Weddingbee boards

We DIYed our flowers and we saved SO much money!  I think we only spent around $80 on all the flowers for the entire wedding. 

How are you ordering your flowers?  We got ours from a local grocery store which just charged us cost with no mark-up. 

Because you want to give the flowers time to open, you'll want to pick them up no later than the day before you want to assemble them.  Our order came in on Thursday and we picked them up on Friday morning.  Before you assemble, you'll want to store the flowers in a cool, dark place, in water with flower food/conditioning solution.  You can get this from garden/craft stores, or maybe even when you order the flowers. 

You'll want to assemble the bouquets several hours before you want to use them--we did it the morning of the wedding.  When you assemble the bouquets, depending on the look you want, you'll probably want to remove as much of the leaves from each stem as possible.  You may want to have your aunt do a trial where she uses the flowers that you want on the day, so that she can estimate how many she'll need to achieve the look you want. To secure the flowers, you can use floral wire and/or tape.  We thought about using small, clear plastic rubber bands, but couldn't find the size we wanted.  We wrapped the finished assembled bouquet in ribbon and cut the ends with floral shears to make them even.  After they're assembled, you can leave them in water so that they don't dry out.  We just each had a little cup with a small amount of water (not to get the ribbon wet) that we carried the bouquets in until it was time to use them.

Because your wedding is a year away, I suggest doing a trial around the time of your wedding this year.  I know we did that, so that we would have an idea of what flowers would be available and how they'd look. 

I know this is old but I wanted to chip because I also DIYed my flowers and have similar flowers in my bouquet to what you mentioned.

I'd be happy to chat more if you have specific questions!  the total cost of my bouquet was probably around $50 but i was able to buy some of the flowers in bulk for other decor.

We bought almost all the flowers from the local grocery store.  after discussing it with the floral manager for a couple months I put in an order about 10 days before the wedding and it worked beautifully.