Making your own flowers?

You will need to order your roses a couple of weeks before from the florists to make sure she has enough in stock. If you are having roses, they will need to be de-thorned and stripped of their leaves (not a nice job and it can stain your fingers the day before your wedding!) For the buttonholes, you will need to have a crash course on wiring which you will also probably find on you-tube. The wires need to be covered in tape - you may be able to purchase this from the florist. You can store them in a dark, cool place until you are ready to make the bouquets etc away from draughts for roses - a garage is an ideal place. The rest, as you say, you can find on you-tube. If you are having simple tied posies, they can be kept in water until the morning of the wedding , just dry the stems before you put them near your dress. Don't whatever you do put the buttonholes in the fridge!! This will kill the roses. A domestic fridge is far too cold - florists use coolers not fridges which are specially built for the job. At the end of the day, it's down to whether you can be bothered with it all the day before your wedding and whether you feel confident enough to have a go. You could always do a practice run but this would probably end up costing you as much in the end as a florist would charge.

Thankyou very much for your advice. I'm happy to do them the day before, I think it would help keep me focussed, and my bridesmaids have offered to help. I was just worried as the last thing I want is to make the lovely flowers the day befor ethen wake up to a wilted or dead bunch of roses lol

It is a bit of a risk as roses are well known for drooping their heads but as long as you buy them from a reputable florist, they will have been well conditioned before you buy them so you should be OK. Just out of interest, have you had a quote from a florist...... if you are wanting something fairly simple, it shouldn't cost you a 'small fortune'

The best quote I had was around £800 for my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquet, 8 tables and 10 buttonholes. I had only really planned to spend £500

£800? *insert expletives here*

I have budgeted £200 for my bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, and 4 buttonholes but am hoping it will be nearer £150!

....moonpig that sounds a bit excessive!

...well, I hope it is as I haven't looked into flower costs just yet!

£800 seems v excessive to me. I've still to go and get my proper quote from the florist but it will be in the region of £200 - give or take

That's flippin' expensive! I would definitely get another couple of quotes. Are you doing your own table arrangements too? To be honest, you may struggle to find a florist who will sell you that amount of roses to do your own wedding....... she may want to persuade you to let her do it for obvious reasons! Average prices for a hand-tied posy of roses would be between £50-£70, bridesmaids if they were smaller than yours, £45/£50, buttonholes around £4-£5 each, depends what you have in mind for tables.

I think £800 i son the pricy side too.

I'm paying £650 for;

(Calla lillies)

1 bride bq

3 bm bq

2 fg bq

12 botton holes

7 corsages

Table centres (stargazer lilies)

12 centres (I'm supplying the vases and vase fillers though)

The type of flower you go for does make a difference, if I had callas/arums in the vases it would be abother £150.

HTH

The type of flowers does make a big difference we changed ours to gerbrea's for our table decorations and it's made a massive difference. Also shop around, we got a really expensive quote - but they were the most recommended so they charge more. That doesn't mean that you can't get just as good from a cheaper, less known florist. It might be worth getting some quotes for supplying roses and for making bouquets/buttonholes and weighing up difference in price to time saved etc.

Have you thought about silk flowers petite?? They would be cheaper, you could do a trial run with little wastage and they last forever .... you can get some stonkingly good silk flowers these days - its hard to tell the difference other than lack of smell ....

Just a thought!

Mrs SP x

ps - if you want I'll post photos of my rose buttonholes / corsages later on tonight so you can see the quality you can get - mine were silk!

I am making my own bouquet out of xmas baubles and feathers!!! the bridesmaids are having fairy wands (they are only 5 and 3!!) as i can trust them not to break or destroy those lol, having feather buttonholes and a few pink poinsettias dotted around. I hate flowers lol.

I was looking around at flower costs tho and £200-300 seems to be about average for the lot round this way!!!!! i spose it depends how lavish u want to be

I have also been quoted around 800, i thought this was the norm, i think i may shop around now!

My flowers were £500 for 10 button hole, My flowers, 4 small versions of mine for the older bridesmaids and 3 little flowers for young bridesmaids. I bought black vases and fake black and white flowers for the table centres at around £!50 pounds and gave them to some of my close friends after the wedding as a token of the day. We had white gerbras ( I think thats what there called). I was going to add some roses in but changed my mind as price increased. Here are some photos....



Just thought Id show you what you get for £650 so you have something to compare it too.

Hope it helps.

I love the flowers, are gerberas a good cheaper option? i know nothing about flowers

Gerberas seemed the cheaper option when I enquired not sure why though maybe they were in season. I mentioned Tulips and the florist said that they could get them but they would be more expensive due to them not being in season.

Gerberas are cheaper than roses but are best left to the professional florist as they need specialised conditioning and are very, very difficult to work with for weddings. Most will need internal support wiring to stop the heads from flopping.

Im worried now as Ive been quoted £752!! thats for my bouquet, 4x button holes/corsages, bridesmaid x1, Registers table, and 8 tables.

All the flowers are Gerberas.

May have to get another quote from somewhere else, worried as wedding is in 2 months!!!