Inexpensive flower options?

I don't really understand what the question is. Are you asking what flowers are less expensive? Are you asking about DIYing?

If you're worried about budget, just meet with a few florists. Show them this picture and your other inspiration pictures and tell them your budget. They are professionals and will be able to recommend similar shapes/colors that will be in season and in budget.

Sorry, should have been more specific. I plan on DIYing it, I know I've heard of places like Costco to be a good resource, but have also heard about different other options as well. Just wanted to know if anyone had a personal experiences DIYing their flowers and if so, where did they get them?

Most of the brides I've seen on here that did DIY used fake flowers - Silk or SOLA. I don't have any experience here, but if you're not on mobile you could try the search bar

Ok thanks @bryce! I'm on my phone now but will check it out soon!

Yeah, if you want to DIY definitely use fake flowers. Fresh flowers you'd be doing them all the day before and the morning of your wedding. A total nightmare.

However, I've also seen lots of brides who discovered that between the cost and time of DIY, it was the same price as a florist. Of course, you might want to use fake flowers so you can keep your bouquet.

Are you trying to DIY?

I found in my searches of online bulk flower vendors that it's hard to find something called "wildflowers" that matches the look you're going for-- you have to search by specific names-- and that wild-looking flowers aren't necessarily cheaper than other flowers, maybe $2-3 per stem depending on the variety/website. You might consider looking into pick-your-own farms in your area.

For what I wanted Fifty Flowers ended up being cheapest for almost everything. You might consider this farm pack (http://www.fiftyflowers.com/product/Assorted-Farm-Mix-Combo-Pack_274.htm) from them or these wildflower packs from Blooms by the Box (http://www.bloomsbythebox.com/pub/showvariety.cfm?categoryid=194)

The difficult thing is that when I think of wildflowers, I think of there being a big, diverse assortment of flowers, but with bulk online flower vendors, you are often limited in the number of different items you can buy (because they are sold in packs of large quantities).

ETA: if you are in an urban area, you might consider getting flowers at a flower market, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or a farmer's market.

My daughter was married in Palo Alto last year and we did the flowers ourselves. We purchased them at Trader Joe's. It was an enormous task. And while it turned out beautiful, I spent most of the day of the wedding creating the vases for the tables and putting together bouquets. I have another daughter getting married in November. I don't think I'm doing it again.

I did DIY centerpieces but hired a florist for bouquets and altar arrangements. I got the flowers on Wednesday (about 4 hours to dethorn and put in water), arranged on Thursday (about 5 hours), then just changed out the water on Friday and transported them to the venue for my Saturday wedding. They were small centerpieces so it wasn't complicated. I used Sam's Club and the flowers were excellent quality.

Another option is to do non-floral centerpieces like lanterns, pillar candles, etc and just hire a florist or diy the bouquets.

I've done the DIY thing for a number of friends' weddings and the only way to pull it off is to have more than one person helping you a few days in advance especially if you need more than just a bouquet a few boutonnières. Fiftyflowers.com is a pretty good resource to research flowers and greens and they even advise you how many days in advance you'll need the flowers to arrive. I'd definitely suggest getting quotes from local florists first. There really are some very reasonable ones that will work with small budgets. Besides searching Yelp and the wedding sites you should ask around any religious groups or small local shops what florists they've used. I had a friend that found this guy who did floral work on the side (he was a gardener I think) but his work was really good and super reasonable. I think he used to work at a florist at some point in his life. If there are any Hispanic or Asian areas in your city, check those out too because sometimes there are small florists in those areas that don't do too much online advertising.

Also most urban areas have some kind of flower mart that is usually for vendors only but they are open to the public during certain hours. I'm in SF and we have the SF flower mart that is open to the public after 9 am I think, and they have a huge variety of flowers and greens. Good luck!

I'm buying from Costco but I'm paying someone to put them together.

I had a friend who DIYed her bouquets and bought the flowers from Sam's Club. She kept it really simple though, and just did baby's breath bouquets. Using plenty of greenery is a great idea for saving money. Plus, I love the way greenery looks in bouquets.

Generally the flowers that are in season are cheapest. So I would probably plan on summer flowers. Wild flowers sound great.

We used Trader Joe's for our wedding centerpieces. I called a few weeks in advance to request the number of bouquets we wanted to purchase and they had them available Friday for me to pick up. I couldn't be specific about color, but the only options for hydrangeas were blue and white which happened to be my wedding colors. It cost me about $80 for 10 tables. I had three stems per bucket and I used the floral water beads to keep the stems in place.

I'm doing something similar to what you are doing. I went to a whole sale flower market (this one I didn't need a whole sale license to buy from) I want a lot of greens and wild looking flowers. My recommendation is to do a trial run for at least your bouquet and look at tutorials online. One tip the florist at the market gave me was to stand in front of a mirror when building my bouquet, it worked really well. Don't do fake flowers, they aren't as nice. If you think you can get the flowers done, you can!

I ordered my greenery bouquet from Whole Foods. It was $30.

Things to think about if you DIY based on my experience for our wedding - we bulk ordered from Sam's Club.

You'll need to order your flowers and have them delivered 3-2 days before event. You'll need to unpacked them, feed/water them and let them start to bloom. For wild flowers and greenery - some will have breakage since they are so delicate.

It takes a lot of time to arrange - even when I was just willy nilly-ing it, which took me about an hour and a half, the day of, and I only had about 25 vases to fill and 9 boutonnieres to make.

Places like Sam's and Costco have pre made wedding packages.

I went to the grocery for the flowers my bouquet and flower crown the morning of - which took me about 1/2 hour to whip together - again not neat or professional or elaborate - since I was going for a very laid back, thrown together, backyard feel.

I would highly recommend doing as little as possible the night before and day of your wedding, so you can just relax as much as possible, and just concentrate on getting ready. I also recommend not having anyone in your family or friends take on the responsibility.

Visit some florist, even ones at the grocery stores and see what you can fit in your budget.

I'm getting my flowers from whole foods but I'm not going the diy route. Honestly, at $20/centerpiece with peonies, roses and hydrangeas, it's so worth it. I probably wouldn't even save very much doing it myself and this saves hours of aggravation the day before the wedding.