In a typical wildflower fashion, we decided to do our own flowers for the wedding and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out! I must say I was a little nervous because I had not even come up with a vision of what I wanted. We completely winged it the day before the wedding and they turned out so gorgeous, but don't get me wrong, you need to be prepared because it was a lot of work and very time consuming so make sure you have enough time the day before the wedding. You really can't do them any earlier than the day before, because they won't look as fresh. Most people probably would rather pay so they don't have to deal with it... but I was totally prepared to put the work in when I got a quote for $650 from a florist for a floral garland for the ceremony spot! I didn't even ask how much the bouquets and arrangements would have been, but my guess is we would have spend between $2k-3k. I just could not comprehend spending that much money on something that dies very soon after. I knew we could do this for way cheaper and it was only going to make it more special.
We got married up in Truckee, CA (which is North Tahoe) and went to Reno to get the flowers the day before the wedding (45 minutes from Truckee). I heard from other people that Costco and Trader Joe's had flowers that you can bulk order in advance. Well we didn't even do that! I didn't know what kind of flowers I wanted, so we knew whatever they had displayed was what we had to work with. If you are going to pre-order from Trader Joe's, they say to call 5 days in advance. (You will need to make sure the flowers you want are actually in season and they can get them at that time.) We went to Costco first and they had a great assortment of all flowers including filler flowers.
Luckily I had my bridesmaids and my mom with me. They know me very well so luckily I didn't need to explain much because they knew what I would like. (Good point, bring people that know your style and taste to help.) After Costco we headed to Trader Joe's and got some more fillers spending around $250.00 total and you will never believe what that paid for! Here goes: 9 large mason jar arrangements, 8 hanging mason arrangements for the ceremony isle, 4 bouquets, 5 boutonnieres, and a floral garland. UNREAL! I still can't believe it!
Beware! There is an agricultural check point after you cross the border back into California. They usually wave you right through while they look in the back of your car for plants or fruits. There is a fine line between plants and flowers... so we were worried about it and called in advance. They told us just to claim them and it should be fine (especially because the flowers ship to Reno from California in the first place! HAHA. Anyways... they just waved us right through so I didn't even have a chance to claim them, but it definitely added a little stress to the situation, but it was all good!
When you are prepping the flowers, make sure to remove all the leaves. Simply pinch the leaves off with your nails as close to the stem as possible. Then separate all the bouquets and lay them out on a table by type of flower. Fill the vases with water and add your flower food first. Then line up the vases and start arranging!
This is my bridesmaid, Kirsten! She is the florists behind all this! She has great taste in flowers and knew exactly what to do. Without her we would have been lost! See below to see the beautiful flowers she arranged! She found her calling!
This was the outcome for the floral arrangements...
For the hanging masons, we used pink peonies (both bloomed and unbloomed), green mums, and babies breath
Bridal bouquet and bridesmaid bouquets!!!
The finished product on the table! Love the pop of color with all the neutrals in the house!
So worth the effort!
