Flowers!!

All grocery stores have similar prices. It’s the selection that varies. Whole Foods is on the expensive side compared to a Walmart/Kroger/Costco, etc and will not have the same selection.


Fiftyflowers.com is less expensive than any of them with a bigger selection.

I'm unsure of the cost savings, but you should also consider how long this is going to take and how much time you will have 1-2 days before the wedding. As I assume flowers would not be put together much before 1-2 days before your wedding.

Generally the costs of a florist include much more than ‘just flowers’ – it involves the cost of securing quality flowers of the type and colour you are after, preparing the flowers (removing excess leaves, thorns etc), assembling bouquets and any floral centrepieces, delivering the florals, and depending on what décor you are having with your florals, setting up and packing down.

Buying flowers as is from any store (including a grocery store) will be cheaper but make sure you actually consider the time and effort you will expend in doing the florals yourself. If you’re having a small wedding with florals only used in the bouquets, this might be doable, but for a bigger wedding or one that involves floral décor, you might find DIY more work than is worth the savings.

I think it might depend on what you’re looking for. My good friend used Whole Foods florals—they designed bouquets, etc. custom for her and delivered them the morning of the wedding. I was a bridesmaid and to this day I think she had among the most beautiful bouquets I’ve ever seen at a wedding.


Cost—not sure. I think this is one of those things where you need to give them a call and price compare quotes.

Costco and Fiftyflowers.com are both extremely cost effective and have prearranged centerpieces/bouquets, boutennaires or diy packs.

We did this!! I gave the florist a budget and general idea (colors, sizes) of what I wanted and they made great bouquets/bouts/corsages that fit how much I wanted to spend. If you dont' have specific flowers in mind, this is a great option - lets the florist have some creativity and you stay within the budget. For 6 bouquets, 8 bouts, 6 corsages, and pretty plants for the church altar we paid like ~$300.

We ordered bulk flowers from our florist for our table displays and I would say it was cheaper than sourcing flowers from the grocery store.

Depending on what you are trying to do, I would worry that you wouldn't be able to source the quality/quantity of flowers needed for your wedding if you just randomly picked up what was available at your local stores at the time.

I wanted to do this idea, but started to worry that I would have to run around to multiple stores to get all the flowers I wanted. Fifty flowers is definitely something I am looking into as a better alternative. Also, I live in the LA area and we have a huge wholesale flower mart downtown which is my other option. Check your city/county to see if you have something similar.

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This is good feedback. Thank you. I appreciate your perspective, good point.

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Great points. Thank you!! I am having a smaller wedding, about 65 people. I'm thinking I may go through a florist for a flower arch/alter. For the center pieces and bouquets (I have a maid of honor and three bridesmaids), I'm considering going through a grocery store. Thank you again for your reply.

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Good to know! Thank you!

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This is helpful, thank you. So, you basically went through a florist but asked for "bulk flowers"? Did you then have to arrange them yourself?

View Quoted Comment Some of the vendors there offer florist services which is a plus

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Wow!! That seems like such a bargain. Thank you for this tip!!

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I'm starting to have that same worry, Maddie! Thanks for your reply. Happy planning!!

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So our florist was actually a local flower farm, so both a grower and a florist. They offered a bulk flower option because they grow their own flowers, so buying bulk flowers from them is kind of like buying "wholesale" flowers direct from the supplier and buying bouquets, arrangements, etc is sort of like buying "retail" flowers. I was pretty flexible with what I wanted - I wanted local, sustainably grown, in-season blooms in soft spring colors and was open to all different species, sizes, shapes, and textures, so it was easy for our florist to build us buckets based on those loose guidelines. Since we ordered direct from the grower and picked up the flowers at the farm, that kept costs down.

Traditional florists (those that are based in flower shops) typically source blooms from a number of growers, often all over the country and many even ship in flowers from overseas, especially more exotic varieties or during winter in the US (its always growing season somewhere). They have to charge enough to cover the wholesale price, cost to ship, various administrative and other fees (like time spent sourcing and fulfilling orders, customs fees, etc), and charge a modest mockup on top of that in order to run a profitable business, then also charge for arranging services. It would not make a whole lot of sense for a flower shop to offer a bulk flower option since their profit really comes from selling the flower services. Having said that, I've never walked into a flower shop and asked if I could buy "bulk flowers" so I don't know if its possible. I don't imagine many would offer a bulk flower option though.

You might have luck trying to order bulk flowers from a place like Costco, especially if you are a member. I would try calling member services and ask if its possible to order 10-20 bouquets of the same flower for a specific date.

The whole point of bulk flowers is that you just get pre-cut flowers, so we did all of the arranging ourselves, but it was a lot of fun and we did an assorted bud vase arrangement, which is far easier to do than large centerpieces and also doesn't require being able to replicate the same look over and over again. It took four of us about two hours to do 120 bud vases. I rented the vases from our florist for a small fee.

Our florist did do a large swag for our arbor, my bouquet, and boutonnieres for the guys because I did not feel comfortable, nor did I have the time, to do those projects myself. I absolutely love that we chose the bulk flower option for our table arrangements though because it was a super fun, chill, de-stressing activity for me the morning of our wedding, and it was a good way to introduce some of my flower loving friends to one another. If you aren't a "flower person" and don't have an eye for aesthetics (as well as a certain level of "go with the flow" ness) I wouldn't recommend doing your own arrangements though. It takes time, a bit of know how, and some patience.

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This is so lovely! We are planning something similar only with assorted bottles and darker flowers. Thanks for the inspo

Sam’s club or Costco are very cost effective!