DIY Wedding Forum

Centerpieces discussion

Did anyone DIY centerpieces here? I've seen pics and they all look amazing, but I was wondering how you did...that.

I was thinking of getting Costco flowers (big bundles) and doing them myself, but I was wondering how you get them there and get them set up. My venue is used until 1pm on the day of the wedding, so my vendors come in ~3pm for a 6pm reception.

Do I have over the centerpieces to the coordinator the day before? Week before? If they're flowers, and I do it the night before, is that okay? I don't know what to expect the day before the wedding, I'm assuming that's a chill day and making sure everything is all set, but I wondered how centerpieces are given to the venue. 
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Re: Centerpieces discussion

  • I don't know about centrepieces, but my girlfriend made her own bouquets out of Costco roses the night before, kept refrigerated and in water, and they were still droopy by 3PM the day of.
  • I would ask your coordinator what they prefer.
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  • I half did the centerpieces myself and the florist did the other half. I had to pick them up the day before the wedding and gave them to the venue that evening before the rehearsal. They stored everything appropriately and then set everything up for me in the hour and a half between their lunch service ending and our wedding beginning.

     

    Your flowers should be if you do them the night before - just make sure that you store them properly. I would just talk to your coordinator about the best way to get everything to the venue on time to then be setup between 3 and 6 pm. It sounds like giving everything to the coordinator the night before is going to be the easiest.

  • labrolabro member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    edited March 2015

    I ordered flowers from Costco for my rehearsal dinner the Friday before the wedding. I had them delivered that Tuesday I believe in order to give the flowers a few days to open up. Depending on what selection you order (I got the White Mountain grower's choice), it'll come pre-packaged and bundled. I immediately took all the flowers, trimmed the ends, and stuck them in fresh water and kept them in the refrigerator in my parent's basement (I wanted them to open, but not too soon). That Friday morning I took the flowers out of the fridge to start opening up and I split them up in to smaller bouquets.

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    So anyway to answer your questions -

    Unless someone is going to be at the venue to receive the flowers, I'd have them delivered to your home. They'll wilt quickly if someone doesn't unpackage them and get them in some water and in to a cool environment.

    I'd have them delivered at the very very latest the Thursday prior to your wedding (or earlier depending on the types of blooms you're getting, I think lilies take longer than roses to open up). Split them up in to a bunch of buckets with water and keep them in a cool, dark environment like a basement. Do all your arranging the day before because you definitely will not have time the day of the wedding.

    If you can manage it, have a family member (if someone offers to help) deliver your centerpieces to the venue the day of. If they're being kept indoors they should be ok to sit out on the tables that day. I think my florist delivered my flowers for my 5:30 ceremony around noon.

    ETA: My experience with Costco flowers - hydrangeas seem to wilt pretty quickly, within a few days. Roses will open up in one or two days. Lilies take a good two days to start open but sticking them up in the sun speeds things up nicely (as we learned the afternoon of my RD).



  • We did our own centerpieces, but they were not floral.  We grew herbal centerpieces that went well with our venue.  My mom, sister, and I each grew about 50 pots of herbs the summer leading up to my wedding.  We put them in a variety of pot sizes and then the day before the wedding arranged them in woven baskets.  We also made little toothpick labels for each herb.  Honestly they turned out really cute and looked great in our venue, but it was a big hassle.  They were VERY inexpensive though, bc we started them from seeds.  Basically the only cost was the terra cotta pots, which we were able to buy in bulk for cheaper and the baskets which we also bought on sale.
  • I'm moving this to DIY because there is literally an entire board for this stuff.
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    I'm the fuck
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  • Discuss this with your coordinator. 

    I didn't do floral centerpieces. I brought them to the venue the day before. 
  • Ask your coordinator what time/day they prefer/require. They'll all be different.

    Check the flower company's recommendations on the shelf life of each particular flower, how soon before to order, etc. They'll all be different.

    Look up a DIY how-to for the type of arrangement you want, and determine the materials necessary/steps required. They'll all be different.

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  • beethery Thanks for moving it. I wasn't looking so much as how to DIY centerpieces but how you got them there, when, who helped, etc. But now I want to know how to DIY center pieces, so this worked out well!

    My mom and I have been going back and forth about this. I've heard of people DIY'ing Costco flower center pieces and it turned out fine, but I never knew how they got them to the venue and when. I know I can't just leave the ceremony to run over to the house and grab the flowers and run to the reception, pretty sure I don't have time during the day of the wedding. I was wondering how everyone else did theirs. I'll ask my coordinator at the venue, she handles the day of for my vendors the day of, didn't know if that meant she won't take my flowers the day before then. 
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  • Let's preface this with the fact that I don't know anything about flowers and they also don't matter that much to me....

    I bought bouquets of Costco spray roses. I bought far too many because they were cheap and were sold by the dozen. They showed up Thursday morning and the wedding was Saturday evening. I put them into buckets of cold water when they arrived. Friday morning, my mom and I took them to the venue. They let us borrow vases. We trimmed the ends then tossed 'em into vases of water. Since we had so many extra flowers, we divided the extra bunches and threw in some extra flowers. No fancy arranging or anything like that but they looked lovely. I got compliments (but no pictures).

    They drooped a bit by the end of the night but lots of people took them home happily. My parents had tons in their home for brunch the next day and they looked beautiful.

    Overall, I was happy. And lazy.
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  • wandajune6 Feels like something I would do. I don't really care all that much for them, they're at the lesser end of my budget, so I figured DIY and Costco would be perfect for them. So it seems like cold water and a dark room is best for fresh flowers? I think I'll buy a few this week and experiment before I fully commit to it. 
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  • That works. If there's someone with a cold basement or a spare fridge, go with that. My venue refrigerated them the night before the wedding and it all worked out.

    Also, I love spray roses so it worked. I cared a bit more about bouquets and bouts so we got ours through a local florist. They were gorgeous but pricey. I would have those through Costco as well if I could design a package that made sense.
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  • This is probably the fourth time I have mentioned it on these forums, but I feel like it bears mentioning. There are lots of people on here for whom it was fine to DIY their flowers. That's great. 

    But, to me, ordering a ton of flowers, caring for them, cutting them, arranging them, delivering them, is too much work in the 48 hours or so before the wedding. I have a friend who did somewhat what you describe (ordered 400 roses online). One problem was by the day of the wedding the ivory ones looked pretty damaged from being handled (they show damage really easily). Another problem was the bride herself didn't do all the work, it was done by female family members and ladies from the church. And the bride's mom and I spent the morning of the wedding in the basement finishing the flowers. Don't you think the bride's mom really wanted to see her only daughter getting ready for her wedding instead of trying to get thorns off hundreds of roses? I think she did.  If you are going to do the flowers, make sure it is an undertaking that you personally can do. If you care very little about flowers to me you are exactly the wrong person to do your own flowers because it's going to take hours of your very precious and limited time in those final hours. 

    Have you considered getting some plants for centerpieces? We are doing orchid plants, but there are a lot of other plants that would look good. I was at a bridal thing at a local nursery this weekend and they suggested even things like ferns could look really nice. Just a thought. Still cheap and plants would be harder to kill in a short period of time. 
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  • MadHops21 said:

    beethery Thanks for moving it. I wasn't looking so much as how to DIY centerpieces but how you got them there, when, who helped, etc. But now I want to know how to DIY center pieces, so this worked out well!


    My mom and I have been going back and forth about this. I've heard of people DIY'ing Costco flower center pieces and it turned out fine, but I never knew how they got them to the venue and when. I know I can't just leave the ceremony to run over to the house and grab the flowers and run to the reception, pretty sure I don't have time during the day of the wedding. I was wondering how everyone else did theirs. I'll ask my coordinator at the venue, she handles the day of for my vendors the day of, didn't know if that meant she won't take my flowers the day before then. 
    Hire a friend of a friend, a neighbor, a high school kid, whoever. Pay them $50 to pick the stuff up and drop it off. 

    That's what we're doing for clean-up at the end up the night. Well, not actual clean-up. We just need to get our centerpieces and decor out of the venue after the reception ends, and I didn't want our families or friends to be stuck there doing it after a long day. My mom's close friend knows a girl who sometimes house-sits for her. Says she's very trustworthy and responsible. So we're paying her and a friend to come get the decor and drop it at one of our rental houses. No big deal. 
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  • MadHops21 said:

    beethery Thanks for moving it. I wasn't looking so much as how to DIY centerpieces but how you got them there, when, who helped, etc. But now I want to know how to DIY center pieces, so this worked out well!


    My mom and I have been going back and forth about this. I've heard of people DIY'ing Costco flower center pieces and it turned out fine, but I never knew how they got them to the venue and when. I know I can't just leave the ceremony to run over to the house and grab the flowers and run to the reception, pretty sure I don't have time during the day of the wedding. I was wondering how everyone else did theirs. I'll ask my coordinator at the venue, she handles the day of for my vendors the day of, didn't know if that meant she won't take my flowers the day before then. 
    Hire a friend of a friend, a neighbor, a high school kid, whoever. Pay them $50 to pick the stuff up and drop it off. 

    That's what we're doing for clean-up at the end up the night. Well, not actual clean-up. We just need to get our centerpieces and decor out of the venue after the reception ends, and I didn't want our families or friends to be stuck there doing it after a long day. My mom's close friend knows a girl who sometimes house-sits for her. Says she's very trustworthy and responsible. So we're paying her and a friend to come get the decor and drop it at one of our rental houses. No big deal. 
    That is extremely smart. Now I need to think of who I can ask to do that and pay them. Do you still invite this person as a guest to the wedding? Or they just show up at 3pm with the flowers, then again at night (if I consider it) to remove the centerpieces? I'm sure I'll be drunk somewhere, but I don't want my mom and sister to be the ones cleaning up after me. That just seems like a job someone could be paid to do, but wondering how they would be accomidated. 
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  • ll6747ll6747 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited March 2015
    If you live near a Costco you can order/pick them up right from the store as long as you are ordering at least 6 bunches of flowers.  Ask for the floral person's name/number at the front desk.  I spoke to her several times on the phone.  she ordered what i requested and even a few more bunches of the same flowers so i had my pick of which bunches to choose. 

    in addition, they have flower arrangements in the store.  they will order those for you also.  they will not promise exact flowers but you can request a color scheme.  We used their arrangements for the "Mary" bouquet in the church and to decorate our home.
  • ll6747 said:

    If you live near a Costco you can order/pick them up right from the store as long as you are ordering at least 6 bunches of flowers.  Ask for the floral person's name/number at the front desk.  I spoke to her several times on the phone.  she ordered what i requested and even a few more bunches of the same flowers so i had my pick of which bunches to choose. 


    in addition, they have flower arrangements in the store.  they will order those for you also.  they will not promise exact flowers but you can request a color scheme.  We used their arrangements for the "Mary" bouquet in the church and to decorate our home.
    I think the idea of buying pre-arranged flowers in bulk makes more sense than buying a ton of loose flowers you have to arrange. Unless you are doing only one type of flower in the arrangements, arranging flowers tends to take more time than people think. You also generally have to trim all the flowers for them to fit in the vases. Last night I combined a couple of bouquets into two vases and it took at least 15 minutes. I wasn't super picky with how it looked either. 
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  • ll6747 said:

    If you live near a Costco you can order/pick them up right from the store as long as you are ordering at least 6 bunches of flowers.  Ask for the floral person's name/number at the front desk.  I spoke to her several times on the phone.  she ordered what i requested and even a few more bunches of the same flowers so i had my pick of which bunches to choose. 


    in addition, they have flower arrangements in the store.  they will order those for you also.  they will not promise exact flowers but you can request a color scheme.  We used their arrangements for the "Mary" bouquet in the church and to decorate our home.
    My FI actually works at Costco for the past 6 years, I'll need to see if he knows the flower people there. I spoke to one a few years ago but never actually had a wedding planned or anything yet, so it wasn't a serious discussion. Now I need to find her again!
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