Making a wedding bouquet myself, how hard can it be?

[bonfireheart]

Very small wedding at registry office, bride, groom, two guests/witnesses. Even a simple bouquet I'm being quoted £60-100.
Local Sainsburys and M&S have lovely bunches of flowers in for about £10. If I got two of those, snipped off the ends, tied up with ribbon I have at home, would that look OK? Or am I missing something very obvious about why the flowers are costing almost as much as dress please?

@bonfireheart

Very small wedding at registry office, bride, groom, two guests/witnesses. Even a simple bouquet I'm being quoted £60-100. Local Sainsburys and M&S have lovely bunches of flowers in for about £10. If I got two of those, snipped off the ends, tied up with ribbon I have at home, would that look OK? Or am I missing something very obvious about why the flowers are costing almost as much as dress please?

If that is what you wish to do then I say go for it. I love being creative with flowers and always have done so.

I did my own with help from my mum who apparently knew how to do them already. To make them a bit more structured you wire them so they face the way you want and don’t move - watch some YouTube videos and you’ll see! It took a morning but made 3 bouquets and 8 or so buttonholes between 3 of us and they looked lovely if I do say so myself!

I would just do what you have suggested. I think money spent on flowers for weddings is absolutely extortionate, especially as you say you can get nice flowers from a supermarket (M&S do gorgeous roses). I spent £300 on flowers for my wedding, but this was my elderly retired florist relative who did them and she purchased flowers at the end of the day from the flower market. They were beautiful and the quotes I got from florists for the similar thing ranged from £2-4k. Honestly, I would do a google and do a simple rose bouquet with some beautiful ribbon. I bet there are you tube videos showing you how to do it.

How about having a trial run? I think its manageable with real flowers, I made mine with paper and silk flowers, it was super easy!

Thank you, just watched a video on YouTube and think even I could manage that:) was beginning to doubt myself cos of the prices being quoted. I think flowers are like cake, add the word "wedding" in front of it and the prices go silly.

There is a skill to getting that perfect look
There is also timing involved in getting the blooms to be at their fullest.
And making sure they stay fresh as you carry them around all day.
Getting that perfect bridal look on the big day will be stressful

But a hand-tied bouquet of simple flowers can look really lovely. If you are good with that style and most importantly won’t start stressing when it’s a bit wobbly, then go for it.

It might be worth doing a practice run, but that cuts into the savings.

Not remotely hard, I imagine. It'll probably be nicer as well

If you like flowers and fancy having a play around, there’s lots of books and online videos showing the basics. Judith Blacklock did a good book on it. Or if you’re too busy with wedding plans, gift the book to a relative and delegate! (That may or may not have been my strategy…)

I made my own paper flower bouquet with wire and a hot glue gun. I think you would need some wire and glueing with real flowers to get them pointing in the right direction?

Do consider a paper bouquet, I loved mine and the added bonus is I will keep it forever.

Ah just seen you’ve already found some online videos, good luck, let us know how it goes!

I did my own, we made them the night before as a nice bridesmaids activity and they looked lovely. A local florist did a bucket of similar colour flowers for £40 which easily made 4 bouquets, buttonholes and a display for the church. You'll need wire, ribbon, and pretty pins.

I found the idea of a bouquet stressful for some reason so mum suggested gloves, and simple small book of poetry. I got it covered to suit the frock! 😄 It worked really well, the bridal party wrote little notes in it, and to this day, 16 years on we will take it out for a look!

I did this, cost about £5 and was lovely

that's exactly what I did....originally I wanted lilies, but for some godforsaken reason M&S had none the day I went in despite normally being stacked to the rafters with them

However they had cream freesias so I had those instead and actually it was a nice nod to my Mum as she had had freesias as her wedding bouquet.

They all laid out really nicely...into that hefty globe type posy shape, and i think I had sprigs of asparagus fern in there too.

I think you definitely could, but I’d just consider two things:
Wedding bouquet flowers are secured in a vice-like grip because it’s handled so much from place to place. Mine was tied super tightly with some kind of voodoo I wouldn’t know how to recreate.
Secondly, flowers obviously have to be fresh. You’ll be doing a LOT the day of your wedding - do you want to be faffing about with flowers? (Can you delegate it to a friend/bridesmaid/family member?)

This is what my niece had last year, flowers from a shop or market stall bought the day before- they were lovely!

You absolutely can do this. I’d do a practice run with supermarket flowers beforehand and then order whatever it is you want from a local florist so you get quantity flowers/foliage to use, and the florist gets a bit of a mark up as well. A sale is a sale after all.

If I lived near you I’d be in like a shot to volunteer to do your flowers. Not a florist, just a vvv keen amateur who has done a couple of workshops.

Please post a pic of your flowers on the day, I bet they will be stunning

Your niece’s bouquet is stunning @bilbodog

I made my own, it was really easy to put together (I just did a simple posy (sp?) of roses), but it did stress me out a bit.

I went to the flower warehouse and couldn't get enough of the colour I wanted for mine and bridesmaid's bouquets, but at least I got what I wanted for mine!

Also the flowers weren't actually mega fresh so a few petals were browning by morning (I made it the night before).

You couldn't tell it was homemade at all though as I just copied a really simple but elegant design I saw on line.

Im glad I did it, it gave me a sense of achievement that I'd created something for myself. I say go for it. To minimise the stress I'd order the flowers in future. Oh and definitely do a dry run!

Enjoy your big day 😊

That Sunflower one is amazing! They're my favourite flower.

Thats a gorgeous pic @bilbodog. Like your dress too.

It's my sister who is getting married. They had a big Indian wedding two years ago. That was a religious ceremony and with lockdown they've never been able to have the legal marriage done. Now she's pregnant so wants it done before baby comes. Tbh the flowers are more for the photos. Registration ceremony is 30 mins, then we're going home to get changed and out for dinner. So as long as they look good for those 30 mins and the photos, we're happy.
I have garden scissors and wire and ribbon that I've seen on the YouTube videos. Might get some mega cheap ones from tesco and have a practice :)

Thank you.

Its worth getting some kind of foliage/greenery or filler like gypsophelia to fill the bunch out a bit and buy the flowers a day or two in advance and cut the stems before putting in water so they start yo open therwise the buds wont show enough.

I did mine. I did the buttonholes too. It was good to have something to do on the morning if the wedding (mine was a 2pm ceremony) and it was easy and I loved it. Half the flowers were from my garden and the other half from the flowers bought to decorate the church. I also got tips from YouTube. If you're not going for a super formal bouquet then I say go for it!