How to Save Money on Your Wedding Flowers

Looking at The Knot and Martha Stewart Wedding magazines can leave you in serious flower envy. I had hearts for eyes and stars in my hair thinking of all the possibilities for flowers at my wedding. I made lists, I posted pictures to my Pinterest board. Flowers! Flowers everywhere!

It's easy to do when you're not looking at prices. But when you do, you can feel as if a very big balloon of excitement was burst all over your perfectly petaled party. When my mom started sending me links to florists, I was quite literally floored by the exuberant costs they put into flower arranging. (Once I took on the challenge on my own, I kind of understood why, but it still baffles me how much the wedding industry takes advantage of their customers.)

So, after fully committing to doing my wedding flowers on my own, my mom and I sat down and decided how to approach it. Thankfully, the venue I booked has a garden onsite that you can go pick-your-own two days a week or pre-order ahead of time at decent prices. With this method, we got our flowers for the corsages, my bouquet, and my maid of honor's bouquet for less than $175. And, I have to say, my bouquet turned out exactly how I wanted it to. It was the perfect mix of structured, romantic and airy, and vibrant. It was really, truly, everything I had dreamed of.

The flowers we ordered included:

- Cafe Au Lait Dahlias

- Hydrangeas

- Lisanthus

- Dusty Miller

- Green Eucalyptus

- White Dahlias

- Chick & Hen succulents

We didn't use the hydrangeas, chick & hen succulents, or all of the dahlias. The florist told me that the bigger the flower, the more delicate they are and the least likely they are to last in hot environments (aka. my outdoor wedding in the heat wave of July 2016). About 75% of the dahlias we ordered were unusable.

My mom also kept an eye out at Lowe's and Home Depot for their succulents, and found a few really great blue-green succulents. One was used in my bouquet, and smaller green ones were used for the boutonnieres. Speaking of boutonnieres, we used those succulents bought from Lowe's (each pot came with at least three succulents and came in at $2.95/ea. We got six pots.), berries I found from a tree outside my mom's house, and eucalyptus we acquired over the course of the year from Michael's, Joann Fabrics, and A.C. Moore. We bought maybe 26 bundles of eucalyptus because we used them for the wedding arch, our centerpieces, and the boutonnieres. Each bunch can range from $8-$10, but we used 40-60%-off coupons every time, and saved A TON of money.

Other wedding flora we purchased were ferns. We bought 6 ferns at Lowe's for $10/ea, and two huge ferns from local flower shops for approximately $25/ea. These decorated the aisle and the wedding ceremony area.

We found the PERFECT shade of roses at Wegman's, two dozen, for $20. Um, what? I had tried to stay away from roses because I think they are so stereotypical, but I couldn't pass these up. We used them in my bouquet, the corsages for the mothers, for the flower girl, and on the cake table. $20 well spent!

My bridesmaids, with the exception of my maid of honor, all had flowers from my grandmother's hydrangea bushes. They were big white clusters of blossoms that looked stunning in pictures and against their bright dresses. I loved them.

We are fortunate in that we live in a pretty friendly area of Western Maryland. We have a family that lives on the same road as us and has a full acre of wild carrot, or Queen Anne's Lace. They were kind enough to let us pick as much as we wanted for our centerpieces, and I have to say, that made everything come together. I love Queen Anne's Lace for its complexity and delicateness. I think it's so beautiful. And seeing it as our centerpieces made the whole reception room come together.

We also picked cattails for our aisle decor. We (being my mom, Robby and I) had originally gone into the mountains and picked over a thousand fern fronds to line the aisles. But in the extreme heat, the fronds almost immediately curled, and were unusable. We were told later, of course, that if we had uprooted the entire plants and kept them in water, they probably would have lasted.

Oh well! The cattails were a better representation of Robby anyway, so it brought a nice element of something special to him. It all works out the way it's supposed to, right?

For making our bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages, we used resources my mom found by scouring Pinterest and Youtube (it's not hard - there are a ton of great ones out there). We bought the floral tape and wire, burlap and lace to go around them, and then went to town. The end results were stunning.

What I took away from the experience: DIY takes time! Putting together all of the flowers took about two full days right before the wedding. God bless my mother, who had everything planned out months in advance. The final week, she dedicated pretty much every day to tackling major projects. My maid of honor took two full days, and I took three full days.

Also, get more flowers than you think you'll need. I can't tell you how important this is. We got two dozen roses and only used maybe half. I picked three six gallon buckets of hydrangeas and used maybe only half of one bucket. But when you're picking flowers, you think you're paying attention to the quality. When you're arranging them, it's then you figure out how everything works together. Sometimes the ideas you had pictured just don't turn out the way you planned. Sometimes the flowers you thought you'd need less of, you actually make the star attraction. It's always good to be prepared . . . so get more than you think you'll need.

A lot of articles I read discussing DIY tell you to shy away from doing your own flowers, centerpieces, favors, etc. because the days leading up to the wedding are stressful. They are, no doubt. But if you take the time to plan and have adequate help, you can pretty much do anything! DIY implies that you're saving money, but using more of your time. You have to decide what you need more of, certainly, before taking on huge DIY tasks.

Breakdown of costs:

Pick Your Own Flowers: $173

Succulents from Lowe's: $23

Roses: $20

Eucalyptus Bunches (26 @ $4-5/ea): $117

Ferns: $110

Supplies: $25

Total: $468