DIY flowers?

[PrincessDaff]

Hi everyone

I get married in October this year and have started getting quotes for flowers for the wedding and the quotes I have had are ridiculous £500-£1000! One florist even said what I wanted wouldnt be worth her while doing.

Ideally I want a small simple bouquet for me, the 4 bridesmaids, buttonholes for 4 men and petals for the flower girl.

I am not wanting flowers for table decorations or anything like that. I would like fresh flowers which I know drives the price up quite a bit.

So my question is, has anybody done their own wedding flowers? Was it easy enough or do you regret it?

[psuedocream3]

Perhaps get a few more quotes, average quotes we are getting for 1 bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids bouquets, 8 buttonholes, 1 corsage, 1 table centrepiece and 3 flower girl baskets and petals is £330ish. We will be using the bouquets to decorate the reception along with our own table decorations.

I also looked into buying dried flower bouquets from etsy, not saving much to be honest but at least you can see what the finished result is when buying, it's a bit more of a gamble as florists don't seem to be able to provide examples of how the finished products would look.

I've heard people buying flowers from the supermarkets the night before and handtying themselves. It's a bit of a risk if you have a specific colour scheme in mind and wanted all matching I think, but if you have creative flair then why not? You'd probably save about half the money. Personally I'd rather pay someone else to deal with it and relax the night before .

[MoHunter]

That sounds expensive!

I just had a quote today for
1 bridal bouquet
1 bridesmaid bouquet
4 corsages
5 buttonholes
1 small table decoration for ceremony table

£220 for the above, all fairly simple but real flowers cream and light pink colours.

[Bluebell9]

We did the flowers for my sister's wedding. Get bouquet and ones for the bridesmaids. We also did the button holes and little corsage for our Mum etc.
It ended up being one of my favourite memories of the wedding, the day before a load of family sat round and all helped. Non of us had any experience but there are loads of tutorials and ideas online.

[Bluebell9]

Her*

[Mummyme87]

I’ve had a quote £1700-2200 for
bridal bouquet
3 bridesmaid bouquets
2 junior bridesmaid bouquets
5 adult buttonholes
2 children buttonholes
11 table centre piece (3 small vases with some seasonal flowers)
A few vases with seasonal flowers for top table
12 small vases to hang on end of aisle alternate chairs
A few flowers for my hair, bridesmaid x3 hair, junior bridesmaid x2
A few flowers for cake
A half covered flower arch

Florist said flowers went up 15% after brexit vote and now unable to give an actual set quote as flower markets don’t know what will happen as flowers come from Holland so imports will be more expenaiv.

I do know that’s expensive but equally I thought it would be more.

I don’t have the time or energy to do diy flowers. I have two young children and want to spend the days leading up to my wedding to relax, have a facial, nails done etc.
Plus I have no family locally to help

[muminmanchester]

I did my own, ordered from the wholesaler who supplies the local market and picked them up the day before the wedding.

It was quite stressful trying to get them all done to a good standard and on time though, more than I imagined it would be. we did save money, but at the expense of my sanity on an already stressful day!

[katmarie]

I did my own. We had loads of flowers, we had:

Bridal Bouquet
Bridesmaid's Bouquet
Mother of the bride gift bouquet
Three flower girl flower wands
1 wrist corsage
2 women's buttonholes
3 men's buttonholes
2 boys buttonholes
14 sets of table decorations for food tables (each had 3 proteas, 6 roses and a number of other flowers too)
3 sets of table decorations for the register signing table, cake table etc

Choosing flowers can rely on what's in season. Ours included proteas from South Africa and lots of roses, as well as tulips, gerbera, gypsophilia and fillers. The Proteas were expensive, had I gone without those the price would have been about half what we paid. If I'd gone for something cheaper than roses I could have brought the price down even more. As it was we spent £800, but as I said,could have brought it down to about £3-400 with different flower choices. It took us a full day to put all of the arrangements together because we were doing so many, but they were utterly stunning when done. I had tonnes of compliments and was asked several times who did the flowers. I've never arranged flowers before, so if I can pull that off anyone can!

A few tips for you:

There are tonnes of tutorials online, on how to put together bouquets, fix buttonholes etc, as well as how to preserve flowers to keep them looking their best all day.

You need to take into account things like ribbon and wire in your costs, not just the flowers. You also need to remember any filling, or greenery you need, and equipment like sharp seceters/scissors, to trim stems, and a cool place to work, where you can keep the stems in buckets until you're ready for them, as well as somewhere to store them when done.

You also need to take into account time in your planning in the run up to the day. Flowers need a day or two to condition after delivery from the wholesaler, if you order from them, but need to be as fresh as possible to look their best for the big day, so would need to be delivered 2-3 days before, and put together the day before your wedding. In the meantime they need to be stored in water somewhere cool.

Putting together bouquets can be hard on a manicure too, so schedule accordingly, or remember gloves.

Keeping to what's in season, or what's in the supermarket or your local florist will bring the cost down too.

Work out a basic bouquet design, and that will tell you how many of each kind of flower you will need. If you're ordering from a wholesaler I would add about 10% onto whatever number you think you need, just to cover broken stems, mistakes etc.

I would go for it, do som research on where you can get the flowers you want, we used Triangle Nurseries, but like I said, a supermarket or florist might work out well for you. Good luck :)

[WYP2018]

I bought my own flowers from the wholesalers (it involved a trip at 5am though!!) and the ladies from the church we got married in helped us make bouquets. I actually really enjoyed it and it worked out loads cheaper.

[MorningsEleven]

My MIL did my sister-in-law's flowers and made her wedding dress (she's very talented and all round amazing). They were beautiful but simple, autumnal colours in little bottles with ribbons. It really suited the laid back wedding and cost about £50.

[Hollywhiskey]

My mum did my flowers and they were stunning, one of the highlights of the day. She had no experience beyond buying supermarket flowers and shoving them in a vase. She did a weekend course in wedding floristry which she found really useful and it's a new hobby for her.

[Cravingcake]

I had the following flowers and approx prices:
1 bridal bouquet (peonies)
3 bridesmaids bouquets (roses & peonies)
1 flower girl bouquet (smaller version of mine)
7 Buttonholes for men
2 buttonholes for our mums plus a last minute extra for a special relative

This was about £250

We then also decided to have the florist do small bunches of flowers for the tables at £20 each (8 of these). This was to make it easier for us as originally we were going to just do it ourselves but found we had enough other things to do like inflate 50 giant helium balloons the day before We gave the venue instruction to make sure that these flowers were given to specific guests (2 had birthdays on our day, plus a couple of close friends who had helped us out with little things in the lead up) so doubled up and the friends who were presented with them were very happy.

[GreenTulips]

If you have a long Isle you can ask guests to give you a single flower as you walk down - lovely idea

[GreyGardens88]

I don't understand why you would need to pay so much for flowers. Why not just raid the Tesco flower section a few days before?

[sirmione16]

I experimented with making my own flowers. It's fairly easy but I'm not very creatively eyed! Here's how mine turned out! I bought a bouquet holder from hobbycraft (cheap) and some flowers from Tesco. The holder is basically a textured sponge on a stick and you just stick the flowers into it. Loads on YouTube to help. I'd say give it a try as it worked out about £30 to make this - like I say, if you've an eye for it or if you practice a few times then why not

[PrincessDaff]

Thank you so much for all of your replies! You have given me some great ideas. I might try and do a few trial bouquets with my mum and sister after watching a few youtube videos and see how they go!

[Fortheloveofscience]

Keep shopping round, those prices are extortionate. I’m in an expensive part of SE and we paid £250 for what you described and they were stunning, there is no way we could have come even close to replicating them ourselves.

[Fortheloveofscience]

Also, this was September last year so relatively current prices.

[Alaimo]

I did my own. Bought 2 XL bouquets in a style that I loved, and made my bouquet, husband's buttonhole and table arrangements out of that. I was a bit rushed in the end and the bouquet didn't look as professional as if a florist had done it, but it ooked fine. Considering the money we saved, I don't regret it at all.

[Shahlalala]

I did my own.

It was a spring wedding and my husband is welsh, so the bridesmaids had daffodils (a pound each bunch!) which I bought and let flower then wrapped in ribbon the day before.

Button holes were daffs too, only two men wore them, again didn’t look professional.

Then I altered a shop bought spring bunch with ribbon for my bouquet (which then got thrown into a bunch of people....)

No regrets, never think about it. We did get married young though, people go a bit flower crazier nowadays.

[user1474894224]

Check out M&S wedding flowers.

[Cryalot2]

Have you a specific type of flower and colours in mind?
Certain flowers will up the price .
Just a thought, go to the local collage ( most run florisry classes and someone there is usually looking for experience . You will find people who have done weddings and competitions so will be of a high standard .
Years ago I couldn't afford so went for silk ones, which I still have .
Get a few quotes and stick to budget