Is a Florist Worth It?

Flowers can get so expensive and I knew I did not want to spend $$$ for something that will die and get tossed in 24 hours. I also knew I did not want floral centerpieces so just boutonnières, bouquets and corsages for a few family members. My sister recommended I use her godmother, who runs the florist section of a local grocery store. I knew she was a florist but didn’t know that’s where she was out of. I never would have thought they were from there because they were so beautiful. If you are on a budget, don’t underestimate your local grocery store or even Sam’s club. That’s what I was going to use before I discovered Shoprite.

Price will greatly depend on your area and what kind of flowers you want. However, I will say that a florist was definitely worth it to me. I just don't have the creative drive to be able to do my own floral arrangements, and now I don't have to worry or stress over it. Plus, I'm partial to real flowers...I personally think they're prettier. Anyways, I'm getting: a large cascading bride bouquet, 6 bridesmaid bouquets, 12 boutonnieres, 4 corsages, flower girl petals, and 2 arch arrangements for $875. We opted to DIY centerpieces to keep cost down. This is what my flowers look like, I love them:

I'm not using a florist.
But I dont like flowers.
We're just getting some paper flowers off Etsy. It's more my style.

I agree with PP. Flowers can be so expensive, and they die so fast. I'm looking into artificial flowers, since I only need a few bouquets, bouts, and a couple of corsages. No floral decor or centerpieces.

But I will add that I was at my local Safeway recently, and they have the floral department. I was there getting balloons for my granddaughter's birthday, but several other customers were there picking up bouts and corsages that Safeway had done for a wedding. They were really beautiful, and the girl buying them made a comment about what a great price! I didn't want to be rude by asking how much, but she did say they were a lot less expensive than going through a florist. So, it's definitely an option you should look into.

We did all fake flowers from hobby lobby/ michaels. We were able to put all boutonnières, corsages, bouquets, centerpieces, etc. together ourselves and do it exactly how we wanted. I found that it was Cheaper to do fake and make them ourselves. I also didn’t want the stress of having to worry about if the real flowers would stay alive/ be ready on time / still look pretty by the day of the wedding.

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I've looked online at marryme.com / etsy and even looking at Marshall's - I'm mostly concerned because I want my bouquet to be Black-Eyed Susans and FH wants his boutonniere to be a yellow rose so we can find him anywhere - but I cannot seem to find anything for my bouquet. The rest is Sunflowers which can be found anywhere but we wanted to have some different yellow colored flowers to match him with his mom and me with my dad and so on. I'm flip flopping, because DIY seems best but also do I want the stress of DIY?

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I will definitely check the craft stores near us to see if that is an option - my only issue is that my bouquet is going to be Black - Eyed Susans, I'm really not sure if that's a common fake flower. :/

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I love this!! 875 isn't terrible - I guess I'll have to wait and see what the price is going to be once we meet with the Florist again. Thanks for sharing!

We're using a florist because I personally like the look of real flowers. To keep our budget low we're sticking to just bridal party flowers. For $600 our florist is making my bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, 9 boutonnieres and 3 corsages.

The first time I got married, I did silk flowers, no centerpieces. They were easy and it was fun, and they look real enough in photos. This time around, I really wanted real flowers and our venue doesn't allow fake ones, anyway. We're paying just under $1k for two bouquets, one corsage, a ridiculous number of boutonnieres, and 10 centerpieces in two different styles (both low, one is a single low vase with many stems, the other is 3 small vases per table with 1-2 stems each). Plus delivery. No setup. It's totally worth it to me to not have to lug everything to the venue on the day, or store it both before and after. I kept my bouquet from the first wedding until I got divorced, but it spent more years collecting dust in a closet than on display. The best part about using silks, in my opinion, is the ability to sell them afterward. I should have done that, instead of keeping them.

So I did the numbers and figured it would cost at least $500-600 to DIY the flowers I wanted PLUS I would have to actually put everything together before the wedding. I called around and asked florists if they could accommodate a budget and ended up finding someone who would do everything I wanted for $750. She is doing 7 small table arrangements, 1 bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 1 flower girl bouquet, 6 boutonnieres, and 3 corsages. TOTALLY worth the extra money, in my opinion, to not have to do it myself.

We are in Denver, paying $2,200 for wedding party flowers, centerpieces, arch decor, and aisle decor. All decor is minimal though.

View Quoted Comment You could google it. You could call some craft stores and see if they have it/ if they will have it or something like that. Or you could just use that one kind of flower as a real one? Idk if you could tell that the others were fake off of that

We’re paying about $1600 for bouquets, boutonnières, flowers for the cake and centerpieces.

We are paying about $**** for 11 centerpieces, my bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouqets, and a flower crown in CT.

I paid under $500 for everything all flowers and centerpieces and decor, in bulk from Sams Club. It required a little more work and attention the week of the wedding, but if you are prepared it honestly was SO worth it. I wasn't stressed, didn't spend thousdands, and had the wedding of my dreams.

Here is my full post:

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/sams-club-bulk-floral-total-review-delivery-to-wedding-day-photos-included/e6b3b0e1f90bd2f0.html

I didn't want to spend a lot either, because I think that $1,000 or more is a lot to spend on flowers when I could get something else that is more important to me. If you are open to DIYing your flowers, I would look into Flower Moxie or Bloominous, or some other similar companies. They are DIY companies that have pre-made packages that come with everything you need to make your bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, etc. and they have instructions, videos, and offer a lot of help. I am planning to use Flower Moxie now, and they only have a $350 minimum and there is a lot of flexibility in what you can order to get the look and pieces you need.

I haven't met with a florist, but I have been able to find what I want, for the prices that I want, on a DIY site. And I think it will be fun to make the bouquets and stuff with my bridal party before the big day.

I used a florist and we shopped around A LOT because I love flowers and wanted floral centerpieces, but my flower budget was only $1,500. I had 1 bridal bouquet ($175), 5 bridesmaid bouquets ($30 each), bout for H ($12), 7 bouts for dads/wedding party ($10 each), large arrangement for the entryway table at our venue ($75), 24 feet of faux garland with real eucalyptus tied into it ($100), 11 centerpieces (2 different styles, $43 each with a square mirror base), flowers for the cake ($15), and 56 votives with candles ($2 each). Including delivery and set up, it cost us just over $1,500. It is possible to get what you want in your budget, but you may have to look around quite a bit.

I am getting flowers through a local grocery store. We had a mini ceremony previously and they did a great job. I’m getting a small bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaid bouquets, 8 boutonnières, and 4 corsages for $300. They also deliver for $15!

In my opinion, no. I plan to only order one bouquet for myself.