Flowers from Trader Joes?

My experience with TJ's is their flowers are a good deal, but there's no guarantee of them having the colors/flowers that you want when you want them in the quantity you might need unless you specifically put in an order with them. I'm using them for practice, but for day-of I am doing a combination order from fiftyflowers and flowerfarm.com and a local wholesaler, so that I don't have the added stress of not knowing what I'll find at TJ's that day, or running short. I look every time I go in, and I'll often see a few things I like, but not enough to do 15 tables of centerpieces with cohesive colors. I will also say their quality is not the highest - the florist quality flowers I've picked up from the local wholesaler for practice have been absolutely stunning. Trader joe's often has some duds with brown spots or bruised petals and the roses don't open as large.

Florist quality Mikado Spray Roses - as big as grocery store standard rosesGiant florist quality Tiffany from the wholesalerFlorist quality Vendela roses - this is day 1 after I got them before they fully opened

Florist quality Vendelas in practice arrangement - look how huge these bloomed

TJ's Roses - much smaller, less full, some imperfect rosettes.

My TJ's is always super packed so I feel like it's already been picked over, maybe, but I would say grocery store quality difference is real, and not that much cheaper.

Even if you want to go budget, if you buy 40cm roses from flowerfarm.com they can come in as low as 0.58cents/stem for ~125, shipped.

My daughter and I have been looking into flowers to use for her wedding. She is having a wedding with around 55 people, two bridesmaids and two groomsmen. She and I both agreed that the cost of hiring a florist was not worth it. We had no desire to spend thousands of dollars on flowers, that would be thrown out eventually. Even trying to do a small wedding with a florist was crazy expensive. We are looking into alternate options like TJ's or even grocery stores. The problem with wholesale, which everyone recommends is that you have to buy large quantities of one type of flowers. Doesn't work for small weddings. Flowers are beautiful no matter how you arrange them! Yes, it is time consuming to DIY, but the wedding industry leaves a lot of brides with no choice! I think most vendors totally take advantage of brides. Also, you can also look at it as a fun way to bond with relatives and friends. It shouldn't be negative because you want to do it yourself!

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