Florals on a Budget

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I've been hearing good things about them and will definitely look into that! Thanks for the tip.

Flowers are expensive. I personally am not a huge fan of fake flowers and the really nice silk flowers are just as expensive, if not more so, than fresh. I would personally rather have fewer floral pieces that are really nice vs a lot of cheap looking plastic ones. There are some non-fresh alternatives (like sola wood flowers, dried flowers, or higher end silk ones) that can be really pretty, but you likely won't save a ton of money compared to fresh flowers, although you will be able to keep those options after the wedding and repurpose them later, which is nice. Inexpensive fake flowers just look tacky IMHO. If you have a limited florals budget, I'd consider where you really need flowers and where you don't.

For example, we decided against doing corsages for our moms - I asked them both and neither cared much for them, as they tend to be bulky and itchy and awkward. That alone probably saved us $50+. You may decide boutonnieres aren't really necessary (are they?). For arbor decor, using some drapery can allow you to use a smaller floral swag, which can save money. Also, talk to your florist about using in season flowers, greenery, or less expensive flowers to bring down the cost of your arrangements. Some flowers are just more difficult to source, more expensive, or hard to find during certain times of year, so being flexible with which flowers you use can help manage the cost a lot.

Keep in mind that anything you DIY is going to need to be done in advance, unless you magically don't have a lot of other things to do the days leading up to your wedding. If you are not practiced with arranging flowers, you don't want to be trying to do an arbor installation with fresh flowers the day before or morning of your wedding. This is where artificial flowers can come in handy, because they allow you to do assembly well before your wedding. Personally, I'd invest in sola wood (which actually look really nice and would be my "go to" if you are using fake flowers) or nicer silk blooms, as opposed to picking up what is standard on the shelf at Michaels. Dried flowers can also be really beautiful, although they tend to be delicate.

For our wedding, we are doing bouquets for the bride and maids, boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen, FOG, and officiant, arbor swag with drapery, and then bulk flowers to DIY our own table decor. For table decor, we are doing scattered bud vases so we need fewer flowers than we would if we did larger centerpieces. I considered doing a garland for the tables, but it's super expensive! We'll also have vases on hand to re-purpose the bride and bridesmaid bouquets for some of the feature tables - mine at the sweetheart table, and the maids' at our escort card table and the table where we have photos, our card box, favors, etc.

For flowers, I think quality over quantity is key, and if done right, less can really be more.

I am DIYing flowers for my wedding, but the venue has silk flowers to decorate the arch, ceiling, anything else we need. I might consider silk flowers for those things because you’ll have to use floral foam and seems complicated, so it’d be nice to get it out of the way. I practiced making bouquets with Trader Joe’s flowers, and in my opinion, making bouquets are not that hard if you practice a few times. You should try practicing with some grocery store flowers to practice making bouquets, bouts, etc. Watch flowermoxie’s videos on YouTube they’re super helpful!

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Great suggestions! I am putting together my ideas and the DIYing parts for (most of) the centerpiece parts and the arch are all going to be done way in advance. I'll look the videos up. Thank you!

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Wow! Thanks for the detailed tips...this is definitely useful.

My centerpieces are all going to be pre-assembled other than the baby's breath to be put in bottles the morning of. The arch swag is also predone and will be installed by the coordinator.

I am not a huge fan of faux flowers as well, which is why I posted the question. Although I have seen photos of some really nice looking ones, so I thought someone might have better experience with them and where to source them. The wood flowers look really nice, but tend to be expensive and while they are really pretty, I'm not sure they fit the look I'm going for. I will look further into that in case I might see some I would like.

Thank you again!

We have a smallish budget and I was SHOCKED by the prices I got from florists. Flowers aren't the most important thing to me, but I still wanted them and couldn't stomach spending so much on flowers that will die in 5 minutes, especially because the florist required a delivery fee of $300+ even though the venue was just down the road!! I ended up going with a seller on Etsy who has gorgeous artificial bouquets that will last forever and I can re purpose as decor in our house! I got ALL the bridal party bouquets/bouts/corsages, and a gorgeous archway piece for the same price that the other florist was offering for half the flowers. Crazy! For the flowers in our centerpieces and other decor we are getting a few stems and bouquets of our flower from Michaels/Amazon and DIYing it.

We had flowering plants, one per table. A friend planted roots of climbing roses in 3 long window boxes, each with a trellis above, and transported them by van, our wedding backdrop of climbing blaze roses 8 ft wide. Had to be started months in advance. The flowering bulbs or cuttings for begonia plants no care but watering, but had to be started out of season so blooming at the correct time. Super cheap, and because we chose ones that bloom indoors all winter, we, our parents, my grandmother, and his great aunt enjoyed them at home. A piece of foil over tge dirt when on the table prevented any earthy smell. An early fall wedding, Our friend got a price deal on big pots of Chrysanthemums, 20 for $100 , to use on sign in or decorative tables, top of patio low wall. They ran about one quarter of what we had been quoted from the liwest florist. My Matron of Honor and I did not carry bouquets, just 2 BM and MOH. I have been in many weddings where no one wanted a corsage pinned on the front of a silky material, or strapless, so I asked. 1 on FI side, GM, wore a jacket and would love one. Others, no thank you. And no one wanted wrist ones. So we got one flower delivery of blueish purple Japanese iris ( not the super large dutch) to split for 3 small bouquets, with ribbon. And we got 50 stems assorted colors Japanese iris that we split into bunches, a small vase in front of the place of each woman we would have given a cordage to. $90, instead of 10 corsages, which places prices Japanese iris with orchids, $35-45 per corsage.
The roses planted and cared for, were $40, plus 3 metal flower boxes. Since we lived in a rental then, we planted them after cutting back, at my parents. They expanded to 12 feet within 3 years, and late winter 3 years later we transplanted half to our new house. We both have 7-8'ft high, over 13' walls of climbing blaze roses at our houses11 years after transplanting. Long run economical. But beautiful to get married in front of. Nice artificial flowers are excellent savings too. You might want to ask, who is actually interested in having a corsage, and may find it is only those wearing a sturdy jacket that would rather that over mini-bouquets they can take home. Bulk flowers are cheap. If all you are doing is putting a bunch of flower stems in a cheap vase, and 1 ribbon, no fancy arranging for 4-6 stems, they are not time consuming. Huge savings are possible if you minimize or cut out florist priced cut flowers, and do a bulk order. And flowering plants , small to see over at tables, are way cheaper than arrangements. We did 3 large rooms, one ceremony , one dining, and large Inn living room 20 X 36 with individual chairs loveseats and little tables, conversation areas.
These were the only purple climbing roses our friend found hardy in our N New England area. The first couple years, they stay flat against a trellis or arbor. Then they get nuts in a warm year, and need cutting back if you do not love the wild look. we cut off branches to bring in, or start new plants.
Below, Japanese iris for BMs and MOH, and mixed colors for vases in lieu of corsages.

I was able to purchase flowers for center pieces ordering flowers in bulk online! You can order some ahead of time to see what they look like. But flowers for 16 tables, 3 bridesmaids and a brides bouquet came out costing me only $650. I order some things from Costco/samsclub and other flowers from FiftyFlowers.com

View Quoted Comment Fifty flowers did our two 50 stems iris for $90 orders. Fresh cuts on bottom stem, no browning edges til about 4-5 days later. Flowers and delivery exactly as promised.

I'm doing all silk flowers. My mom and I have made so many fake flower arrangements that it isn't funny. Plus I love the idea of saving money and being able to do it early. I'm thinking of buying a small arrangement of flowers in my colors the day before and putting them in my bouquet so it smells nice.

We're doing real flowers because they're our only real decor and because my family is all really anti-fake-flowers (they all touch flowers at events to see if they're real). I don't think fake flowers are tacky, really my family is tacky for touching everyone's flowers, but it's just a thing, so I'm going with it. In total, we'll have some pieces on the stairs of the mansion on the railing with ribbons connecting them, a piece overtop the pergola for the ceremony, full bouquets for me and all the women in the wedding party, real petals for the flower girls and their baskets will be decorated with flowers and greenery, centerpieces, focal pieces for the head table, pieces at each of the bars, and then single stems at each table during cocktail hour and a few smaller decoration pieces at the stationary tables during cocktail hours.

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Definitely check out Etsy. There are some really amazing sola wood bouquets and swags and such on there, although they are pretty pricey and probably similar in cost to fresh flowers. They will last for years/decades though! Something like sola wood bridesmaid bouquets could even double as your bridesmaid gifts if you let your girls keep them after the wedding, so there could be some cost savings if you get creative.

Another thing to consider with faux vs fresh flowers - fake flowers don't cause allergies, but they also don't have the heavenly smell of fresh blooms!

We are planning all fresh flowers for our wedding and I had a fresh bouquet for our covid elopement. I got some Activa Flower Drying Art silica sand and picked a few choice blooms from my elopement bouquet to dry and they came out really well (much nicer than drying flowers the traditional way, by hanging them upside down). I am hoping to put them in a shadow box and use them as decor in our home. It was a bit of a gamble but I figured that the flowers are so expensive it would be nice to find a way to have them last longer and repurpose them instead of just composting thousands of dollars at the end of the day.

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"I don't think fake flowers are tacky, really my family is tacky for touching everyone's flowers, but it's just a thing..."

This made me laugh. I definitely touch and smell flowers at events and get so disappointed when they aren't real!

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I do, too! I always feel awful later because I know flowers are expensive, but I'm like a kid in a candy store - I just LOVE real flowers! I swear it's genetic, my whole family does it.

My flower budget is included in my decor and i am absolutely diy-ing every bit of it. i made my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquet, all boutonnières, and will be making all swags, arch pieces, centerpieces, aisle/lobby/lawn decor, etc. i personally like it better that way because im a diy bride and want to oversee everything. all brides are different and have different preferences. i chose to do so not because flowers were expensive, but because i felt like that was something i needed to be in control of to make sure they turned out flawlessly. if you feel like you could handle the diy aspect or would prefer it, i say go for it! its honestly trial and error. maybe you could play around with a few items from dollar tree and go from there. good luck love!!! things will work themselves out.

Also, i think i heard that sam's sells flowers in bulk. maybe you could do something like that?

I used Sola wood flowers they were way cheaper to DIY

My cousin did borrowed blooms for the stuff other than her bouquet and they look great. She also loved that she didnt have to do it and they didnt have to worry about clean up for them.

Trader Joe’s also has beautiful cheap flowers for bouquets! Not as bulk but definitely worth checking out.

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Those are sooo pretty! And that color is amazing!

Thanks for all the details...the difference will be my wedding is at the beginning of October in Florida, so might be too late to plant stuff for blooming at the time. I have looked into bulk ordering and am now even more convinced that we can DIY most of these. Thank you! Your post was quite inspiring!