Weddingbee boards

Hi all.  When I was choosing if I should do DIY flowers for our reception, I relied a lot upon writeups found online.  So, here's my (LONG) review/process breakdown, now that the wedding is over and I have some pics.  Hope it helps!

Initially, I was choosing between freshroses.com and fiftyflowers.com.  I ordered sample shipments to come from both companies in August.  While both shipments arrived perfectly on time and in good condition, I preferred the larger roses from fiftyflowers, as they looked more lush and premium.  So, I decided to go with fiftyflowers.com.

I ordered online-- 200 stems each of peach, ivory, light pink, and lavender roses, plus 160 stems of spray roses in the same colors.  They called immediately following the order to confirm and gave tips on what to do when the flowers arrived.  I ordered for Wednesday delivery, to give the roses enough time to open nicely for our Saturday evening reception. 

The flowers arrived in five huge boxes on the Wednesday morning, and there were no problems or delays with the delivery.  I put the roses directly into water.  I can't remember if I trimmed the bottoms at this time, but just follow the instructions provided.

After that, I just left them to chill out in a cold air-conditioned room, to get hydrated and start to open.  I changed the water/food a couple of times a day.  On Thursday night, my MOH and I stripped off leaves/thorns while catching up over a bottle of wine.  I'd ordered a set of plastic stem strippers online, and they worked out perfectly: http://www.afloral.com/Floral-Supplies/Tools-Floral-Wire-Grapevine-Wreaths/3-Pack-Plastic-Rose-Stripper   I would definitely recommend these rather than the metal ones-- these are huge and protect your hands, and are MUCH faster than the metal pinching ones (I ordered both). 

On Friday morning, my helper arrived.  I hired a woman my mother knew to do the rest of the work for me, since I had guests to entertain and didn't need to be stuck in a room working on flowers.  :)  This was the BEST decision, and SO worth the money.  She arrived and I showed her the ropes, and explained to her the look I wanted, which was basically tons of pastel roses stuck into vases, with the spray roses as filler/texture variety-- it was a very simple look, so I felt it could easily be done without the expertise of a professional florist.  She got to work stripping and trimming the stems and preparing the vases.  She kept in touch with me throughout the day, and had me approve a couple of samples, with the stems trimmed at different heights, so I could choose which ones I preferred.  She came back on Saturday morning to finish the job, and then helped the hotel transport the flowers from the work room to the dining room, and she arranged them with the candles according to the look that I wanted.

Man, this is getting LONG!

OK, now for some pictures.  I had a mix of round and long rectangular tables. 

For the rounds, I had three large-ish arrangements, with a trio of vases that were each at slightly different heights.  For the rectangular tables, I had a line of multiple small arrangements, basically one per couple, along a runner in the middle of the table.  At both tables, I had tall mercury glass candlesticks (a range of three heights), with tall ivory tapers.

Hi girls-- am resizing the pics now, as I'd thought they could be 500 pixels wide, but it looks like 400 width works?

If these upload for me, here are two pics of the round table arrangements.

Closeups of the little flower cups, for the rectangular tables.

What's fifty flowers?

To those of you who are thinking of ordering, I'm back to quickly list some simple tips (these are applicable for roses-- other flowers or complicated arrangements might need other equipment such as floral tape and wire, oasis, etc.):

1. If you're particular about color, you might want to order a sample shipment, or make sure you pick a specific varietal that you know you like.  I chose to just order in bulk by the generic color, to save money.  Instead of ordering 200 "Vendela" roses for $220, I ordered 200 "light cream" roses for $200.  I ended up getting Vendela (the boxes are marked with the specific type), but didn't have to pay the extra $20, since I was flexible.

2. Before ordering, search online for a coupon code.  I was able to save 10% by using the code that came with my sample shipment-- CARE2009.  Maybe try CARE2010 for 2010?  Give yourself enough time to source affordable vases-- I love the little ivy vases that are only $1 each at craft stores. 

3. Get enough buckets and flower food in advance (it takes more food than you think), and change the water as directed.  Get a good stem stripper-- the plastic flower ones I linked above were PERFECT.  Also, get a strong pair of shears-- cutting thick stems with normal scissors would be hard on your hands.

4. For roses, don't forget to remove the guard petals-- you may have to remove up to 8 or so per rose-- but trust me, the flowers look MUCH better once you remove the imperfect outer petals.

5. Set up an assembly line system-- much faster!  As you're going along, if you break some of the flower heads off, don't throw them away-- save them to put out around the cocktail area, around votives, etc.  You can also strip off the petals and scatter these around.

6. Keep an eye on how fast the flowers are opening, and adjust how you're keeping them accordingly (water temp, room temp).  For example, my lavender roses opened much faster than the others.  I should've moved them to a cooler part of the room, but instead I made separate arrangements of these lavender roses for the bar, cocktail area, etc.  If your flowers are opening too slowly or too quickly, call the customer service line for advice-- they're very helpful.  My lavender roses were fully open by the end of the night-- they were gorgeous, but would not have lasted another day.  The other colors were beautiful for days afterwards!

7. Figure out in advance how you're going to transport the finished arrangements, if you're doing them off-site.  Transporting lots of vases with water in a car is very difficult, as is rolling them down a hotel hallway on a luggage cart (haha :) )

8. Hire a helper, if you can!!!!  My helper Barb was incredible.  It was GREAT to have someone else do most of the execution, so I could just relax and take care of some other last-minute things.  So, my flowers were DIY-with-a-twist!  Of course, you can also gather together a range of free friend and family helpers, if your budget can't stretch to this.  But for an extra $15-$25/hour, I think this is well worth it.  Don't underestimate the time commitment-- depending on the size of your wedding, it can be a huge undertaking.  We had ~60 small and ~30 large-ish arrangements of flowers, so it took a LOT of time.

9. Don't be intimidated-- just do it!  Don't get stressed-- it's pretty difficult to mess up such a gorgeous raw material.  It helps to have a trial run.  This will help you determine what quantity to order, and also give you an estimate on how long each arrangement will take.

10. Enjoy the money savings!  I had a certain look that I wanted to achieve, but I wanted to bring it in under a certain budget.  The only way to have both was to order online, and provide the labor and materials myself.  I got quotes from two florists, and they were more than triple what I ended up spending (for flowers and labor and equipment included).  For the simple look that I wanted, DIY was ideal.

OK, thus ends my DIY Flower Diatribe!  :)  Good luck!  PM me if you have any questions!

@Rosie Girl,

Nope, no dead or smushed flowers upon delivery-- they were packed in layers in really sturdy cardboard boxes.  While unpacking, a few of the heads snapped off, but I'm not sure if they were already halfway broken, or if I was just being too rough.  :)  They don't look "perfect" right when you get them, of course, as you need to remove the outer petals (which look a little more smushed and can have marks on them.)  I'm glad you're excited-- I was too!  Seriously, I saved SO MUCH money.

Here's a pic of what she did with the heads that popped off-- she just scattered them around some candles, and they looked sweet.  Also, here's a pic of the "blown" lavender roses-- they opened so much faster than the rest, but still looked really pretty, like huge garden roses.

@tobemurphy: I ordered just two weeks in advance.  If you email the customer service, they should be able to recommend when to place your order.  I think the website says to order at least 2-3 weeks in advance.

Those look great!