DIY Flowers Success!

Looks pretty! Can you post more pictures and give us details on how many flowers and how many centerpieces you were able to make?

Thanks for the tip! I'll be using a combination of flowers from those vendors as well, so it's good to hear you had a positive experience!

Here's a breakdown of what I ordered...theme was "vintage" and these really fit the bill

Fifty Flowers:

Creamy Ivory Peony Rose - 144 stems - these were plump and stunning

White Cloud Spray Garden Roses - 8 bunches - these were really lovely as well

Billy Balls - 100 stems - cute accent flowers

Dusty Miller - 100 stems - perfect filler for a vintage theme

Sam's Club:

White Hydrangeas - (2) orders of the "30 stems". These were really big and full (bigger than those I've picked up at Trader Joe's on occasion). A lot of "bang for the buck" on these!

Whole Blossoms:

Lavender: 12 bunches. My daughter specifically wanted Lavender, and not many places had it. Ended up with a lot more than we really needed.

White Wax Flower: 20 Bunches. Went with these over Baby's Breath. So happy with this choice - Wax Flower has a lovely "vintage" effect and is very full. My other daughter and I had purchased both Baby's Breath and Wax Flower months ago for a "mock up" and we both preferred these. I think Baby's Breath has a bit of a "cheaper" look to it. 20 bunches turns out to be tons!

This is a LOT of flowers! We made 6 bouquets, 5 bouts, 10 med size pails for aisle decor, 12 large centerpieces, 12 smaller centerpieces, 4 entryway displays and many, many accent/bud vases. Our venue was a historic building with lots of different rooms so lots of space to tuck flowers into! Same venue for both ceremony and reception.

Here's a photo of just one of the centerpieces:

Here's b/w of one of the pails. Accented with paper "book" flowers and added little LED lights for a bit of a glow.

Your arrangements are stunning! Nice job!

I love your arrangements! You might need to look into doing as a side business

Thank you! It wasn't too difficult to arrange with the flowers we had...hydrangea, garden roses and wax flower in vintage containers...then a few of the other accent flowers to really fill it up. I had help from my sister and daughter (the bride) to do the centerpieces and none of us had ever "done flowers" before! I'm very proud of us :-) I think we might have struggled a little bit if we were doing a more "formal" type of look - but I'm a consummate DIYer, so I probably still would've tackled it!

The day before the wedding we had more help from my mom and nieces and we did the pails and bouquets and bouts. My sister and I had watched a couple youtube videos and sorta demonstrated how to arrange things. Once everyone got going, they became less intimidated and more confident seeing how lovely the arrangements were turning out.

The day of, we took the flowers we still had and placed wherever we could (all over!). We had tons of vintage bottles and containers and crates from a year of visiting thrift stores and antique markets. We had plenty of blooms to spread around!

Nice job, thanks for posting, I found this helpful.

This has me tempted to DIY my flowers. I'm using calla lily and Sam Club has them but I was hesitant that they may not be is good condition and I would be stuck days before my wedding. I found a florist that will do all my personal flowers. 10 bouts, 1 bridal bouquet, 5 bridesmaids, 2 wrist for $560. I feel like that's a good deal and will save me the frustration but you have me tempted. Lol

Good job!! and that's real money in your pocket that you saved. I spotlighted with a few silk arrangements and have some nice permanent mementos. Check out http://silkflowerarrangementsonline.com/silk-arrangements/ , I love my little orchids.

You did so great!! All of the hard work paid off.

These look beautiful! I have a quick question for you. We have a florist who is making all of the floral arrangements that really require time and skill (bouquets, boutonnieres, etc.), but in order to shave off some costs, we are going to be making small arrangements for the tables ourselves (cut flowers set into mason jars and small vases).

We plan to do these the day before, like you did your pails and vases. My question- how did you keep them looking so nice overnight, after they had been cut? I'm hoping that since our wedding is in Oct it will be cool enough to keep them in the garage overnight, but I keep second-guessing myself! Any suggestions? Did you add plant food or anything overnight?

Hi Leigh -

I did tons of research beforehand and learned the following tips:

First, I used distilled water (NOT tap water) and added flower food (Floralife) for everything (i.e. the tub that I used to cut the stems in, buckets to hold processed flowers, the vases, floral wet foam for the pails)

Second, as stated above, I filled a basin with enough water/food to give each stem a fresh cut under water.

Third - I used "Quick Dip" (by Floralife) - it helps the stems to hydrate

Fourth - I also used "Crowning Glory" (also by Floralife) came across this experiment which sold me: http://flirtyfleurs.com/the-testing-of-crowning-glory/ I don't work for Floralife, just happened to buy their products.

Process was to add flower food to all our water, then use this water to fill a shallow basin, buckets and vases. Took the stems, removed lower leaves off all and guard petals off roses, put them in the shallow basin to cut off about an inch of stems under water. Then did a quick dip in the "quick dip" (see how that works, haha) and then plunked them into the big buckets of water with the flower food.

We did everything in a cool basement (this was mid-August in MI). We received some of the flowers on Wednesday (for Saturday wedding) so processed those and then received the bulk of the flowers on Thursday. After processing everything Thursday, we decided to go ahead and start on all the centerpieces even though the flowers weren't fully opened up. We needed the head-start and then we assessed what they all looked like Friday afternoon and tweaked where needed.

Once we were done for the day on Thursday, we sprayed EVERYTHING with the Crowning Glory.

Friday afternoon, we did the pails and bouquets and bouts. I used wet floral foam for the pails and soaked the foam first in a water basin with floral food. Again, gave everything a spritz of the Crowning Glory.

An added complication is that I am from out of state, so we "borrowed" the basement we were working in. Friday evening, we had to load everything into our vehicles and drive cross-town to my hotel room (a very hot day, to boot). We were quite the spectacle with all our floral arrangements going into the elevator! We got to rehearsal just in the nick of time only to discover that they had a beer cooler (the venue is a concert hall of sorts) that we could store all our flowers in for the night! After rehearsal, my brother went back to the hotel to give the flowers another adventurous ride to the venue, lol. After all that, they still looked amazing!

I'm sure if you are using a garage in Oct, it will be cool enough. I do think using the combination of food, quick dip and the Crowning Glory helped a LOT. I have lots left over of the products, so I'm using it at home now for my little bouquets I pick up from the grocery store and I do notice they hold up better.

Hope this helps!

Tammy, this is wonderful information. Thanks so much for sharing!

Thank you so much! That's extremely helpful, and I will look into quick dip and crowning glory. You're a lifesaver - I don't have much of a green thumb, and was a little worried!

These look great! Thanks for the tip.

Wow - these look great! Thanks for sharing all of the helpful info!

They turned out great! Thanks so much for all the advice.

Just look at the site you links for the crowning glory spray. We are thinking about doing our own flowers and , wow, what a difference. Thanks for the info!

I have been considering going with fifty flowers, did you get quotes from a florist and if you did were the savings pretty significant? they are so pretty!!