diy wedding flowers...can any florists advise?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Wedding isnt until next year but we are trying to work out the budgets.

We will need

1 bridal bouquet
2 bridesmaids
1 flower girl
8 buttonholes

Flowers in vases (small) for 6 tables plus the top table.

2 largeish arrangements for the church.

I am looking at gerbera daisies and gemini daisies. Simple bunches tied with ribbon, they dont need to be huge round bouquets. Not sure about greenery.

Roughly how many stems would I need?

How difficult is it to do? I have been quoted £120 for just the bouquets, but I could get 200 stems for that. So looks cheaper to do myself.

TIA!

i trained as florist many years ago (BTEC) so have a few tips. Are you yourself creative at all, as any other 'handy' skills should mean you can master the dexterity to produce simple arrangements yourself in no time.

Regarding the price: not sure anymore wholesale but the greenery is important and should be factored in, good news is you can substitute a lot of it for free by using garden greenery:
EG
Eucalyptus cuttings (lots of people have these trees compared to years ago

twisted willow

ferns
even privet hedging!

check the stems are comfortable for you to hold as you dont want anything prickly. Also som sap can cause irritation to skin. Greenery is imprtant as it adds contrast and depth to the flowers rather than one uniform colour. have you asked at your local church flower arranging group even if you are not having a christian service etc they often have flower arrangers etc that will advise you or give you some hints on how to do things on the cheaper side. They will haqve plenty of hints.

Table dec's can be made very beautifully and inexpensively with simple arrangements in jam jar's wrapped with hessian/raffia. check out all the tutorials online eg youtube.

Bear in mind that sometimes gerberas heads move about to follow the sun and may need too be wired (wrapped in wire - again check the online tutorials )

Have a few dry runs to get the hang of doing a simple handtied bouquet as although simple there is a knack to getting the stems to twist together. Again view online tutorials.

But here is my final idea...
Speak to your local florist course and offer them the flowers and get them to do the making up for free... in return for invaluable experience for their portfolio they may be willing to do this. Good luck and let me know how you get on.

also, yes you do pay for the florists time mainly there is a simple rule or rather there was when i was one that you doubled the cost of the flowers then added vat then added twenty per cent for every 20 mins you spent on a bouquet as time is money. Hence the cost so much cheaper to do your own. Keep them somewhere cool too as you don't want them to die the night before! sorry i haven't spellchecked but dying of hayfever as i type (one reason i no longer work as a florist)

I've done flowers for a wedding on the scale you mention (as an amateur). It was blimmin' hard work - I wouldn't have tried it for my own wedding! I got a couple of books out of the library (in the olden days pre internet) for ideas.

You could see if the church would get their "flower ladies" to do the church flowers for a modest fee on top of materials, although you might have to leave them there rather than taking them to the reception venue. You could make your own bouquets in advance using artificial flowers, and then you just have table decs to do the day before.

Fossil is quite right it is hard work to do wedding flowers, I did a freelance job for a family where I only charged for the flowers and not my time and it took several hours (and a lot of faff, even though I was experienced) the day before. Bear in mind you will probably have a lot of things going on (to say the least) the day before. Can you really put aside enough time? it may be worth getting the church to do a simple arrangement for the front, maybe simple candle/ teacup/ jam jar/ tealights for the table centres which can be done with friends etc, buttonholes limit to the main players only (fathers/mothers of both if they are present, best man, groom) and a few simple handtied's for you and bridesmaids professionally done could be a compromise. Have you tried fb/mumsnet local for good word of mouth recomendations for florists? the price you quoted does sound pricey to me (I mean this with respect) even though I am put of touch. I would check out your local FE centre - as I said it should offer a course in floristry, ask if they can do the flowers (even just the bouquets) and agree a set price.

I know this is a bit left field, and may cost, but could be worth it, and who knows, you may enjoy it; see if your local college does a floristry evening course. It could really make a difference. Good luck with the wedding.

oo sorry - just saw freckly had my brainwave before me.

Do they have to be real flowers?

I did my bridesmaid bouquets and table decorations myself and got the supplies from country baskets
They worked out loads cheaper, looked really good and we got to keep them afterwards.
We had a florist do my bouquet, button holes and top table but all the rest we did.

My friend's DD got married and had a very rustic, countryish feel to the whole thing. She and her bridesmaids had hydrangeas which looked beautiful and were very simple like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.aweddingtodreamof.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hydrangea-bouquet.jpg&imgrefurl=www.aweddingtodreamof.com/2012/06/how-pick-your-flowers/hydrangea-bouquet/&h=300&w=310&sz=23&tbnid=6aSrINZ84S101M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=101&zoom=1&usg=__Yk2Pnqr31Yi41u75E0Y2Yg_Yi_k=&docid=f8zItURCsJFCqM&sa=X&ei=vRrGUfe2K8Wr0QXV9oDoBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFoQ9QEwAQ&dur=2710" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this

Thanks for all the replies.

I am making the invitations and the cake myself, so I would say I am fairly crafty, and I am good at watching videos and following them so I think it would be ok.

As for time, I realise it will be a squeeze, but I am super organised so hoping it wont be a problem. I will have people on hand to help too. SILTB is fairly crafty too (and shes a BM so she has to help :o )

I have found a video on you tube that shows how to wire the heads of the gerberas, I am sure it looks easier than it is but I think I will practice a few times before the day.

Would the gerberas in the table decs (just in vases of water) need wired too or is that just when tieing a bouquet?

That link to country baskets is great, they do an artifical one of exactly what I want for the same price as fresh. Just have to decide real/fake.

I am going to check out floristry courses. I am actually going back to college in sept so another evening shouldnt matter.

Great ideas here, thank you all. :)

It's worth going to check out country baskets, even if you don't use their flowers they have lots of other things. I got all the vases, ribbons, candles and the blank invitations I made there.
You do need a trade card but anyone who owns a business or is self-employed can get one. I just used my SILs who got one for their plumbing company.
They also have different flowers at different times of year.

We had gerberas for our table decs, twisted in a fishbowl with and orchid in the bottom. I'll see if I can find some photos. I would have loved to do real flowers myself but with artificial I could do them weeks before rather than the night before which helped.

Ah just realised they dont do online ordering, I am in N.I so none near me.

I used gerberas for my wedding. I found a local florist who would supply them wired for not much more than it cost wholesale. I did two simple handtieds for the bridemaids which took minutes (just needed a bit of nice wide ribbon and some pins). I did get the florist to do my bouquet and the buttonholes because it looked harder and I had enough to do!

For the table arrangements we did lots of little containers like jam jars, milk bottles, cut glass goblets (from charity shop), cheap little vases from ikea, all with strips of different colour coordinated ribbon and taffeta etc etc glued on, each with a couple of gerberas in. Looked brilliant and took only a few minutes to set up on the day.