Fresh Flowers For Your Wedding

    Most Brides know what they want their wedding to look like....a million dollars! You can have a beautiful wedding, AND use fresh flowers, but it takes careful planning.  Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Figure out your flower budget and CALL some local floral wholesalers for an idea of what you can get for the money.  At a wholesaler flowers will be sold by the "bunch".  Roses, for example, are usually sold in wholesale bundles of 25 roses, all alike, but the price will be by the rose and then times 25.  Other types of flowers may be sold in 10 stem bunches.  Tropicals and other specialty flowers such as Orchids or Birds of Paradise are usually priced by the individual stem or blossom.
2. Consider faking it if you want lots and lots of a fresh flower which is costly or short lived.  Fresh greenery is very inexpensive, and so are most "filler" flowers such as Babies Breath, Misty, and Solidago.  Consider making your bouquets with fresh greenery and filler, and then mixing in silk blossoms.  Stephanotis, Lily of the Valley, Orchids, and Gardenias are flowers to consider using in silk form in this way.
3. Consider mixing silk and fresh or rentals and purchased flowers.  You might want to order your bridal bouquet in fresh flowers and then rent silk arrangements for decoration, for example.
4. Consider your wedding location.  If your wedding is in an outdoor garden site, little decoration may be needed and you can use some of your flower budget to pay for the site rental. Seasons and flower holidays also affect decorations and flowers.  Fresh flowers cost MORE at traditional flower holiday times (and for several weeks before and after due to supply issues) such as Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, and Christmas. Decorating with lots of fresh red roses at a Valentine's Day wedding will cost a LOT more than doing the same flowers in an off holiday time period, such as early fall or summer.
5.  Go flower shopping...with your camera.  Take your camera to bridal shows, weddings, wholesale flower markets, and your local public gardens and get some IDEAS.  Figure out what flower colors and what flower types you like best. Remember, most flowers, such as roses, daisies, and carnations, come in a wide array of colors. If you don't find the color you like, consider PAIINTING the flowers.  Your local wholesale florist can sell you a product called "Just For Flowers" that is a paint you can spray on fresh flowers.
6. Look through your photos and decide if it is the STYLE, the FLOWER, or the COLOR COMBINATION that you like.  If you decide on a complicated STYLE of bridal bouquet, for example, consider ordering just the bridal bouquet from a Florist,and making simpler complementary arrangements of the same FLOWER or COLOR COMBINATION for your attendants and for decorations yourself.
7. Think SIMPLE for arrangements you will make yourself, and then be sure to make a PRACTICE arrangement far in advance to see if you can actually do the work and like the results.  Also remember to make your PRACTICE arrangement within the same time frame as you will make your actual wedding flowers. (Let the arrangements sit overnight and see how they look the next day if that is your time frame).  You will probably need to have a "bridesmaids party" the day before the wedding to make up florals and they will have to sit overnight as few brides have extra hours of time on their wedding day to be designing flowers!  You could also inquire at your local wholesale florists for the names of florists who free lance and would come to your wedding site to design for you.  Floral design classes at local colleges are also an option.  Talk to the instructors to get the names of advanced students who might be available for a nominal fee to help you design. 
8. When choosing flowers, find out what extra work each flower type requires and factor in the time you will need to do the work.  For example, stephanotis is a beautiful. traditional wedding flower with a wonderful aroma, but it must be put on a special moistened stephanotis stem, one blossom at a time.  Gerber daisies need "gerber straws" or wiring when used in some types of arrangements to keep the stems straight.  Roses have to have thorns removed with a "stripper" that you can buy for a few dollars at a wholesale flower market.  Also ask to buy a can of "leaf shine" if you are using fresh flowers such as roses or fresh greenery.  It adds a beautiful professional finish to the leaves and greenery in your arrangements.  You can even buy special flower "replacement scents" at a local wholesaler that add fragrance to fresh or silk flowers.
9. Visit your local fresh flower wholesaler.  Look in the phonebook under "Florists, Wholesale" or "Flowers and Supplies, Wholesale" and call ahead for hours and availability.  A large number of wholesale markets that say they are for FLOWER SHOPS ONLY actually do sell to the public, they just may have certain rules such as methods of payment (usually cash or credit cards, no checks) pay an upcharge (usually 3% to 5% of the total) if you don't have a resale permit, or certain times or days of the week that the public may shop.  Of course, you will also have to pay sales tax since you are buying the flowers for personal use, not for resale with a tax resale permit. Ask about specials or "old" flowers, too, especially if you plan to use lots of petals on the aisle or for decoration and don't need the freshest flowers.  Some wholesalers offer great bargains if you are flexible and can use what they have on hand at the end of whatever their flower "week" is. Tell the wholesaler exactly what you will use the flowers for and follow their suggestions.  Most of the time, wholesalers have professional trained florists on staff, not just salespeople, and they can give you great suggestions and ideas since they do that every day for their flower shop customers.  Many wholesale flower markets also offer design services, so if you need a few "special" or complicated pieces, find out what they would charge to make up just those items for you.  You will still be saving money, because you cut out the middle man and are buying at a wholesale market.
10. If you want specific flowers or unusual or out of season flowers expect to have to pay at least 50% of the total at the time you place the order, and the balance when you pick up the flowers.  You will also have to order in advance and the time limits may vary.  What happens is that the wholesaler must call the "farms" to special order your flowers and have them flown in for you and this takes time.  Most flowers are available year round because there is always somewhere in the world that they are growing at any given time, but shipping costs will reflect that!  Remember that if you purchase flowers from a retailer or flower shop then they have purchased the flowers from a grower or a wholesaler and then marked them up, passing that increase in cost along to you. With careful shopping you can buy direct either online or from your local wholesale market and save that price increase. 
11. Be very careful about buying fresh flowers sight unseen online.  Flowers come in all sizes and qualities.  Roses, for example, are sold by quality grade, variety, and stem length.  A 40 cm rose is much less expensive than a 70 cm rose because it has a much shorter stem (that's what the 40 cm is measuring) and usually has a smaller flower head containing fewer petals.  You can't just compare the cost for, say, a red rose. You have to compare size, quality, and variety as well.  It's like going to a car lot and trying to compare "red cars" without knowing if you are comparing an old red clunker with a new red luxury car.  Or, like compaing the price for "red meat" without knowing if you are talking about a hot dog or filet mignon.  Also find out what growth stage your flowers will be shipped at.  Will you receive tight buds? If so, you will need to order several days early and take care of the flowers for several days to get them to open to the right size.  If you order from a local wholesaler, you can specify "tight bud" or "partly open" and they will tend the flowers for you and keep them in the floral cooler, in water enriched with food and preservatives for you until you pick them up. If you are shipping in your flowers, read carefully to see what the added charges are (there may be a packing or boxing fee, a fee for dry ice, or unexpected shipping charges).  Also remember that if you order sight unseen and the flowers are shipped to you, you must have someone ready to accept the boxes when they arrive.  You don't want your boxes of flowers to miss your wedding because they are sitting over the weekend at a trucking depot because nobody was home to sign for them!
12. Get delivery times and dates in writing and also write the DAY OF THE WEEK and DELIVERY ADDRESS and the cell phone number for the contact person(s) on the order form as well.  We have known brides who went without flowers because their florist assumed the wedding was on a Saturday and it was a Friday wedding. Also double check with the shipping service if ordering flowers online.  Remember, some shipping companies only deliver on business days and not evenings or weekends, so if your wedding is on a Saturday and you miss the Friday delivery you will not have your flowers until Monday after the wedding! If you order from your local wholesaler, ask for a cell phone number for someone in case there is an emergency or you need additional flowers at the last moment.
13. Be prepared for your flowers.  When you order flowers find out exactly when they will arrive and what you need to do to be prepared to receive them.  As a general rule, you will need clean non-metal buckets filled 6"-8" with plain tap water at room temperature.  Figure on one bucket for every 3 bunches of flowers, more or less. ASK in advance how you will need to prepare or care for your flowers. Some must be refrigerated and some do well at room temperature.  Be VERY careful about refrigeration.  A refrigerator used for FOOD is not usually satisfactory for flowers due to temperature, humidity, and the gasses put off by foods which will affect your flowers.  You will also need to immediately recut the stems about 1/2" shorter off the end right before you put them into the buckets.  It is best to cut flowers underwater and at an angle.  Cutting them allows them to take up a drink as the end of the stem will have sealed itself to prevent fluid loss during transit while it is out of water.   If the wholesaler gives you "Floralife" or other flower "food" follow their directions for adding it to the water for the flowers.  Don't put anything in the water unless it is a commercial food/preservative made for fresh cut flowers!  Asprin, pennies, rusty nails, 7-Up, Clorox, and all the other strange things people suggest putting in flower water won't help, and may actually hurt your flowers.
14. Find out if your wedding site or reception site has another wedding before or after yours.  If so, contact that Bride and find out if she would like to SPLIT the cost of decorations and flowers if you are using similar items. You would be surprised how many Florists have to carry out and throw away flowers from the previous wedding in order to place their arrangements in the same spot for the next wedding.  Also find out if the wedding site has floral arrangments or equipment included in your site fee or if the catering hall automatically includes centerpieces in your catering charge.  Ask to see these arrangements if they have them.  You can also ask about customizing. They may let you bring in ribbons or bows or votives in your colors to use as well.
15. Consider renting flowers. Some florists make up gorgeous silk altar bouquets and bridal bouquets (for example) to have on hand in their show rooms to show prospective brides what the fresh flower arrangements will look like. Most florists that have these silks will RENT them and perhaps for a nominal fee CUSTOMIZE them by adding in a few flowers or colors you like, or perhaps a bow.  Be sure to ask about delivery, too.  Altar arrangements, for example, when professionally designed in good quality silks are almost impossible to tell from fresh from the audience (because of the distance) or in the wedding photos/  Altar arrangements, especially, are easy to find as rentals because so many florists have them already made up in silks as "examples", and the rental fee tends to be about 1/10th the cost of a fresh flower arrangement of similar flowers.  For example, we priced a huge 7 foot tall silk arrangement on its own stand made of dozens of orchids, callas, and roses. It was only $25 to rent for an afternoon wedding, and making the same size arrangement in fresh flowers was going to be over $300 just for the fresh roses, orchids, and calla lilies alone.  Also check garden centers.  You can often rent potted live plants, bushes, and trees and just wrap the base in colorful fabric or set it in a pretty container.  Also ask about delivery.  It is well worth it to have these types of items brought directly to the site and picked up afterwards, and usually for a small fee they will send along a helper to set the flowers out where you want them or place them into your containers.  "Delivery" usually just means door to door, and everything will be clumped together at one point.  "Placement" means for a fee they send along a person who will set the items out according to your chart which you give them in advance.  Also be sure to find out about "PickUp".  If you have not paid for "Placement" expect to have to assign someone to gather everything back up after the wedding and have it all sitting in a group at the designated pickup point.
16. We don't think it is a good idea to "limit" flowers to save money as some guests may feel snubbed.  Just pick a simpler style or type that you can make ahead of time.  This will also add to the festivity and overall decor of your celebration. Traditionally, close women relatives and special female guests and honorary members of the wedding party are gifted with a corsage, and men are gifted with a boutonniere.  Instead of just eliminating these flowers to save money, consider making a simple one flower corsage or boutonniere for each person, perhaps even a silk flower with a bow or ribbon on the stem for the lady to carry instead of a traditional corsage for the wrist or lapel.  Men can wear a single blossom pinned on their lapel for a boutonniere.  Practice ahead of the wedding and see if these are arrangements you can make yourself, or plan a pre-wedding "flower party" and pay a florist to come teach your friends and bridesmaids how to make the arrangements for your wedding!
17. Before making your final floral decisions, carefully compare not only costs of do-it-yourself vs. purchasing or renting but the time, preparation, storage, and transportation issues involved as well.  You won't be bright eyed on your wedding day if you have stayed up all night working on your flowers.premierflorist is always happy to answer your wedding flower questions.  Just use the Ask a Question link on any of our items in our eBay store or eBay auctions to ask us your wedding questions.  We love weddings and are always happy to answer questions about flowers, wedding etiquette, and wedding traditions.  Thank you for reading our wedding guide, and Best Wishes on the wedding!