Can anyone tell me about flowers?

[Rootvegetables]

Can I do them cheaply? What do I need? Help! My bridesmaids are colourful, it's a church wedding I'm wearing ivory the wedding is a very DIY affair with hog roast so nothing glamourous. I'm having homegrown sweet peas on the tables.

Costs can be kept down if you choose flowers that are in season/can be native grown. Friends of ours bought their own from a fruit/veg/flower wholesalers, and family members assembled them.

You can do them as cheaply as you want.
Agree your budget and stick to it.
Lots of greenery is lovely and free if you pick it yourselves and wild flowers lovely too.

Expect to pay around £65 for a bouquet, £4 per button hole and £35 for a small table centrepiece. Does your church have someone who regularly does the flowers? They will often be happy to do them in your colours and are much cheaper than a florist. (This is outside London mind - I'd expect to pay more there).

We only had flowers in season, lots of ivy and ladies mantle from mum and dad's garden, mixed more expensive roses with daisies and little green chrysanths that were cheaper for table decs and had big vases of sunflowers rather than big floral decorations in the marquee. My clever sister made my bouquet too. I can't remember how much we spent but it wasn't loads. We had a hog roast too!

When and where are you getting married, OP?

I think it's worth having a florist doing your bouquet. Mine was £70, IIRC, and it was utterly perfect. We got all of the other flowers from a market and arranged them ourselves in bottles and jugs for the tables. They looked lovely and I think we paid £60 for the whole lot. There were loads!

Sweet peas sound lovely. And we had a hog roast, too. It was gorgeous and everyone loved it. Plus we took home all the leftovers and made them into delicious pies :o

Thanks for all the replies, I'm getting married in July this year, I'm very disorganised! We are on London so everything seems expensive! I love the idea of sunflowers maybe they would be nice in the church! Maybe if I can keep costs down for tables etc a proper bouquet won't seem so expensive, I want lots of summery bright flowers, not fussed really do a good tip about in season. The thing Im worried about if we don't have a florist is having to do them the night before when everything's mad busy anyway and then waking up and they're all wilted!

Is it just real flowers you wanted? Im having artificial ones for ours, 2 reasons. 1. My DP and my dad have really bad hayfever! and 2. so much cheaper, means you can also keep them too after :) for a bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaid bouquets and a handful of button holes its costing me 80.00 for the lot, and they look just as real as real flowers!

We had a bouquet for me and an arrangement for the registrars table. These were then brought in for dinner and used as table centrepieces as well. Had a vase ready to go and someone popped in the bouquet for me before dinner. Means you get much more use out of them.

Flowersandmore is a small business local to me that does the cake and flowers at a reasonable price OP. have a google. I know you said you're in London but she's Bedfordshire based so might be worth seeing if she'd be able to do flowers for your wedding?

Is it a church wedding? If so, speak to the ladies (it is always ladies!) who normally do the flowers and see what they recommend. They should be able to advise on things like pew ends, and whether there are any restrictions on what you can have (eg if you are getting married during Lent). Bear in mind that in a really big space (church, barn conversion, stately home) even a quite large flower arrangement can get lost, so you might want to think about a few carefully placed pieces rather than trying to cover the whole place.

And go seasonal, of course!

Worth looking at florists who work fro home as they won't have rent overheads.
I got quoted £140 for the bouquet I wanted (its quite big and tightly packed with flowers) a florist in next village and uses same supplier and works from home has quoted £50. She also wrote on the quote all the types of flowers she will use which means I can order the same flowers from local market to fill vases on the tables with the same ones used in bouquet for £5 a table.
Also worth asking on markets as a lot do bouquets (sadly ours doesn't)

We had a few little jars on the table with sweet peas and other flowers. Spread out they looked beautiful and were cheap! I think I'd always have my bouquet done by a florist but they should be able to stick to your budget and advise you what's in season or less expensive. We also had the venue put vases on the tables for the bouquets to go in during the meal so that added to the arrangements and kept them from being squashed.

I might be able to help you, op. Where in London are you?

Flowers need a lot more work than you realise. You cannot do some things until the day before/morning of the wedding so you'll need to be organised if you want to avoid the headless chicken effect! Remember, that you will have a lot of other stuff going on. Flowers are hard on your hands. (Florists have hands like gardeners.) So you may want to take this into consideration when planning if and when you are going to have a manicure!

Also, don't stint too much. Some brides think that flowers are temporary so will try to cut corners but remember that everything about a wedding is temporary and, as opposed to the food, a lot of the flowers will be in your wedding photos. If you bodge the flowers your photos will be a permanent reminder.

In order of importance, I would spend money as follows:-

Bridal bouquet
Bridesmaid bouquet
Buttonholes
Tables (because people spend a lot of time sitting looking at them)
Church (less important because you're only in there a short while / pew ends can be moved and double up as table centres)

Wow you have all given me food for thought! We don't really need any for the venue as it's outside and we've grown pots and hanging baskets plus sweet peas for tables but yes think il go for professional for me bridesmaids and button holes. I might try and do the church flowers myself as I think 2 vases stuffed full will be fine! I'm in south east near lewisham.

I'm guessing if it's vases of flowers a couple of days before means they should still be fine on the day?

kt1991 goodness me that's cheap for all your flower needs. Can you possibly let me know your fabric flower supplier?!

@OhTinky- I know we are really lucky! It?s a lady who works at the hall we are having for our venue, she is also providing all our table decorations, linen, and the chair covers with the bows for free! She goes to a local suppliers like a warehouse which sell a lot of things in bulk, and then makes it all together :)

You're miles away from me! Violets & Velvet are near Lewisham though and their work is beautiful.

When you speak to a florist, be honest with your budget. They will then be honest with you about what you can hope to achieve. Don't be put off by an expensive looking florist. More often than not, you will find they are far more creative and will use your budget far more wisely than a run of the mill Interflora-type shop.

Flowers in vases will be fine for a couple of days if you condition them properly/keep them cool/use flower food. Again, speak to a florist. You don't need to use a lot of expensive flowers to create impact and it will be very stressful to find out that every supermarket within a 15 mile radius only has car crash red, orange and yellow flowers when you are planning a pink and white wedding. Believe me, it happens!!!

Best of luck!

Also try asking your local women's institute - a friend did that and hers were lovely! Don't know what she paid but she said it was much cheaper than florist.