DIY Flowers vs Ordering Online vs Florist

The problem with florists is they just seem so darn expensive! Our whole flower budget is around $500, and with 7 tables at $60 each, that doesn't leave much room for my bouquet and FH's boutonniere.

What did you guys do for your flowers? I love that the florist will create your vision for you, but MAN do you pay for it! I also love the convenience of ordering pre-arranged centerpieces online, but it makes me so worried that I can't see the arrangements beforehand. Same with doing it totally DIY - I'm afraid that I'll pick out all the flowers I'd like and then put them together myself and they turn out to be a hot mess.

HELP!

Just FYI i asked the same thing on here and didn't get the response i was looking for, everyone basically told me it was a horrible idea and not to do it. BUT I'm doing anyway i agree florists are ridiculous and i plan on buying my flowers online or in bulk from sams or costco. i haven't don't it yet, but i will be sure to post about it and let you know when i have! i am not worried about putting anything together i am mostly worried about the condition of the flowers that i will be getting (in november)

I spent less than $250 on my hydrangeas, greenery, and paper flower supplies and we ended up with over half of it left over... So we could have gotten more money by buying smaller packages. Costco greenery 227 stems and 30 stem hydrangeas... 4 rolls of Italian crepe paper Also, only 100% DIY if you have a lot of help, it's a lot of work Costco has prearranged things too.

My friend DIY floral bouquets. She ordered the roses and they came 2 days before and were mostly closed but opened up beautifully by the day of. The only trouble was we didn't research proper storage after we put together the bouquets so they started to turn brown by the time we walked down the aisle. Figure that out and I think you'll be ok if you have the patience and support team.

@Finally mrs.jkr how did the hydrangeas hold up? i would really like to buy them for my wedding. i am concerned about it being november but hey, nothing is is season in november

We're not using a florist. Spending $2k on flowers didn't make sense to me. We're ordering bunches of babys breath, grasses, and zinnias from a local flower farm for $300 and assembling "centerpieces" out of mason jars and bud vases on each table. The jars/vases cost about $75 and I bought them all at Target. Sooooo easy.

I don't know about cold, but it was hot as heck on our wedding and they didn't wilt until the leftovers were sitting in in our hot back bedroom for 2 days after the wedding (and DH's boutonnière a little bit)

@Finally mrs.jkr i am not as concerned about them wilting in the cold, they will be inside the tavern, as i am with just receiving crappy flowers straight from costco.

You need to have proper refrigeration for the flowers and transportation to get the flowers there and set them up. Personally I would rather have a relaxing day than running around setting up the flowers. Yes you can do a good job for less money than a florist but it's too much of a hassle for me to want to deal with the day before my wedding. Honestly yes it would be nice to save $500 but with everything that you have to deal with when dying flowers it's worth the extra money.

Eta: all of my flowers from the florist is $1700, this is all of my tables and the BP flowers

From all the quotes i have gotten from florists here, i would be saving well over $1,000. running around a little stressed is definitely worth it to save my dad the extra $$

@Surfergirl, it's no hassle at all if you have them delivered to the event and a couple of helpful relatives to set them up DIY all the way, baby.

If you're content with fake flowers, you can do them all ahead of time. If you want real ones, you have to think about how much time you'll have in the last couple of days before your wedding, and how many people are volunteering to help. (Please don't try to draft people into doing it if they haven't volunteered!) You don't want to end up forgoing the bachelorette party, not being able to spend time with out-of-town guests you don't see very often, etc., because you're spending all your time putting together bouquets and centerpieces.

Also, if you're doing venue decorations rather than just bouquets and bouts, how early can you get into your venue to put them up? If you have to hire someone (or pay someone extra) to set up your DIY items, you may not save much over hiring a florist.

We thought about DIY for flowers. But we ultimately decided simply to have fewer flowers. We ended up with two bridal bouquets, one MOH bouquet, one bout, and some freeze-dried flower petals for decorating, for a total of about $250. All of our decorations were nonfloral.

Great @jessica hope it works for you. But I have to say that I am pretty pleased with the price my florist gave me using all in season flowers. I suppose it just where your priorities are. I also would not want my relatives to have to worry about getting everything set up for me.

^^you just gotta make sure that they're willing, no, HAPPY to help. I knew FH and my families love crafts, DIY stuff. I've happily helped with many weddings, and they were so excited for mine and asked what they could help with. My MOH and I did most all of the flowers though, and it took less than an hour

Classic..."I didn't get the response I was looking for but I'm doing it anyway"

@Ashley - I will be having hydrangeas at my wedding and the florist said they should hold up VERY well.

I decided to go the florist route (to me it as worth the extra money vs running around the day of the wedding). I think my total will come out to less than $1500 (right now the estimate is at $1253 - but I've had to add 4 small pew arrangements, one boutonniere, and one floral corsage, since I received the estimate).

I have heard/seen wonderful arrangements from Costco - so that is always an option and maybe you can control more when you get the flowers?

@Pinky Winter Promise awesome!

@Celia Milton i don't see anything wrong with asking for opinions and not taking them. it might not turn out the way i want it to, but that is my decision to make. i have asked several times on here for a dive from people who HAVE done things a certain and gotten nothing but negative DONT DO IT's. i was just trying to give her some support for an idea that i think will be just fine

We decided on a florist because I know myself and I procasinate DIY anything. We are actually spending a lot on florals, but they all come with gorgeous rentals, customized fabric wrapped boxes (for our escort card table), and all the candles you can imagine everywhere.

I actually got a few quotes from other florist and for what we wanted were more and they didn't have exactly what I was envisioning. The florist I wanted had EXACTLY all the rentals I had envisioned (aka my pinterest board centerpieces- I fell in love with 2 centerpieces a high and a low and she had everything we needed to recreate the look!). I think considering everything we are getting from ceremony decor, to cocktail hour decor, to reception decor, plus the florals for our wedding party is a REALLY good deal!

I think she gave me a lower quote because I know her through my friends wedding and FHs friends wedding. So, I had talked to her when we first got engaged and told her I wanted her to be my florist (not even knowing her costs just her work was stunning) and sure enough I am using her 3 years later (we been engaged since June of 2012, but just started planning last October).

I will be donating our florals to a local hospital or something after so they don't go to waste. Flowers make a lot of people happy, well IMO whenever I even buy flowers for our house I smile. Lol. I love flowers, so there was no question that was going to be a huge decor cost.

Awesome @JKR glad that it worked for you. I just love flowers and want lots of them. I kow that I won't have the room to keep them fresh before the wedding if i try to diy them and I already have plenty of stuff that I have already diy'd and need to bring over to the venue without needed to worry about my flowers also. Next to photography flowers came in at a close second on where I was willing to spend the money.

Glad that doing the flowers yourself worked for you but I am not interested in dealing with the extra stress and I would not have left it up to my family to do it on their own, that is why I am spending the extra money for a professional. Sorry I stated my opinion.

Eta: I was also considering doing wildflowers from a local farm and could have and would have done it one my own if I thought that it was worth the extra stress. It's personally not worth it to me but it might working for the OP. Out of all of the arrangements you could do wildflowers would be the simplest. They are just other things you need to consider. I also know that my family would gladly agree to deal with the flowers but I feel like it isn't something they should have to worry about.

I'm spending the next few weeks reaching out to florists to see if it's even going to be possible for us. I totally agree with how much work it is to put together flowers, and I'm not totally decided if that's something I'd want to do. I'd be more concerned about the quality of the flowers ordered rather than the time spent arranging them, but that's just perfectionist me!

Luckily our venue is absolutely gorgeous as-is and really doesn't require much decoration. Considering my fiance and I are both wedding photographers, our main focus is on the photography. As long as the flowers photograph well and are the style we're looking for, we're set! I'm mostly just wanting a nice full centerpiece that doesn't leave the table feeling underwhelming. If that comes from a florist - so be it!