diy Fresh Flowers

I was going to put together all our centerpieces and bouquets and was actually really excited about it, but then when I started thinking about transporting all of them (our venue is 45 mins from our house), that made me very anxious. So I ended up getting a florist to do them and deliver them and am so glad I got that weight off my shoulders. If I lived closer to our venue and wouldn’t have to drive so far with the flowers, I would’ve done them myself. Just something to think about!

I put together my centerpieces for my engagement party and although they came out great it was a lot of work and very stressful! Flowers all have their own process time of development and lots of tricks. Our party was a Friday so I picked up the bulk of flowers Tuesday afternoon and then put them in water all separate to open. Then started the process as roses take about 2 days to get to how I wanted them. If they don’t get there you can put hot water to speed the process. I love white flowers but they’re not easy to work with as they show they are dying much faster than other flowers. I finished all my arrangements by Thursday night and had to keep them all in the fridge so it wouldn’t go bad. Next day I was spraying them all day since didn’t have an option for a fridge. It is a lot of work and is not easy. My advice... do a trial before, it’ll help you know how many flowers you need, prep time for the flower to open naturally and ask the florist for help and tricks on this. For roses lots of ice water and keep the house cold while working with them.

This is the arrangements I made. I had foam inside soaked with water.

I'm doing my own floral arrangements (from the bouquets to the wine barrel arrangements) through Fifty Flowers. I'm going for a similar style.

Hey Lexi!

Do any of the women that will be helping you have any experience with flower arranging? It might be a good idea for, perhaps you and your bridesmaids/family members to check out some YouTube videos in advance so that there are some people there that know what everyone should be doing. I would also recommend printing out photos of your inspiration image so that people have a visual that they can reference.

First off, do your shower guests know that you will be asking them to work at the shower? If not, you can get a lot of resentment if they've already brought a gift, and are being asked to work, too.

Second, not everyone is good at flower arranging, even with a YouTube video. Are you willing to take the chance of amateurish bouquets and arrangements?

I did not personally do my own flowers, but I know several people that have. Sam's club has beautiful flowers you can buy in bulk! Maybe you and your bridesmaids can work on the centerpieces/bouquets after the shower?

I'm doing my own for my wedding in 13 days. I'll follow up with how it goes ;- ) haha

I did do a trial. I think its important to spend the money to buy at least 1 bunch of the flowers you are interested in. I found the different blooms all opened at different times. For example, roses were ready in 3 days. The carnitations (which are my favorite) took a full week to open. I'm nixing the carnations since I dont have that time and if I hadn't done the trial I would have bought a million of them.

Professional, elegant flowers aren't that important to me. I'm planning to spend just $200 for a small array of flowers and save the rest of the $ for food and alcohol. Just do whatever feels right for you in terms of importance. If flowers are high on your priority list, I would not reccomend having friends and fam do them for you.

I am doing my own flowers for my wedding on November 2nd. I have ordered several different flowers from Sams Club and Costco. All my flowers will be delivered Thursday for a Saturday wedding. We will hydrate them on Thursday and prepare bouquets on Friday.

I watched countless tutorials about flower care and how to arrange them on YouTube.

I did buy several flowers and tried things out. I did learn that you can speed up and slow down the flower opening/peak for each flower with the right method.

One other thing I did. I created a spreadsheet with every flower arrangement and bouquet and counted out exactly how many stems of each flower we need for the entire project. You want to have a specific count for each arrangement and not just wing it the day you are doing it.

Best of luck to you!