Where to go for fresh flowers

[Brunocatmon]

In London. I need to get colourful flowers to dress my dd reception venue for a tea time wedding.

Which flowers markets will I go to? Can Joe bloggs go to a flower market?

Do i need to get up at like 3am?

Columbia Road seems the obvious choice, but would it not be better to work with a specific florist? Location is important here too. Even CR might not be sensible if you’re out in Hounslow or something.

New Covent Garden in Nine Elms is the biggest wholesaler. You can go as a punter but it’s pretty overwhelming unless you’re a very experienced amateur. Is there a reason you aren’t using a florist?

I would go to Marks and Spencer. Their flowers are amazing and not that expensive. I wish I’d gone their instead of a florist for the table decorations for my daughters weeding.

NCG is quite a lot, and I am a florist! You’ll be buying in wraps which all have different quantities, it’s worth working out what you need before you’re looking at a sea of flowers and foliage. You can spend quite a bit, quite quickly 😜Also remember the prices are VATless, so you’ll need to add that on. When you get home, you’ll dedicate a lot of time to conditioning.

It’s quite an undertaking to prepare even what looks like casual wedding flowers.

Its for table Decs. Dd just wants bouquets for her and her sisters ( bridesmaids ), buttonholes for the men, all of which we are getting from a florist.

We just thought it would be more economical to make our own table Dec's, think the pink, orange, red vibe with disco balls.

I've done similar for family events before. Wedding isn't until 4pm

Edited to take out unnecessary commas that auto put in.

Gerbera would be a good call, you get large size in boxes and small in wraps. Put something lime green in like carnations, chrysanthemum or guelder for texture and pop.

You could get all that the day before and give them a good drink. Pop a drop of bleach in with the gerbera.

have fun! 🪩

Up to you, OP, but I certainly wouldn't choose to spend the day of my daughter's wedding getting up for a 4am market and then most of the morning conditioning and prepping. I think it'll be a false economy. Get the florist to quote so you can make an informed decision to weigh up the price with the cost of your time and labour.

I don’t see why not, and anyway you can make them the day before.

We did that. My friend is a trainee florist so went to the flower market (I couldn’t go they apparently wouldn’t let me as Im not a florist)amd bought 15 buckets worth of flowers and greenery. Spent hours the night before making them into table decorations with oasis we bought in country baskets. Looked good but we were knackered. The venue let us put the flowers in their massive cold store overnight.

in future I’d just go to Asda or whatever the day before and pick up nice flowers there. Yes it’ll be dearer. Slightly. But you’ll feel better if you’re not run ragged before hand.

Have a look at flowers from the farm, where you can buy directly from local growers. Here

If you have a small local flower farm near you they would be able to help you put something lovely together. Ours does buckets of flowers to arrange yourself.

Thank you all, I think you're right tbh,I dont want to waste the morning of my first child's wedding arranging flowers x