After DIYing my own wedding flowers, and helping out with many other friend’s weddings, I have definitely learned who provides the best bulk wedding flowers and even better customer service.  Read on to find out which might be a good fit for your DIY wedding floral needs!

Some of the links below contain affiliate links which just means that if you purchase I would receive a small commission.  As always, I only ever recommend products I personally use and love.

Bulk Wedding Flowers Providers

Fifty Flowers

I first experienced fifty flowers when I did my own wedding florals and I immediately fell in love with their diverse selection and unique way of discovering blooms that fit your wedding.  For instance, you can sort by season, flower type, or color.  They also have great wedding flower packages for those of you who aren’t into the guesswork of how many flowers to choose or what type.

After my own experience with Fifty Flowers, I used them for my friend’s wedding and was equally impressed.  They have excellent customer service and a floral designer on call to answer any questions you may have.

For a super in-depth review of Fifty Flowers and everything you should know before buying from them click here.

Global Rose

Global Rose offers offer lower prices and a good selection of fresh, wholesale flowers with slightly less variety than Fifty Flowers. They ship directly from the farm and offer free delivery which are both big pros. Global Rose offers a 24 hour return guarantee.

I find that although their website isn’t my favorite, you can find some great prices on this site.

Sam’s Club

For the no-nonsense brides out there – Sam’s Club is a great choice for your bulk wedding flowers.  They are extremely affordable (I’m not sure you can beat their prices) and I’ve used them on numerous occasions and always received top quality blooms.

They do not have nearly the variety of flowers as some may like, which is why if you like the more common flowers and a simpler look this would be a great choice for you.  Personally, I adore their hydrangeas, such good value!

Flower Moxie

I wish I had known about Flower Moxie when I was doing my wedding flowers! This company takes all the guesswork out of doing your own wedding flowers and let’s you focus on the fun part, playing with flowers.

You don’t have to worry about which flowers are in your dream bouquet or how many you need.  Amy has created professionally designed collections for you to choose from, or you can work with her to design your own.  I absolutely adore the arrangements she has put together, and I know you will too

So there you have it, my top 3 favorite bulk wedding flowers suppliers.  If you are looking to tackle this awesome endeavor check out my other posts on DIY wedding flowers below.  Or download my free wedding flowers worksheet!  Happy DIYing

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Organizing your DIY flowers is simple with this worksheet I’ve created to give you a comprehensive picture of your wedding florals.  With hundreds of blooms, it can be tough to keep track of exactly how much you need for each arrangement and in total.  Here you can see where each stem is going and exactly how much everything is costing you.  And, use the recipe tab to know how many and what type of flowers you’ve allocated to each arrangement.

This excel worksheet is something I developed for myself when I DIYed my wedding flowers.  I’ve continued improving it into the comprehensive guide that is is now as I’ve helped other brides DIY.  I hope you enjoy this worksheet as much as I have!

Download DIY Flower Worksheet

Also, feel free to check out these other DIY wedding flower posts:

*This post first appeared on DIYBLOOMS.COM*

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1. Make an impact by doing less large arrangements

If you love big tall centerpieces but are trying to keep costs down, try making using the tall large arrangements on only half the reception tables and using candles and lanterns on the rest.  For instance if you have 16 tables and each arrangement cost you around $50, doing all the tables in your tall style would cost $800.  If you only did 8 arrangements and used rented lanterns on the others, you would only pay $400.  No one will think you ‘skimped’ on flowers, they will just be impressed by the 8 large and tall pieces.

2. Buy a only a few statement (aka expensive) blooms

Everyone wants their flowers to look like a million bucks, but cost far from it.  You can impress and wow by carefully choosing several statement flowers to steal the show while setting the background with more affordable blooms.

For instance, peonies are beautiful!  But if they were the only flower you used, you might end up paying quite a bit.  Instead buy some peonies but let them be a beautiful accent to a backdrop of garden roses and hydrangea.

3. Choose in season blooms

Dahlias may be your favorite flower, but if you try to buy them for your spring wedding your wallet will not be happy.  Just because a flower is available for purchase in your wedding month doesn’t mean it’s in season.  Make sure and double check before purchasing to ensure you’re not paying an arm and a leg for normally reasonable flowers.

4. Use more affordable look-a-likes

Just because peonies are expensive and seasonal doesn’t mean you can get that look for your wedding!  Garden roses are a great alternative at much lower prices.  And most likely no one except your green-thumbed great aunt will even know the difference.  Almost every expensive bloom has a cheaper look-a-like.  Start by checking out the seasonal flowers and you may discover some you like even better!

5. Cut out the smaller arrangements

Does anyone really remember the aisle bows and flowers?  If you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck, skip the pew decor and pool all your ceremony flowers into one big altar piece.  What about those bathroom flowers, and in the men’s room… seriously?  No one will ever be disappointed that there are no flowers in the bathroom.  Use them where they count most on your head table or near the desserts!

6. Add more greens

Greenery is a lot cheaper that flowers and can add great visual impact to an arrangement.  You might be able to use a third less flowers if you accent and fill in the negative spaces with greenery.  Leaves tend to spread out and cover more visual space, whereas flowers need to tucked together to form an arrangement. Plus, I just love some good greens, they add sophistication to any floral piece!

7. Choose larger blooms

By choosing larger headed flowers you’re making a bigger impact for less dime.  Hydrangeas for instance are huge and can come in up to 9″ diameters.  Using flowers like these, or large-blooming garden roses will help fill out your arrangements.  When these flowers are the ‘bulk’ of the arrangements, you can accent with the more expensive blooms and save money.

8. Pool your flowers into one statement piece

Want to wow your guests, but just don’t have the budget?  Pool most of your flowers into one statement piece.  This could be a floral garland on the cake table, a large altar piece or a luscious sweets table arrangement.  By pulling all eyes to the one piece you will get the most bang for your buck.

9. Use your bouquets as reception decor

Once you and your bridal party arrive at the reception, you don’t need those bouquets anymore!  Put them to good use by having vases to set them in and adorn the head table.  This cuts down on flower costs for the reception and puts your hard work to good use.  When it’s time to toss to your single ladies, just use one of the bridesmaids’ bouquets instead of having a separate one.

10. Use narrow mouthed vases

As a rule of thumb, the wider the mouth of a vase, the more flowers are needed to fill it out.  Maximize your visual impact by choosing narrower vases with wider bases.  This way less flowers are needed to look balanced, yet you still achieve the same visual weight.

For more wedding flower budget tips, check out how these links:

*This post first appeared on DIYBLOOMS.COM*

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Accordingly to Google (and who can argue with him??) My most authoritative, informative, and relevant topic is how I DIYed my wedding flowers. This post was such a success that I even wrote a Bride’s Resource Guide for doing your own wedding florals.

I’m so passionate about the topic, in fact, that I spent months creating a whole new blog dedicated entirely to bride’s DIYing their wedding flowers. But, guess what?  It didn’t have three years worth of posts and web traffic indexing, so no one visits it (ha!).

So, I’m going to be sharing a few of my DIY Blooms posts here, because where better to share them then on a site whose #1 search traffic key-phrase is “DIY Wedding Flowers?”

Without further ado…

Top 3 Money-Saving Wedding DIY’s

We all know that DIY’s don’t always save money.  Personally I experience this firsthand after a well-intentioned but misguided attempt at a Pinterest project that ends up on PinterestFail.com.  I think to myself, oh look how easy they made it look!  That velvet tufted headboard with rhinestone nail-head trim only cost them $20.  Well, I could afford that…

Come to find out they had all those supplies ‘just laying around’ in their garage (hoarders, no doubt).  And the total for my project comes out to right around $275 with a whole lot of blood sweat and tears.

I know after going through something like that we’re tempted to throw our hands up and say, that’s it!  No more DIY’s for me, especially amidst all the stress that comes with planning a wedding.  But, believe it or not, there are some very doable projects that will save you lots of money on your wedding.  Here are the top three ways that brides can money on their big day by DIYing.

Invitations & Paper Goods

On average, wedding invitations costs over $400.  And if you want any specialization or unique details, you could be looking at up to $2,000!  Invitations and stationary are actually one of the simplest things you can DIY for your wedding.  By doing your own invitations, you could be looking at 50% savings over store bought.  Plus they will be uniquely customized for your very special day.

Many sites nowadays offer free premade templates for your wedding invitations.  One of my favorites with lots of options is Wedding Chicks.  All you need to do is enter your information, colors, and take to your local print shop.  There are also lots of resources on Pinterest of font inspiration and free graphics to add if you are a DIY-maven and want to create the entire suite yourself.

Why stop at invitations?  Any other paper goods that will be in your wedding could also be DIYed.  Think menu cards, ceremony programs, name tags, and more!  This personalization will pay off, and you will love the savings.

I loved designing our wedding invitations, and even offer the template for download here.  Also, I have our templates for the seating chart, menu, and programs available.

Music

Why pay right around $1,000 for a DJ and fear that he will honor your Aunt Ethel’s request to play the Macarena, when you could pay $10 and personally edit every song that is played?  If you use Spotify for your wedding you could save hundreds by not hiring a DJ.

Sure, you’d still probably need someone to announce the bridal party and speeches, and ensure smooth transitions from dinner to dance.  But, surely you have a crazy college buddy, or fun cousin who’d be up to the task!

Picking out all the music might seem intimidating, but there are a lot tools out there to help you out.  Some music services, like Pandora, have stations you could play that would cut out all the time you’d spend searching for songs.

Depending on your level of control-craziness, check out the Itunes options to fade songs in and out, and end them at a certain point.  I had a blast picking the order of all the songs and how long they should play before they faded into the next one.

Flowers

Of these three DIY’s, doing your own flowers offers you the greatest savings, but it will require a little more effort.  Studies show that brides spend an average of $2,000 on just the ceremony wedding flowers.  And if they want to pay for real floral centerpieces, the sky is the limit on price!  It’s common to be quoted upwards of $3,000 for an average sized wedding.

You could always skimp or go without, or maybe use silk and save money those ways.  But, what if your heart is set on real blooms?  Good news!  If you DIY your flowers, you could save thousands of dollars.  Yes, it requires some pre-wedding day flower time.  But, what a better way to bond with your gals than with a mimosa as you play with beautiful flowers?

I’ve helped brides DIY their wedding flowers for under $750.  They had beautiful floral centerpieces, larger than average weddings, and an abundance of blooms for their big day.  That amount of flowers would have cost upwards of $2,500 from most florists.

The biggest hurdles keeping brides from DIYing their wedding florals and saving a bundle are time, and fear/lack of information.  Yes, it is difficult to set aside 8 hours the day before your wedding solely for flower arranging.  But if you, the bride, don’t have time, maybe someone else in your life does.  While the position of DIY wedding florist might come with some pressure, it’s also a fun way to give back to the bride and groom and enjoy some girly flower time too.

What if you have the time.. but doing your own flowers seems insanely hard?  The good news is there are a ton of resources on the internet dedicated to walking you through the DIY floral process (this website for one) and helping you bridge the information gap that is holding you back.  With a little research and practice, you could save thousands on your wedding flowers and have a great time doing it!

{This post first appeared on DIYBLOOMS.COM}

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There are so many good reasons to DIY flowers for your wedding….

1. You will save a LOT of money
2. You can fully customize your bouquets and arrangements to be exactly as you like them
3. You gain a MUCH greater appreciation for the flowers than you would if you saw none of the prep work

Despite all these attractive points, this task can be very daunting for many brides.  I fully recognize that this route is not for everyone… but if you are considering DIYing and are not sure where to begin or how to go about exploring this option, my hope is that this guide will assist you in your planning process.

If you don’t know what your flower vision is yet…

Chances are, if you are looking into DIYing, you already have a vision for what you want your DIY flowers to look like.  But, if not, I would suggest beginning by creating a pinboard of flowers that you like for your wedding.  From there, take note of colors, shapes, and styles.  Specifically note if you are drawn to simpler one-flower type bouquets (all roses for instance) or more ornate bouquets (cascade style can be difficult).  Also, for decor, do you like low vases with a few blooms or are you set on elaborate table arrangements.  These are important considerations, if you like simpler styles in general (of course there’s nothing wrong with a couple challenges in there too ;)) then DIYing could definitely work for you, but if your heart is set on awesomely crazy bouquets and arrangements; think long and hard about whether the pressure will be worth it.

If you have a vision, but don’t know the exact flowers…

So you have pictures stored away that represent what you want your wedding flowers to look like, but you are unsure what those flowers are or if they are too expensive, or even available during your wedding month.  I would suggest starting by looking at bouquet recipes on the Wedding Chicks to begin familiarizing yourself with flower names and types.  Click on bouquets that come close to your style and begin dissecting which flowers you like and are interested in using for your wedding.

Next, visit a wholesaler like Fifty Flowers, and view flowers in season during your wedding month.  By choosing flowers by season, you will save a lot of money and heartache (out of season flowers can sometimes be much lesser in quality than their seasonal counterparts).

You know what flowers you want, now find out their pricing/availability…

Start visiting flower wholesale sites you would be interested in ordering from and looking up your flowers to check when they are available, what colors, and pricing per stem.  I would recommend starting at either Sams Club or Costco if you have a membership: they have the best prices, but a limited selection (so yay for you if they have your flowers!)

Next, visit an exclusive flower wholesaler.  I highly recommend Fifty Flowers; they have the largest selection I have seen, are organized well, and are very bride-friendly.  Look by flower name, or sort by wedding color.  Their selection is so wonderful, it makes me giddy!

{TIP} Flowers are usually sold by stem or bunch-which will normally contain 10 stems.  Some flowers are called ‘spray’ because they contain multiple blooms per stem.  These can be great budget savers-as long as you don’t mind sacrificing some stem.

If the flowers you like aren’t in season or cost too much….

It’s ok, there are many many ‘look-a-like’ flowers out there that can get you the same look for a lesser price or different season.  Try looking through Fifty Flower’s flowers by color or season to find acceptable substitutes.  A very popular substitute is garden roses instead of peonies (pretty expensive except for several months of the year).

Also, consider the centerpieces and types of designs you’ve chosen and ask yourself if you could find a simpler/more cost effective arrangement without compromising too much.  Using the same flower gives an appearance of a larger, richer arrangement, and using low bud vases or bowls creates chic and affordable centerpieces.

You’ve got the flowers picked out, but how much do you order?

Create a list of everything you will want to use the flowers for.  Personally, I used Excel and it worked great!  Decide how many you’ll need of each item, and how many blooms to go in them.  Below you can see the method I used.  By putting in a starting number of flowers I was thinking of ordering.  I divided them out between the items to see if I had enough or where I was lacking.  If you would like to use this worksheet, click here to download.

You’ve decided how many to order… now what?

For most places, the sooner you order the better.  If there are shortages of a certain bloom, they ration them on a first come first serve basis.  Several months before is not too early!  Ideally you should set the delivery date to 2-3 days before your wedding (I do not recommend doing flowers the morning of).  This is because the blooms often come in tight buds and need time to hydrate and open before your event.

Consider what supplies you will need.  If you are doing corsages and boutonnieres you will need floral tape, and wire, and maybe ribbon.  You will want to order flower food, and buckets to keep the flowers in once they’ve arrived.  I used floral foam to secure my arrangements.  You may decide to use other methods depending on your type of arrangements.

At this point you should have a very good idea of what you are going for, now it’s time for the nitty gritty…  Unless you do trial runs, going cold before your wedding can be dangerous.  I suggest you watch several videos to get a feel for what you will be doing.

DIY Flowers Videos

1. Prepping Flowers   (E.g. Basics of Fresh Flower Care,  How to Prep your DIY Flowers or Preparing Wholesale Blooms)

2. Bouquets   (E.g. Romantic Bouquet, Spray Garden Rose Bouquet, DIY Bridesmaid Bouquet, or Hand Tied Garden Bouquet)

3. Centerpieces   (E.g. Pedestal Vase Arrangement, Mason Jar Arrangement, or Hydrangea Arrangement)

4. Corsages   (E.g. Ribbon Corsage, Wrist Corsage or Vintage Corsage)

5. Boutonnieres    (E.g. Ranunculus Bouts, DIY Boutonniere, or Wildflower Bouts)

6. Anything extra…   (E.g. Baby’s Breath Wreath, Floral Crown, or Carnation Pomander)

And if you are still thirsting for more DIY flower-arranging knowledge, I would suggest checking these youtube channels out: Blooms by the Box, and Flower School.  Now…. don’t you feel excited and geared up to tackle some arrangements?

See details on our DIY Wedding Flowers, or all our wedding projects and photos.

Please comment with any questions/suggestions/etc, I’d love to hear how I can improve this guide or add more helpful info.  Hope over to DIY Blooms for a plethora of DIY flowers tips and tricks. Happy DIYing!

The post A Bride’s DIY Flowers Resource Guide appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.

When I was engaged and planning our wedding, I spent a ridiculous amount of time perusing wedding blogs.  I wedding planned like it was my job!  I remember stumbling across Meg’s post on A Practical Wedding about how she DIYed her own wedding flowers.  There were pictures of her and her bridesmaids surrounded with buckets and of colorful blooms as they arranged the centerpieces.  That picture got me.  I knew I just had to try DIY wedding flowers on my big day.

Did it turn out perfect?  No… but practically  A prerequisite to being a DIY wedding flower bride-in my opinion-is being able to deal with unexpected change of plans.   Playing it by ear allowed us to create our own styles and have a total blast being girly together, which is worth more than all the bridal bouquets in the world!

I began pinning flowers like a mad-woman!  At the time I needed some extra credits for my degree, and signed up for floral design 101 at my local community college.  There are tons of videos and tutorials online to learn from, but the hands-on experience I got there helped a lot.  As I learned the basics of floral design and arranging, I created a list of supplies and flowers to order for my wedding. I even made an insane flower planning workbook (which I prettied up and now offer for download) to keep me organized.

I also began looking into online floral wholesalers to order from.  Fifty Flowers was running a contest at the time for a $500 credit if you created a winning flower inspiration board.  So I created boards like there was no tomorrow… and I won!  I have never won anything before in my life, so I truly believe it was destiny.  Me and DIY flowers were meant to be!

So with the extra cash I added even more flowers to my order list.  Our colors were pink with subtle pops of red and spring green.  When picking wedding flowers, depending on what style you are going for, you will need to select some mass flowers, filler flowers, line flowers (optional), and greens (optional).

Related: What you need to know about Fifty Flowers

Mass flowers are round or full flowers that add visual weight to the arrangement.  I knew I wanted to do garden roses as they had that delicate and soft peony look for a nicer price (especially for April).  I decided on the Mayra pink ruffles garden rose, creamy ivory peony rose, and peony tulips (these were a gamble in my mind, but turned out to be a showstopper!).

For filler flowers I chose peach stock, hypericum berries, and petite cream spray garden roses.

Line or form flowers are other types that add dimension to your arrangements. While you could possibly consider the stock a line flower, I didn’t really end up using it that way, and mostly stuck with mass, greens and fillers.  I ordered an assorted greens pack which came with salal (lemon leaf), Italian ruscus, and baby eucalyptus (greens add so much to an arrangement!).

We did all the arranging at my Gram’s house, who graciously allowed us to create a very green mess all over her garage.  My family, bridesmaids and I arrived three days before the wedding to receive the flower shipments.  It is essential that you prepare (cut & hydrate) the flowers as soon as possible since they underwent a dehydration process to withstand shipping.  It was so fun to watch the sad tight buds blossom within hours!

Preparing Blooms

Receiving hundreds of flowers in the mail = the coolest thing ever!!!!  So the clock started ticking and me and my amazing crew began arranging!  We started with the bouquets.  It’s pretty simple, group three blooms together with a filler in the middle and you have your base.  Secure with floral tape (buy quality stuff, we didn’t and regretted it…).  Then just add on, angling each flower in the same directions so the stems splay out.

Arranging Bouquets

(And no, I wasn’t going for a good hair day… ;))

After we finished the bouquets, more helpers arrived and we sort of divided and conquered.  The table arrangements were assortments of milk glass that my grandma and I had collected.  My awesome helpers arranged those centerpieces while I arranged the ceremony and other feature pieces (of course I was greedy and had to do the biggest ones myself! ;))

Flower Party!

For most of the arrangements we used floral foam to secure the stems.  Sams sells it in bulk for cheap.  Well, it turns out transporting flowers in their vases is very difficult… so we loaded up my grandparent’s camper with the many arrangements and my bridesmaids guarded them with their lives during transportation

Set up day was so fun!  Everyone I love working together to create a beautiful event, I was on a total high  We set out all our arrangements (most all arrived intact), and then used the extra flowers to fill the bud vases that lined the long tables.

The morning of the wedding my superstar aunt, put together all the boutonnieres and corsages (with lisianthus), and they looked GORGEOUS!  Here are the ‘final results’ pics, enjoy:

The Beautiful Results

And now, because I know I would wonder, the details…  Below is approximately how much flowers/supplies ordered, cost, and how many arrangements it made.

The Details

120 Peony Tulips – $200
60 Stock – $75
60 Lisianthus – $75
70 White Garden Roses – $170
100 Pink Garden Roses – $200
100 Hypericum Berries – $70
100 White Spray Garden Roses – $200
220 Greens – $180
Supplies: floral foam, tape, wire, cages, food – $60 (with way too much supplies leftover)
Fifty Flowers Contest Credit – ($500)
______________________________
Total Spent – around $730 (*$1230 without discount*)

So still not chump change, but we saved a ton from what that many flowers would have cost from a florist!  My DIY Wedding flowers gave me the flexibility to get exactly what I wanted for a very reasonable price.  The above flowers together made:

1 Bride’s Bouquet
6 Bridesmaids’ Bouquets
1 Toss Bouquet
11 Corsages
16 Boutonnieres
12+ Table arrangements
60+ Bud Vases
3 Large Ceremony Arrangements
6 Hanging Aisle Decor
8+ Other Medium Sized Arrangements

Thanks for reading my DIY story and I hope this gives you the confidence to try your hand at DIY wedding flowers!    View the rest of our wedding photos and DIY wedding projects here.

DIYing your own flowers? Check out this blog for endless tips and tricks, and my Flowers Resource Guide for more on DIY Wedding Flowers

The post DIY Wedding Flowers | How I Did My Own! appeared first on Naomi Bjerk.