. Mine were like $65. MY bouquet was only $150. Granted this was in 2009, but still...

Some recent suggestions:

Out of the Garden
Di Fiori
Lily Pad (mixed reviews)
Bridal Blooms
Garden Gate

tiffanygoss · April 2013

My florist did my bouquet, 5 b-maids, 6 boutineers, 2 corsages, and a toss bouquet for $195 with delivery. Some pics below.

jillrenee&brett · April 2013

Wow! I design flowers as a side job to...and trust me, that is way high. (And I am in no way endorsing myself.) A mid range bridal bouquet should run $150-200, but I have seen high-end ones around $400. I think a good price for bmaid bouquets is 75 or so. I do believe you get what you pay for, and I know what certain wholesale flowers cost more than others. That being said, a $1500 budget is a good amount if you don't have a ton of tables. But if you have super intricate and lots of designs, it will for sure be over that. I had a small wedding, but spent $2000 of my $14000 budget. I had only 2 bridesmaids and around 8 tables. I did have my florist do a installation in the trees at my venue which raised the cost. I HIGHLY recommend my florist---Ashley with Ashlilium. She is super sweet and does a fantastic job. Definitely contact more florists!

seaotter910 · April 2013

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_huge-flower-problem?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:3d4f207f-d888-4080-a413-b62837fa6c32Post:316ef609-a8d8-4274-b4e8-a2b60a72936c">Re: Huge flower problem!</a>:
[QUOTE]My florist did my bouquet, 5 b-maids, 6 boutineers, 2 corsages, and a toss bouquet for $195 with delivery. Some pics below.
Posted by tiffanygoss[/QUOTE]

Those are all beautiful. I did contact your florist via email this morning. I haven't heard back yet but hopefully I will soon!

tiffanygoss · April 2013

Oh awesome! She's really great!

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_texas-dallas-ft-worth_huge-flower-problem?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:102Discussion:3d4f207f-d888-4080-a413-b62837fa6c32Post:680c280c-2274-427e-9f69-61e13f93f648">Re: Huge flower problem!</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Huge flower problem! : Those are all beautiful. I did contact your florist via email this morning. I haven't heard back yet but hopefully I will soon!
Posted by seaotter910[/QUOTE]

Huge flower problem!

Re: Huge flower problem!

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