Flowers

Watch YouTube videos of arranging, and practice before the day..

Buy some tape, floral scissor and wire (if necessary), the YouTube videos should tell you what types you need depending on what you are doing, I needed 2 types of wire for the buttonholes and just tape, ribbon and pins for the bouquet.

The bouquets used more flowers than I was expecting, so do the practice (with flowers from a local market) before you order the wholesale flowers. I used tulips and these continue to grow once they are cut, so you need to position lower then the others in an arrangement as they will grow overnight! Check this doesn't happen with any flowers you want to use.

I did 8 buttonholes, and 4 bouquets and it took me around 3 hours on the evening before (buttonholes took the longest), I found it really relaxing and it was a nice distraction. The BMs helped stripping leaves, but be prepared for it to take a while.

I put the buttonholes in the fridge overnight, but just left the bouquets in water in a shady spot. Flowers on the table were in water so they all got done the day before and left.

Overall I spent £180 on flowers (and could have spent about £30 less but I over ordered just in case) and less than £20 on floristry supplies. That includes all the flowers for the tables etc.

I was pleased I did it like this as I ended up with what I wanted and got lots of great comments on the day about the flowers.

Just make sure you do a practice!

Thank you so much that is brilliant advice I'm going to have a practice this weekend

Xxx

With the buttonholes, lay them on damp kitchen roll or tissue paper & cover them with damp paper too when you put them in the fridge, be careful if you're using white or cream roses as spraying water on them can discolour the leaves sometimes.

Keep your bouquets stood in vases in water overnight & cut the stems on a diagonal so they can take up as much water as possible - it might be worth you trimming the ends of the stems again in the morning so they can have a bit more of a drink, but make sure you take them out of the water about half an hour before you need to carry them so they don't drip any water down your dresses! You can leave them wrapped in damp kitchen roll once you take them out of the water. As the poster above says, somewhere cool & damp is best.

We did our own flowers and saved a fortune and actually I found it really enjoyable. We had a practice run which was really worth while, I was worried if I didn't, that it would lead to more stress the day before. Time how long it takes you and also how long the flowers last for once made, to give you all the timings you need for the run up to the wedding.

As previously mentioned, have a look online for videos. Also make sure you have somewhere really cool that you can keep them once they are made. I also used some jars to allow me to stand the finished bouquets up in, rather than keep them on their side.

Enjoy!

Think carefully about what shape you want, and research the different types of bouquets you can make, a lot of people go for posies but I personally prefer ones that drape down to create a dramatic shape which would require possibly a trailing plant and lots of long cut stems.