Do your own wedding flowers

Thanks for the info of the flowers, am gettign married for the 2nd time to a really lovely bloke, its his 1st time, so we are going for church wedding, & trying to do as much as we can ourselves, looked at the sire its fab, daughter saysd she'll do flowers for us.

ginger_spice wrote: »

Thanks for the info of the flowers, am gettign married for the 2nd time to a really lovely bloke, its his 1st time, so we are going for church wedding, & trying to do as much as we can ourselves, looked at the sire its fab, daughter saysd she'll do flowers for us.

I'm also getting married the second time in September. I didn't think a church wedding was possible. We are going to the registry office on Tuesday to try to book a date. Good luck with the arrangements.

Dumb question but I'm not a flower person. (Love saving money though!!) Can the bouquet be done the day before? If I keep the flowers in water will I end up being covered by dripping flowers?

I'm thinking of doing my own however as above am worried about the time factor and all the other things/people I will have to deal with

Good thing is though we are only having a reg office wedding and party at home so not got many to worry about. Thing is I get the feeling as soon as I walk to the florist and say the word wedding prices will triple

Im a wedding florist and to be honest we don't all triple prices when someone mentions 'wedding' .

Wedding flowers are a better grade quality wise, they normally have to be pre ordered in as well, hence you won't find wedding grade flowers in supermarkets who just buy in standard 'red roses, 'white roses' etc rather than better grade varieties such as 'Passion' or 'Akito'.
Fresh flower prices also fluctuate due to the UK wholesalers buying them at the European flower auctions, the price they buy for then dictates the price the UK wholesaler gets them for and so on, hence florists charge seemingly high prices. If you are getting married between Christmas right through to Mothers day the prices are higher, some flowers are priced through the roof during these times at the auctions, so the knock on effect takes place. Forget red around Feb as well, even if you don't want roses, anything red is priced highly.

My top tip for keeping costs down if you are buying from a florist is opt for flowers which are available all year round, and opt for very simple designs.
Making them yourself is a great way of saving, but you will obviuosly have to buy the flowers yourself - you can't always be sure you will get a trade card. Some wholesalers will want to see business info before they let you buy and business aren't really supposed to let the general public borrow their cards and it can result in the business loosing the right to shop again if they get caught (although I guess that would be up to them in the first place)

Silk flowers are another cheap option (this is what I specialise in) although again some of those are better quality than others so if you can buy them in and make the designs yourself you are saving again.

Im happy to give pointers to anyone who needs any advice with DIY flowers if you are stuck or just need some help.


To answer your orginal question, you can do the flowers the day before, keep them cool, out of direct sunlight and in water and they will be fine. Do not put anything in the fridge (as sometimes advised) the tempreture not suitable for fresh flowers and they could wilt as soon as they hit the warmer air.
If you are making a handtied design, simply take them out of the water about half an hour before you need to use them and dry the stems with some paper towels. You must remove all of the leaves below the binding point (this should be done before construction)