A money (and sanity!)-saving tip about flowers.
June 20, 2009 · Posted in diy, floral & decor, etsy by shelley
As my wedding plans were coming along and vendors were getting booked left and right, the one place where I kept hitting a brick wall was the flowers.
Here’s my take on flowers: yes, they’re lovely and yes, they are an important part of the day, but they don’t make or break the wedding. At least for me they don’t.
I’ve long understood the importance of investing in a photographer. That is the person who is solely responsible for recording your wedding day. I understand investing in a venue. That is the place where you will promise to spend the rest of your life with your love. But flowers? Really? I mean, they die the NEXT DAY.
Given my attitude and the way the budget was shaping up, we really weren’t looking to spend a whole lot on flowers. But every florist I talked to wanted lots and lots of money to do our wedding flowers. I heard $2,000 minimums. I even heard $5,000 minimums. All of this was inconceivable to me. You want me to pay that much for something that DIES THE NEXT DAY!?
That said, I do want flowers in my wedding. I like the color and energy and earthy-aliveness they bring with them. And I did have some pretty specific ideas of what I want. I want an interesting, varied looking bouquet with different types of flowers and even some twigs and feathers thrown in. Kind of like the gorgeous bouquet this lovely bride is holding:
{Meghan Aileen via Green Wedding Shoes}
I knew I wanted flowers like dahlias and ranunculus and adorable little crespedia (or “billy balls”) that seem to be popping up everywhere and happen to fit right into our color scheme of plum, mustard, and charcoal gray. I knew we needed to have fairly simple and clean centerpieces since the Wang is so ornate already, but ones that would be large enough to fill the space. We decided to just do a tall, glass vase filled with curly willow with just a few flowers here and there. I also wanted interesting (read: non-flower) boutonnieres for the guys, kind of like these, except with feathers and crespedia:
But where to find a hip wedding florist who could understand my less than traditional floral vision and execute it for less than $2,000? Is it even possible?
Well I’m here to tell you that it IS possible and has been under your nose the whole time. Are you ready?
The magical place where I found affordable flowers done by experienced florists is none other than your local, neighborhood Whole Foods!
Yes, Whole Foods, as in, your favorite place to drop unnecessary amounts of money on gorgeous cuts of meat and exotic spices and colorful fruits and vegetables.
And I’ll freely admit, I was skeptical at first. I had a hard time believing that they’d be able to understand my vision and what’s more, execute it. I mean, we’re not talking birthday bouquets and Mother’s Day corsages here, we’re talking wedding flowers.
But to my surprise, the florist ay my local Whole Foods understood my ideas perfectly and has a ton of industry experience (she even worked at Winston’s Flowers for a long time). AND, when she showed me the prices, well, I was just blown away. They are actually going to be able to bring in all of our wedding flowers, including my bouquet, five bridesmaids, bouts for all the boys, corsages for the moms, ceremony pieces, and high and low centerpieces all for under $1,000!
How can they do it? Well, when you think about it, all the wedding florists rely on wedding income to keep their businesses afloat. They have major expenses like renting their shop, labor, materials, etc., whereas Whole Foods already has most of these things in place as a grocery store. Since selling flowers is not their bread and butter, they don’t need to charge exorbitant prices to make ends meet. And, since they buy so many flowers at once, they are able to offer discounted prices.
Of course, Cinderella, there are conditions. First of all, since they don’t really need the business (but it’s just a nice thing to do), they aren’t going to be jumping to return your call. You kind of have to stay on top of them, so be ready for that. Second, they don’t deliver. So we have an added task on the wedding day of figuring out how to get all the flowers to the venue. No biggie. Third, they sometimes have trouble obtaining all the containers you may need and that is where the real expense with them comes in but here’s another tip: get the containers yourself. I know that seems like a lot of running around but if you can get into one of those flower wholesale places or even just look up some stuff online, I guarantee you will find containers for much, much less.
Happy flowering!
I’m going for a local grocery store for my centerpieces as well! It was a surprise to me as I was really thinking my only ‘non-florist’ option was online wholesale flowers. I have nothing against florists but find me a florist who will make ten centerpieces for $200 and I’m there. I was liking the online idea less and less as I felt it would be one more thing to worry about with waiting for the delivery guy, having buckets of water ready. And even though I’ve read some good reviews about some of those sites it still felt like somewhat of a gamble. I guess anything’s a gamble, your local florist could still accidentally put your flowers in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. But with an online delivery I felt I’d also have to have a potential back up plan.
I had no idea on what I really wanted for flowers but I knew it had to be budget friendly. One day it dawned on me while I was looking at pre-made summer bouquets at one of those online flower sites for $18 a piece and realized that surely the grocery store must be selling the same thing for less. I went the next day on lunch break and my trip turned into one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had so far in wedding planning. The bouquets were $10 a piece, less if they are running a special. I’ll be bringing them my vases and they’ll be arranging the bouquets for me. I also have to pick them up but the bonus is that all the ‘labor’ is done and I’m not even worried about having them 24 hours ahead of time as the bouquet I bought that day looked great for over a week and lasted about two weeks.
p.s. shelley…I also live in MA and work in PR!!
As a florist who helps lots and lots of DIY brides with their wedding flowers, you girls are being a bit naive.
There are plenty of florists in MA, ME, NH, RI and the rest of New England that would be happy to work with you for less than $2,000. You just need to search them out.
Your photographer (that you’ve spent alot of money on) will be taking wonderful photos of you all day long. Wouldn’t you rather have a beautifully designed bouquet to hold instead of a supermarket bouquet? Remember, these are photos that you’re going to be looking at for a lifetime! You’re worth it, aren’t you?
And, since you both mentioned it, I can as well. Whole Foods does not make their $$ selling flowers. If they mess up your flower order for one of the most important days of your life, who cares? Trust me, they won’t. Why? Because they aren’t making $$ on selling flowers!
A real florist however does make their living this way. They will order your flowers to arrive in time, have many, many sources for flowers - just in case something goes wrong with your order - and they will take the time to make sure you receive the quality you deserve for your wedding day. All because, this is their livelihood and this is what they love doing. Making brides happy!
Best Wishes to you both!!
Hi Jenny,
I appreciate your comment and figured we would get some push back from the wedding florist community - which is great! I love a lively discussion.
First of all, let me say that I in no way meant for this to be a bash on wedding florists. I know there are a lot of great ones out there who do positively stunning work.
I can only speak from my own experience, and what I found when it came to researching and speaking to more than five florists for my Boston wedding was that it would not be possible to my wedding flowers for less than maybe $1900. These were florists in the Boston metro area specifically, so I can’t speak for elsewhere in MA or New England.
I totally agree that flowers can play an important role in your wedding. Yes, that photo that is taken of them lasts a lifetime, but in my opinion, that is just one photo, and what is more important to me is not spending a fortune on this wedding.
Again, it all comes down to priorities. Some brides are about the flowers, and I say, MORE POWER TO THEM! We’re all “worth it”, we just all have different priorities.
From what I’ve seen, Whole Foods does beautiful flowers for a phenomenal price, and that right there makes me very happy. For me, it’s a middle ground between full blown wedding flowers, and doing it ourselves, which is what we were leaning toward anyways.
All the best to you as well,
Shelley :)
Hi Jenny,
I’m not trying to be catty with this remark, but…truly, if you have any connections that could work with 10-12 floral centerpieces and a bouquet for around $200 I would certainly take the professional work of a florist over my local grocery store…I haven’t placed the order yet. Additionally, I moonlight in the wedding industry and could provide my clients referrals to that florist.
I hear ya… all brides are “worth it”, some of us, though, don’t consider debt “worth it” just for pretty flowers (as an example of the countless wedding splurges that can send you into the red). It is frustrating when the WIC vendors throw out the “aren’t you worth it” question… that reminds me of my younger, more irresponsible years when I would tell myself after a long round of engineering exams that I was worth a new outfit after all that hard work… and hello people, that landed me in student debt hell!! Conscious spending is key… unconsciously getting sucked into wedding debt by the onslaught of guilt from people telling you you’re worth it, and you only get married once, is crap!! I totally agree that for people who have the budget, wedding flowers are TOTALLY beautiful, add to the impact of the day, and ‘last forever in your pictures’, but please, let’s not get guilted in to spending more than we can afford!! I blogged about my flower frustration (and consequent find of an independant florist that would work in my budget) here:
http://brideonpurpose.blogspot.com/2009/06/ask-and-ye-shall-receive.html
stay strong brides… your budget is the only thing that is totally honest about the wedding planning!! Make it work with what you can afford!!
Hi ladies!
Just wanted to make a quick suggestion about considering silk flowers for your wedding. Even just doing your bouquets in high-quality designer silk flowers can make a big difference in what you pay for your flowers. You don’t have to worry about late delivery, getting the wrong flowers, or the flowers wilting half way through the reception.
For budget-conscious brides who still want it all, it’s a great choice. Thanks for listening to my 2 cents!
To see some of my work in silk wedding flowers, check out my site:
http://www.loveisblooming.com
I am as well a florist and I agree with Jenny, there are florists out there who will not only work with your budget but do everything in their power to get you what you want in a price range you can afford. Just need to find the right florist that is willing to go above and beyond to make your day the best day! They are out there.
I’m sorry I only today saw this post…goodness! I would like to say, that I created all of my flowers for my wedding day for $400 (and this included beautiful peonies). http://www.elizabethannedesigns.com/blog/2009/07/28/wedding-day-details-the-diy-flowers/
We avoided a florist for the exact reason we’ve all stated so many times: flowers for weddings are overpriced, and for those of us who aren’t willing to go into debt for one day, DIY is a better option.
I understand that there’s time involved in creating them, but to me, it just was not worth the cost; particuarly because I know how to create things such as corsages, boutonnieres, and bouquets…and they all took me about 6 hours. That 6 hours was worth it for me, especially considering the ridiculous prices we were given.
We had 12 boutonnieres, 6 bouquets, 8 corsages, and 14 centerpieces. I loved my flowers, and I don’t feel like I sacrificed ANYTHING by doing my own flowers.
