Whole Foods?

I had some Publix wedding cake once and it was amazing! They even deliver it, for a fee.

My wedding is going to be a breeze because my FH and I are getting married on an all inclusive yacht. I'm so happy I decided on it because it makes everything stress free! I'm going to be going to school next semester and the wedding will be right after finals. If I had to do all the planning I have no clue how I'd handle the stress! I was stressed like crazy just looking for the freaking place so I can't imagine having to plan everything else!! The price is amazing!! We are having about 40 people and its going to cost us 6100 or so. Any other costs will be my dress and his tux.... Thank god I found what I did lol props to all the other brides planning everything!!

I typed a very detailed comment and WW ate it smh. Anyway, I got a good deal on flowers at WF. Be willing to work with the florist, know how much you want to spend and you should be fine. I got my bouquet, 4 BM bouquets, 7 bouts and 2 corsages for $220.

Publix cakes ROCK!

@JSmith2U - your bouquet is gorgeous! I really don't care what my bouquet looks like and the cheaper the better. I'm perfectly okay with hydrangeas even. But you got an excellent deal at WF and it would seem that your dollars were well spent. Thank you for the insight!

@md421 - thank you for the information

I will definitely be speaking with their florist.

@ Amanda thank you! Go to at least two different locations and look at the prearranged bouquets for sale. You can get a good idea of the florists skill set by looking at how well they are arranged. Take inspiration photos so they can get an idea of your style and let them know what you've seen at the store that you liked as well.

@JSmith - unfortunately we only have one WF here in town, and that was a big deal on its own lol (our citizens actually started a petition requesting our city allow WF to locate here...politics!). But I've seen some of what the florist(s) do and it's simple but pretty. Again, thank you for being helpful

Do babies breath bouquets for the bridesmaids. Inexpensive and you can DIY. I looked up a tutorial on YouTube. It'll come out way less than $35ea. You can also look for easy DIY babies breath bouquets. I'd just pay for a nice bouquet for yourself done by a professional. Here is my DIY babies breath bouquet. Just a trial, I plan on better ribbon but just to give you an idea.

Nessa- that looks great! I've seen bouquets of babies breath but didn't realize how easy it was to do on your own. You did a great job! Did you order it in bulk online or...?

Publix cakes are amazinggggg

Thanks @amanda! I watched a few YouTube tutorials of different florists and their advice. It requires a little technique but honestly nothing you can't do. I'm not the most crafty person and still found it easy.

I purchased these from a regular florist, $15/bunch only because it was my trial. I would purchase wholesale the day of (but not sure from where yet) even at $15ea it's cheaper. This was one bunch. You can make them smaller or lager. I bought cheap ribbon at Walmart, but they have nicer ones that are still inexpensive and bought the pins there too. You can buy the tape on Amazon. I used regular rage for the trial but I'd buy something sturdier for the day of. The YouTube tutorials explain the exact names of all that.

I ultimately followed this lady's instructions:

https://youtu.be/467PDqmeDwg

I have a question Amanda-- what happened to your budget that you had to slash everything so much?

Also check Sam's club for flowers as well. They sell by color (like buy the purple package) but are very nice

My quote from Whole Foods was double what the florist is charging

@Now - nothing happened with the budget necessarily. We just realized that

1) 4K is WAY too much for alcohol when we know that at least 20 family members won't drink but we would still have to pay $24PP for just beer and wine

2) he will need a new car most likely by the end of the year, his is practically dead and we need to start funneling more money towards a down payment on that rather than a stationary suite or wedding favors

3) we are paying for almost 85% of this wedding on our own. He works 12 hour swing shifts with mandatory overtime, I'm a FT banker AND I wait tables about 30 hours a week in addition. We're tired of killing ourselves for unnecessary things. We want to be able to spend more time together instead of picking up more shifts to cover the things that keep popping up. We just had a moment of clarity in the car the other day and just agreed to go over everything we had done so far and see where we could trim even more fat.

Meg - why do you think that was? Do you think they just blind-quoted you or maybe their prices were higher just because?

I thought about getting the BM bouquets from WF. They had small ones for $10 that I thought were perfect size. If you put 2 together, it would be enough for the bridal bouquet, IMO.

@Ally- WOW! That has a really classic, but a bit of modern look to it. And for $20, you can't really beat that!! It even looks like it has lambs ear (?) in it, neat! Thank you for the idea, I'm unusually excited to go to WF on my lunch hour tomorrow!

@amanda a lot of us pay for our own weddings but I understand the pressure. Your original post just comes across as "I just want to cut cut cut no matter what" instead of focusing on the experience for you guests. If you're tired of waiting tables and extra jobs maybe a very small wedding is a better fit for you or pushing the date out. Just other suggestions instead of going cheap on your guests.