First Floral Consultation

I originally wanted all real flowers (and am finding a way to do that), however FH quickly turned down the idea when I told him the average cost was $2,000. Yikes! That is a lot of money for flowers. The thought of DIY (fake or real) gave me a headache. So we met with a florist, I told her we were on a tight budget and showed her my inspiration pictures. I knew, if nothing else, the bouquets had to be real. My florist is charging us $875 + tax for: 1 bride bouquet, 6 bridesmaid bouquets, flower girl petals, 2 arch arrangements, 4 corsages, and 13 boutonnieres. Also, She said she can sell me bulk wholesale flowers ($50-$100) of what she uses for me to use for my centerpieces (which I plan to do). I thought that was a pretty good deal.

Therefore, my advice is to just take as many inspo pictures as you can. The florist can help you figure out what you want. I didn't exactly know what I wanted either, lol. You most likely won't get a quote on the first appointment. It took a month for our florist to get back to us with a quote, so be prepared to play the waiting game. And remember that flowers are expensive, BUT real flowers aren't always more expensive than fake or DIY. There are some ways to cut down the cost of flowers: DIY centerpieces but have the florist do the rest (like I am), use in season flowers (florist can help with that), use a lot of filler flowers, etc.

Well, we are going for wild flowers with sunflower accents. No clue on the exact flowers though or how we wanted them arranged, lol. Came to the decision (with the florist) that I wanted the brides bouquet to be large and cascading, the bridesmaids to have smaller bouquets (with MOH's being slightly larger), and the boutonnieres to have a mix as well. My bridesmaids are wearing coral reef, so we decided we wanted the wild flowers to be a good mix of: pink, salmon, yellow, white, green, and lavender. I still don't know what they will look like though, and I expressed to the florist that makes me nervous. Therefore, she is going to include my flowers in a bridal show she is doing at the end of the month and have me come up to the shop to "play around" with them, so she can give me a general idea of what flowers she plans to use and how they will look.

Note: We knew we wanted wildflowers with sunflower accents, but my inspo pictures were all over the place. These are all the different pictures I showed the florist, lol, so she definitely has her work cut out for her (because I apparently don't know exactly what I want either). I told her there wasn't a single picture that represented exactly what I wanted, but each picture had elements that I liked.

Totally different than the wildflower rustic theme we have, but love the bohemian look and colorsMix of wildflowers, cascading, but not quite what I am looking forI like the shape and wild feel of this one, but not the flowersCascading and colorfulWildflowers, and pretty colors, but not too into the straight up and down shapePretty colors, but not the right flowersLove the sunflowers with the pinkThese colors would go really well with the dressesSimple idea for bridesmaids, but want more colorLove the colors in this one, but need to add sunflowers and make it cascading Again, pretty but not quite rightAgain.....Love these for bridesmaids, but would need much larger for mine

First off, I hear you about not wanting to go fake flowers. We didn't either - only had a few fake ones for a few DIY decorations and my hair clips.

As far as flowers in season, you can google that. See what you like, and go from there.

The more "minimal" you go, obviously the lower your price will be. So for us, we asked "what can get us the most bang for our buck" and our florist delivered in a big way. Her suggestion was to skip centerpieces for every table and only do them on honored tables (parents' tables, head table, etc.). Do one large arrangement for the entry/escort card table, and decorate the cake with petals instead of full blooms. We did that and it ended up being half the price of what our first quote had shown with another florist.

She also recommended that for volume, going with hydrangeas instead of roses - so our bridesmaid bouquets were large bunches of hydrangeas and looked amazing. My bouquet was the only one with roses.

If you don't have a budget, I definitely suggest making one. Even if it's not exact, having a number that's an "average" cost for your area (googling can get you this) is a good place to start. So if someone comes in at twice that, obviously it's up to you. Also, watch out for florists that tell you that they have a "minimum charge." That minimum for a lot of the florists near me (Chicago) was significantly higher than my entire floral budget!

Anyway, best of luck to you! Finding a florist was probably the hardest search we had!

Anyway, good luck!

What we ended up spending was somewhere around $1,500 all in - including delivery fees, all florals, cake decorating, etc.

We received quotes that were anywhere from $1,200 (bouquets only - no thanks!) to over $3,000 "with a $1,800 minimum." Our first mistake was contacting the well known "wedding" florists - the one we ended up going with has done a ton of weddings, but it was an older lady who was more of an "all occasion" florist who just happened to be a former business partner of a wedding bakery, so knew the ins and outs of our venue and what we could do to get the most for our budget.

I just told my florist a couple of my favorite flowers (no idea if they would be in season or not), but I told her that she could use anything similar and then whatever else she needed to complete everything.

We were married in November and our flowers were roses, dahlias, Asiatic lilies, calla lilies DH's mother's favorite flower) and Chrysanthemums (my mother's favorite flower), baby's breaths and greenery for fillers. The flowers on the tables, my bouquet and the flowers down the aisle for the ceremony were real. All of the tall arrangements were a mixture of real but mostly real touch.