Buy Flowers Wholesale vs. a Florist?

I haven't use Costco or Sams Club, but the flowers in the stores always look nice! If the reception vendor has agreed to put the arrangements together, definitely let her do it b/c it will save you a TON of money! I'm doing my own flowers, but I'm going to a local wholesaler to buy mine. You should research and see if you have any in your area, that way you can go see the flowers in person before you buy

From my experience, I have had several brides come to me the day of their wedding in tears because the flowers they received from COSTCO were crap. I do know that some local wholesalers (the same place where florists get their product) will sell to the public. Bottom line, do what fits your budget. You can always get several estimates from florists to help give you an idea of the cost.

I am planning on purchasing all the flowers for our centerpieces from Sam's Club. The flowers always look nice plus they have a 7 day guarentee. We bought some to see how long they would last, and they were looking good for about a week and a half. You can save a ton of money buying wholesale! I would go for it

One tip: You can order the types/amounts of flowers you want ahead of time and have them delivered to the store on a certain day, that way you know what you want will be available. Good luck

With costco and sam's club is hit or miss. Either you will have relatively good product or it will come in beat up. It's all about how much of a risk do you want to take.

We plan on it, entirely up to my mother.

I am getting my flowers from Trader Joe's and I'm going to make my bouquets from there and I'm buying freeze dried rose petals for my centerpieces. Cool thing about freeze dried rose petals is (apparently) you can rehydrate them by steaming them in the shower. (I'm going to order them soon and make sure this is true). However, I like the idea of wild flower bouquets. If you have a Trader Joe's around you, they generally have gorgeous flowers and there should be someone you can specifically speak to who orders the flowers.

I have a florist, but yesterday my mom and I realized that we need more arrangements for the cocktail hour and don't want to pay her for them. We looked at Wegman's and they have gorgeous flowers. Then I happened to go to costco and found really pretty ones for less. Roses were 15.99 for 2 dozen. Not sure about ordering though.

A vendor friend of mind is fantastic at flowers and will help you with the difference of doing it yourself or through a florist, contact "Papertini.com" she's fantastic. We had thought about doing our flowers ourselves, but at the end of the day, the time, the cost, the ability to get the qty of flowers, was VERY difficult and just as expensive. Trust me, on the day of your wedding, you're going to want to have a florist you have hired or at least an event planner!

I've ordered mine from Sam's Club - 80 hot pink and 80 pink gerbera daisies, and we're going to supplement with pink roses (and white roses for our memorial vase) that we buy retail prior to the ceremony since we don't need them bulk. We also need to check with a local florist for a few sprigs of green hypericum. Just one note: we asked the local Sam's Club (in Vero Beach) about having the flowers delivered to the store and they told us that they do not bulk order flowers in-store - that our only option was ordering online and having them delivered (which is included in the quoted price).

I am getting mine from either fiftyflowers.com or samsclub.com. The review are great from both. A friend of mine used sam's club for hers (she ordered them online and got them a 2 days before the wedding.) They turned out great! If you have the room, time, talent, and patience it is worth it.

Flowers from a real floral wholesale like your florist uses are generally excellent quality. Costco type flowers, however, have spotty quality. you just don't know how long they've been around.

Arranging silks is a very different thing than fresh. I don't particularly like silks, so maybe I'm biased. But fresh do need proper conditioning and handling, plus storage.

Just when you are having your rehearsal dinner is when you'll need to be designing your flowers, unless you have access to a lg cooler. About half the time, when clients plan on doing their own, they decide the week ahead( or less) that they would like me to do it instead. Another quarter of the time, they SHOULD have had me do the because they weren't handled properly.

So unless the person managing your flowers is equipped & educated on what to do, I can't recommend DIY flowers. Check with independent floral designers, as well as the shops. You might find its worthwhile to have an exp'd person handle this.

Hi there,

As a planner I have seen many weddings where this happens. When I meet with clients who are on a really tight budget, I try & convince them to DIY or let me DIY the centerpieces because I have experience with that. When it comes to bouquets, bouts, corsages etc. I HIGHLY reccommend a Professional florist. This saves you money but the end result especially for pictures is amazing. You will need someone with experience to make sure that your flowers look great. This past weekend I DIY'ed the centerpieces(which were wildflowers bouquets). I went with the couple to a Farm who grows them locally in Sonoma and on the morning of the wedding they were beautiful and ready to go.

P.S. whoever picks up flowers for you, ABSOLUTELY make sure that they keep them cool in the car/truck and even while waiting to go on the tables. 90 degree weather is what we had and I made sure that no one opened the refridgerator or messed with them until I was ready for them to go out! Good Luck!

I would make sure the venue coordinator can design flowers well and in the style that you love. I would ask for photos of any previous work she has done in fresh, not just silk. Do they have a cooler to store the flowers in until the wedding? Does she have all of the supplies, wire, tape, expertise, etc so your flowers hold up throughout the day without wilting or falling apart? It is usually free to get a few price estimates from florists so I would shop around before you make your final decision. Professional florists spend years training for a reason...because it takes a lot of skill and knowledge to do it right. I want to be sure that you have gorgeous memories and photos to remember your wedding by - Wilting flowers are an eyesore in life and in photos.

We're ordering our flowers from the owner of the kiosk at our local Costco and will actually pick them up at the store. We were told the kiosks at Costco are individually owned franchises. We met with him and he can order bouquets for us and all we have to do is place them in our own vases.

Interesting, Meredith. The Costco kiosk where I am is a company store, and they will not take special orders - what is there is there. You can can order online with what they have - either pre-made bouquets or bulk flowers. However, you will still need to re-cut and condition in floral solution,and properly store the flowers to make them last through the day. And you;ll need to arrange them in vases, or course, and transport all those vases to your site, which is an adventure in itself!