DIY Flowers
My Bouquet Inspiration
My bouquet will be shades of off-white and ivory with Vendela roses and mini calla lilies. I'm also including faux fiddlehead ferns I found at Michael's and three Swarovski jeweled dragonfly bouquet picks that my matron of honor gave me for Christmas. I had seen them at a bridal shop when we were shopping for her wedding last May, and she remembered them. Luckily, the store still had them when she went back several months later! I collect dragonfly objects because I think they're beautiful, and in Asian cultures dragonflies are a good luck symbol, so I guess that's a bonus!
Bridesmaids' Bouquets Inspiration
The bridesmaid bouquets will be a mix of Black Magic roses, Leonidas roses, orange calla lilies, and hypericum berries.
Groom's Boutonniere
The groom's boutonniere will have one or two white mini calla lilies, beargrass, and copper swirls to mimic the fiddlehead ferns that will be in the bride's bouquet.
Groomsmen Boutonnieres
The groomsmen boutonnieres will contain an orange mini calla lily, some hypericum berries, and some beargrass. The boutonnieres for the fathers and grandfathers will be the same except they will contain a Leonidas roses instead of a calla lily.
Ceremony Flowers
I bought some copper buckets from Joann's and we're going to hang them from the sides of the chairs along the ceremony aisle. These aren't the exact roses we'll be using (they'll be Leonidas and Black Magic like the bridesmaid bouquets) but they were the closest ones our local grocery store had. I picked up some Oasis floral foam, cut it to fit in the bucket, let it soak up some water, stuck the roses in, and voila! A nice dose of color for our ceremony site. I haven't completely decided how the ribbon will be on the buckets, but we'll figure it out.
DIY Flowers Trial Run
In order to take some pressure off our budget we decided to DIY our flowers. Don't get me wrong, I love flowers and wouldn't mind spending a fortune on them for our wedding, but we decided other things were more important (like great food and photos). I've decided to order our flowers wholesale from Fresh Roses. We'll be doing roses and mini calla lilies with some hypericum berry and beargrass accents. In May I ordered what they call a Rose Wedding Test Bunch. They send you 25 different roses in both their standard and premium lengths. I did this for a couple reasons- to see the quality of their flowers, to choose the colors we would get, and to practice receiving and hydrating the flowers. And arranging them a little bit! Here's how it went:
This is what the flowers looked like just after the FedEx guy dropped them off. I had just removed the leaves, cut the stems, and put them in water to hydrate. The two ivory roses closest to the camera are the Vendela roses I will be using for my bouquet. As you can see, Fresh Roses wraps little labels around the stem of each rose so you know the variety name as well as if it is a standard or premium length.
Again, the roses just after being put in water. The orange one is called Leonidas and the burgundy one is Black Magic. We'll be using both of these along with orange mini callas for the bridesmaid bouquets.
All of the roses I received in the test bunch, soaking up water. I thought the yellow one in front was really cool, though doesn't go with our color scheme at all- it had ruffly petals. In case you're interested, it's called Yellow Island.
Below are photos of the first bouquet I have ever arranged, made up of the roses from my test bunch. I am pretty happy with it considering I have never done this before. I think it will be even easier to arrange the roses when the flowers are all of the same variety. Since these roses are all different varieties, the heads of the roses are different sizes and they opened at different rates, making the bouquet look a little lopsided in areas. Overall, I'm happy with how it looks and it's given me some confidence that I can do my own flowers and they'll look great!
Our Floral Order
Here is a list of the flowers we ordered wholesale, as well as the supplies we purchased to arrange them-
Our floral order from 2groses.com:
- 25 Vendela (ivory) roses, all for the bride's bouquet
- 20 white/cream mini calla lilies, 2 for the groom's boutonniere and the rest for the bride's bouquet
- 75 Leonidas (orange & red bicolor) roses [27 for the bridesmaid bouquets (9 per bouquet), 3 for the father/grandfather boutonnieres, 6 for the guest book table arrangement, 35 for the ceremony aisle buckets]
- 75 Black Magic (burgundy) roses [27 for the bridesmaid bouquets (9 per bouquet), 6 for the guest book table arrangement, 35 for the ceremony aisle buckets]
- 30 orange mini calla lilies [27 for the bridesmiad bouquets (9 per bouquet), 3 for the groomsmen boutonnieres
- 10 stems of hypericum berry for groomsmen/father boutonniere accents and bridesmaid bouquet accents
- 1 field bunch bear grass for boutonniere accents and other filler
From the local grocery:
- A couple bunches of salal leaf (also known as lemon leaf) for greenery in the ceremony aisle buckets
From Afloral.com:
- One 16 ounce spray bottle of Clear Aquafinish (makes flowers look fresh and last longer)
- 3 Pack of Plastic Rose Strippers (for quick removal of thorns)
From Michael's:
- 2 pair floral shears
- 48 count package corsage pins
- 3 rolls of floral tape
Budget Breakdown of Our DIY Flowers
Here is the budget breakdown for each of our flower arrangements. For anyone considering doing their own flowers, you can definitely see that it will save you money when compared to hiring a professional florist. We also used floral tape and floral wire, but I did not include the cost in this breakdown because the cost and the amount of material we used was negligible (probably less than a dollar).
Bride's Bouquet:
- 25 Vendela roses = $22.00
- 18 white/cream mini calla lilies = $54.00
- faux fiddlehead ferns = $5.00
- white dupioni silk for stem wrap = $2.00
- Swarovski dragonfly bouquet picks = free (received as a gift)
Groom's Boutonniere
- 2 white/cream mini calla lilies = $6.00
- 2 stems bear grass = $0.20
- copper wire accents = $0.50
Bridesmaid Bouquets:
- 9 Leonidas roses = $7.92
- 9 Black Magic roses = $7.92
- 9 orange mini calla lilies = $32.40
- 2 1/3 stems Hypericum Berry = $3.99
- eggplant ribbon for stem wrap = $0.99
- copper wire for stem wrap = $0.50
Groomsmen Boutonnieres:
- 1 orange mini calla lily = $3.60
- 1/3 stem Hypericum Berry = $0.50
- 2 stems bear grass = $0.20
Father/grandfather Boutonnieres:
- 1 Leonidas rose = $0.88
- 1/3 stem Hypericum Berry = $0.50
- 2 stems bear grass = $0.20
Ceremony aisle buckets:
- 7 Leonidas or Black Magic roses (mixed) = $6.16
- 1 stem salal leaf = $0.70
- copper bucket = $4.99
- white satin ribbon for hanging = $0.70
Guest book table arrangement:
- 6 Leonidas roses = $5.28
- 6 Black Magic roses = $5.28
- 25 stems bear grass = $2.50
- dried curly willow stems = $4.79
- 16" tall x 4.5" square vase = $11.00
- river rocks = $2.00
Wondering how our DIY flowers turned out? Check them out here! To see our floral centerpieces, check out The Reception page.
Tips & Things I Learned From DIY Flowers
- Research the types of flowers you're ordering and their care instructions. Most of the flower wholesalers have this info on their websites. Some care info about lots of different flower varieties can be found here. Using flowers that are hardy and not very high maintenance will make doing your own flowers much easier. For example, the mini calla lilies we used were wonderful. They were easy to care for and lasted a long time. In fact, we left my husband's bout in the center console of my car and actually forgot it was there. When we returned from our honeymoon about a week later it was still in great shape! On the other hand, the rose bouts that we made for the fathers and grandfathers barely lasted through the reception. After lots of hugging and dancing they had wilted and were smashed to pieces. Had I known this would happen I probably would have used the mini callas for all of the bouts, but when I look at the price each rose bout cost, that makes me feel a lot better about them not lasting.
- Practice! If you choose simple designs, then arranging your flowers will not be difficult, but this is definitely not something you want to be learning the day before your wedding. There are plenty of videos online that will show you how to do this, such as this video about bouquets, and this one about boutonnieres.
- Have plenty of help, but not so many people that it's chaotic. You will want a couple of people available to help you on the day you receive your flowers. It will take a lot longer to cut, prep, and get your flowers in water than you think, so overestimate the time you allow for this. You will want to receive your flowers two days before your wedding, and arrange them the day before. It took my mom and myself about three hours to cut, dethorn, and strip all of the flowers that we ordered (see above list) when we received them two days prior to the wedding. The day before the wedding my mom, my aunt, two bridesmaids, and myself arranged the flowers. My mom and I tackled the harder stuff (bouquets and bouts) and my aunt and bridesmaids arranged the guest book table arrangement and the ceremony aisle buckets. They also finished up our reception centerpieces which were made with silk flowers.
- Delegate and prep ahead of time. Arranging the flowers was a little more chaotic and stressful than I had planned because I ran out of time prepping the materials. The ladies got to my house before I had everything ready for them, so I had to constantly stop what I was doing and either show them how I wanted something or go get them materials that they needed. This caused me to feel pretty flustered, and it took me probably twice as long to complete the arrangements I was working on than it would have if everything had been prepared for them ahead of time.
- Don't sweat the small stuff! Yes, it may be a title of a book series, but it applies to flowers too. If things aren't perfect, don't worry. Professional flowers aren't perfect either, you just tell yourself they are because of how much you're spending on them! A mini calla in one of my bridesmaid's bouquets started drooping as we were waiting for the ceremony to start. We didn't have any floral wire with us to wire it, so she simply held the stem up with her thumb and kept it toward the back of the bouquet- no one could tell!
- Overestimate. You will need more time than you think, and you should order more flowers than you think you'll need. When I did the trial for the ceremony buckets I used a different variety of rose than we ordered, because of convenience. I based the number of roses we ordered on the number of roses I used in the trial. The only problem with this logic is that the size of the roses I used in the trial was much larger than the size of the roses we used for the wedding. So... we didn't have enough roses to fill up the buckets. I sent the hubby-to-be on a flower run to the grocery store and we substituted some inexpensive greenery (salal leaf) for roses. The leaves added a nice splash of green to the ceremony buckets and filled any gaps that existed between the roses. Problem averted! Just remember to remain flexible and again, don't sweat the small stuff!