Ok, So we're on a pretty tight budget for our wedding and was wondering if anyone has ever put together their own flowers... Our hotel are doing the flowers as a centrepiece as part of our deal but We were thinking of going out to Smithfield and getting a good few flowers for making the bouquets, buttonholes, etc ourselves. If anyone has done this as a DIY job themselves I'd love to know any tips they might want to share. Also how much did the whole thing eventually cost?

Thanks

hi i made my own bouquet and the bm's and button holes,i used foam flowers i found very cost effective as we were also on a budget,they were so easy to make,i looked up videos on youtube for a while before i tried to make them...a few girls on here have made brooch bouquet's that could be an idea aswell...iv got pics up on the wedding day reports if you want to see my flowers,they were cream roses

One of my friends bought there flowers from smithfield. The girl she got the flowers from made up the bridesmaids flowers for her. Im not sure wat the price was but it worked out very cheap and the flowers were stunning the women on the stalls seem to be great for tips and advise.

I'm toying around with the idea of a paper flower bouquet but seen one with real flowers and brooches and have fallen in love with it. love to hear what others have done

I'm going to order the flowers direct from Holland and myself and my cbm will spend the day before the wedding doing the bouquets and stuff, fun and cheap!

I'm using flowers4florists.com. They have great independent reviews (ie. not on their own site) and you wouldnt have to worry about picking them up. They supply both florists and wholesellers to florists and will deliver them right to your door with advice on how many days in advance you should get them in order for them to be perfectly open for the wedding day.

Their stock changes throughout the year to reflect seasonality, just so you know.

I will be running a day workshop on Saturdays for Brides doing their own flowers, in this I will show how to de-thorn, wire flowers, make buttonholes, corsages, put together bouquets, tie bouquets, ribbon bouquets, condition flowers.... all the basics basically and answer any questions you might have!!! I will also give out step by step instructions and you can contact me afterwards for any advise

Personally I would shop around before you decide to do you own wedding flowers!!! I talk from experience, there is so much going on in my house coming up to the wedding, visitors and such and flowers everywhere, just a whole lot of added stress that ce avoided if you shop around.... if you can rope in a creative friend or two then happy days!!!

If interested in the workshop, then send an email to [email protected] or pm me.

http://www.facebook.com/flowerflair

Yvonne

Nobigdress wrote:I'm using flowers4florists.com. They have great independent reviews (ie. not on their own site) and you wouldnt have to worry about picking them up. They supply both florists and wholesellers to florists and will deliver them right to your door with advice on how many days in advance you should get them in order for them to be perfectly open for the wedding day.

Their stock changes throughout the year to reflect seasonality, just so you know.

I used these guys. Fantastic selection and their customer service is great. Any emails I sent them were all answered. The flowers arrived perfect.

Theres lots of youtube videos on making bouquets. Ordered some tape and ribbon on ebay and picked up oasis and flower pots in woodies and got a cheapo rose arch in argos for the aisle. I'd say I spent just over e200 and got 3 bouquets, alter arrangement, archway, candle arrangement, pew ends, 2 corsages and about 30 buttonholes for that. Plus, I actually enjoyed doing it. PM me if you need any other advice OP.

I got a quote for brides bouquet pluse free trow away bouquet
4 bridesmaidswand/flower bouquet
1 groom button hole
4 groomsmen buttonhole
2 faters "
4 extra buttonhole flowers
1 mothers corsage all for 250
I picked all colours and flowers from her site and they look lovely, made from silk with satin ribbon and pearls. [email protected] hth

PM'ed you flowerflair

LittleLily wrote:

Nobigdress wrote:I'm using flowers4florists.com. They have great independent reviews (ie. not on their own site) and you wouldnt have to worry about picking them up. They supply both florists and wholesellers to florists and will deliver them right to your door with advice on how many days in advance you should get them in order for them to be perfectly open for the wedding day.

Their stock changes throughout the year to reflect seasonality, just so you know.

I used these guys. Fantastic selection and their customer service is great. Any emails I sent them were all answered. The flowers arrived perfect.

Theres lots of youtube videos on making bouquets. Ordered some tape and ribbon on ebay and picked up oasis and flower pots in woodies and got a cheapo rose arch in argos for the aisle. I'd say I spent just over e200 and got 3 bouquets, alter arrangement, archway, candle arrangement, pew ends, 2 corsages and about 30 buttonholes for that. Plus, I actually enjoyed doing it. PM me if you need any other advice OP.

Looks fab and fair play to you for making them. Could you tell us how long did it take you to put them together and how many days before the wedding? If i do it myself i'd be most worried about the timing. thanks

Hi Beezingful.

So the wedding was a Saturday. The flowers were delivered on the Thursday and that evening I took them out of the boxes, removed the leaves, cut the stems at an angle and placed them all in buckets of water in the coolest room in the house. This would take maybe an hour with a few people. We just did it with the soaps on and a cup of tea so it never felt like a chore.

The next day, myself and my friend headed for a walk around the garden gathering up leaves and ivy. I already had ribbon attached to circles of cereal box card so we literally just stapled leaves on to the cardboard and threaded flowers through them. While we were doing that we soaked the oasis for the candle arrangement. My aunt did the alter arrangement (oasis in a plastic window box) so we didn't have to do that. We got the pew ends and candle arrangement done before lunch.

After lunch I headed off to the beauty salon and my friend and Mum and sisters finished up with the arch way. That evening we all sat in a circle on the floor making the bouquets. It was so nice. We just chilled out, drank bubbly, chatted and flower arranged I made my bouquet and the bridesmaids made their own. We all made a few button holes each.

On the day then, we wrapped ribbon round the stems and trimmed them.

It seems like a lot of work but it really wasn't. I'm not sure what I would have been doing the day before anyway and it was actually really relaxing. I was so stressed in the run up to the wedding and this was probably one of the easiest parts of the whole thing.

meant to reply to this earlier but only getting the chance to now and sorry its so long.

I really wanted to do mine and ended up doing a wedding floristry course as a result. I did my own wedding, my mates and have done a couple nixers as well. had to stop though as i have no working space to

i think if your organised about it , get a little practice is in and have your tools and minions at the ready to help out ,then go for it.

In terms of tips, my major tips are stay organised and have a back up plan which i mean in regards of flower supplier. you never know what could go wrong.

If your in dublin the main floristry suppliers are:

1)Smithfield.
good points.
It in dublin, easy accessible and okish prices. very helpful people.
Bad points. you have to collect everything yourself. you need to get up way early in the morning to get your flowers. its a little bit messy, in terms of filling your car up, shipping the flowers around yourself. your car will end up with a damp smell in it undoubtedly.

If you go here I would advise you to go Duffy's florist. i have used the other ones and while they are nice, Duffys are most helpful in my books. if you are unsure as to quantities etc they will tell you what you need. they went above and beyond for me the last time i used them.they are in the middle of the suppliers down the back of the market. you can pre order, which i would advise to do.

There is floristry supply shop in smithfield but it is quite dear. Ebay probably is your only man to be honest. if you wanted to maybe pay it a visit just to get an idea of the size of the oasis you need or the tools you need it would be handy.

Flowers Price wise it depends on the time of the year with any florist.
Roses will be around a €1.00 a stem. Lillies €1.50

heres their link:-

http://www.josephmduffyandsons.com/index.html

2) Wholesaleflowers.ie/flowersmade easy.

these are the guys i did my course with. for me i couldnt' reccommend them enough.
they are based in Sandyford Industrial Esate.
You can ring them and they will set you up with a code and password for their floristry supply site and for their dutch wholesale supplier site.

Good Points: very helpful. very good value.Great selection of flowers. there is no minium spend. you can access flowers that have been knocked down in price but not quality on the dutch flowers website they also open up there sundry shop for walk in purchasers to.

bad Points.
their shop is a little out of the way unless you live out that direction. they might ask you to come collect your flowers. you can pay for delivery but you would be at their mercy so to say on delivery time. It prob would be before 12 but if your doing your own flowers the day before your wedding you need to start early.
The dutch website can be confusing to navitgate around, and you have to select a date of delivery and then the also you if can't find a a flower you want you have to search for by its latin name and even then it might not be there. So if you are looking for something unusual you need to pre book it with wholesale flowers for it to be on the dutch site when you need.
you also need to make sure you order the right length of stem on this site.
All this info is there but if you haven't been given and induction to it. its confusing
You also need to place your flower order before a certain time to have them in on the day you want. So lets say you need flowers for monday you need to place your order this evening ,as the van will leave tomorrow morning. so there is no last minute ordering the day before.

Price wise.

Roses can be anything from .30 cent up to €3.00 or more.
Lillies €.79 up to 4.50.


Li nk to their site:

http://www.wholesaleflowers.ie/

Flowersforflorist.

I love these guys. As littlelilly said they are unbelievably helpful.i had to contact them on public holiday in holland and they were so good to me i sent them chocolates to say thanks. I got a thank card back from them.

Good Points.
Very friendly and efficient. their site is easy to navigate. Ordering with them is a breeze. Delivery to your door and they also give these little freezer gel bags which if used again are great for keeping your button holes fresh. Just no fuss with them at all.
Bad points.
You have a minimum spend. I think its around 175.00 mark.you most likely will spend this but if you don't want to spend that amount it a pain.
The selection of flowers while good, isn't great. I'm sure you could pop them a mail if needed something in particular and they would help out but this just adds to the hassle.
When you first order from them your nerves will be at you waiting for it to be delivered not because there not realiable but because of the What if factor!!

Prices are alright.
i found them a little on the dear side compared to wholesale flowers but they are soo easy to deal with.
Roses are similar to smithfields: Around €1.00 mark as are the the lillies €1.50

link to site: http://www.flowers4florists.com/


if you want any more info on the wholesales ask away or even just pop them email/call they are really helpful .

In terms of the actually work involved in putting your button holes, bouquets etc together, i was going to type some tips but this message is already an essay and i don't want to bore ye anymore so if anyone wants info on that i could route out my notes and pass them.

other that as little lilly said you tube has some wonderful diy vidoes with step by step instructions. so get on it and get practising.

Thanks sooo much for great info as I plan on doing my own flowers and really don't have a clue where to start. Thanks so much.

just bumping up to read properly later