Do your own wedding flowers

[MrsTine]

Shamelessly stolen from AshSimmo (Fantastic find!!!!)

How to make a wedding bouquet

How to make a corsage

How to make a floral Centrepiece

How to arrange flowers for a small vase

How to make a floral buttonhole

How to arrange a ball of Flowers with oasis

How to make a floral head dress

How to make a floral dog collar

How to make cheap flowers look expensive

How to arrange flowers in a large vase

[ginger spice]

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.

[MrsTine]

It's really not as hard as you might think I had a play about with some flowers last week and the results were good enough that several people asked where I'd bought the arrangements and the bouquet
Just make sure that if you need specific flowers for your theme then order them specially from the florist

[angelavdavis]

Originally Posted by ginger spice

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.

[mrsnicolaray]

That's brilliant! I always thought about doing my own flowers, but got my mother in law to do them! It all looks so easy though!

[sandcastle]

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?

[flugellover]

Love this thread - getting married next August , with Mum, an Aunt and me doing flowers for the church and reception.We did this for my sisters a few years back - my aunt got a card for a flower wholesaler in Edinburgh (through her church)- cheaper than buying flowers through a florist. May be worth asking around if anyone you know might have similar/know someone through a church or such like.

You do have to get up at the crack of dawn to go, and you can't be 100% sure you will get specific flowers, so being flexible is a good idea.

Sister ended up getting a florist made bouquet just to take the pressure off us if anything didn;t go according to plan!

Just thought I would add that into the mix!

[Summer29]

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

[Destined to be skint]

Why not ask for a handtied bouquet, Summer29? If you need buttonholes get them from another florist so they don't twig!

I'm hoping to do my own flowers (mad I know) and am currently doing my City & Guilds in flower arranging, so I'll be doing all the reception stuff and having corsages instead of bouquets. If you lived in London I'd offer to help out!

[DaisyClaire]

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)

[missmcardle]

thanks to these wonderful links I will be making my own bouquet for my wedding on the 5th January
I always knew that bouquets would be expensive so looked around for ideas/inspiration. I then went into my local florist today to ask how much a bouquet would be and she said the cheapest would be £80, which is still a lot of money considering I'm trying to work to a budget, I would much rather the money be spent on something a little more longer lasting. anyway, I spoke to the lady about individual prices for flowers and have ordered in 15 ivory roses and 3 pink stargazer lillies. the roses are only costing me £1.50- £2 maximum each, and the lillies are £3 each.
take note that apparently roses are a little more expensive at christmas time, and also with weddings at the beginning of January, it can be harder to obtain flowers as the markets aren't on over christmas and new year.

[MsChazzer]

I thought I had come up with a great idea for my bridesmaids. There's a couple of shops in Edinburgh called Napiers who sell bunches of lavender (you can get them in other places, I know I've seen them) for about £5 each. I was going to get them one of these each and tie a nice ribbon round them.

I was in Napiers the other day and had a closer look at them, picking one up. Some of the lavender fell off, hardly any, but I realised that it wouldn't take long for them to be looking pretty bare after being carried about.

Just thought I'd warn anyone who had the same idea. Back to the drawing board!

[miss kat]

Thought I'd post this as I thought they'd make lovely table centrepieces...

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to...cts/ivy-heart/

You just need to add a bit of ribbon or some little fairy lights and they'd look really nice.

[shelovestobuystuff]

I found some video on flower arranging for weddings along with loads of colour theme ideas at www.marthastewart.com
Some of the links on the site dont work though as they are quite old but still loads of good info and photos for inspiration.

[Horace]

Victorians used to assign meanings to their flowers to send a secret message of love, here is a list of a few of them that might be useful:

Alstoremeria devotion
Baby's Breath pure of heart
Calla Lily beauty
Camellia excellence, beauty
Carnation, white perfect loveliness
Chrysanthemum, white truth
Daisy innocence
Delphinium open heart and deep attachment
Gardenia refinement
Lily of the Valley return of happiness
Magnolia magnificence
Lily, white sweetness and purity
Orchid love and beauty
Ranunculus radiant with charm
Rose, red I Love You
Rose, white purity and love
Rosebud, red pure and lovely
Stephanotis happiness in marriage
Tulip, red love
Violet faithfulness

[paddingtondoo]

Had a trial with my wedding bouquet yesterday.
Bought:
10 roses
2 bunches of gypsophilia
2 bunches of sea holly (bit like thistles)
9 bits of green stuff

Total cost £10, took 15 mins and it looks fantastic. The women on the market stall had a bouquet made up almost exactly the same and she was selling it for £35

[shelovestobuystuff]

Originally Posted by paddingtondoo

Had a trial with my wedding bouquet yesterday.
Bought:
10 roses
2 bunches of gypsophilia
2 bunches of sea holly (bit like thistles)
9 bits of green stuff

Total cost £10, took 15 mins and it looks fantastic. The women on the market stall had a bouquet made up almost exactly the same and she was selling it for £35

Please post photos,I would love to see the flowers.I am having sea holly too and dont know quite how it will work in an arrangement.

[paddingtondoo]

Not sure how good this will look as its a pic from my friend's mobile but they look lovely
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/k...08/bouquet.jpg

I tried to paste it straight in but it was huuugggge

I'm having white roses on the day but £1.50 each wasn't very MSE just for a trial

[shelovestobuystuff]

Gorgeous.I can picture it with white roses and it will be perfect.I love the sea holly in there.

[paddingtondoo]

Thank you. I'm so lucky to have such a talented friend she is also making the cake!

I now realise I have some sea holly growing at the bottom of my garden - have told OH not to touch it in case we can't get any more - like he needs an excuse to leave weeds alone