So, if you haven’t already noticed, here’s a little tidbit about me: I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. And I don’t even mean to, but it seems like it always happens that way.

That means when it comes to my bouquet flowers, of course everything I seem to like is super-exclusive, out of season, or just plain expensive. It doesn’t help that we live in Michigan. For flowers to really thrive and grow in this crazy weather, they have to be pretty resilient and few make the cut.

Sure, I could order flowers from across the country and have them flown in, but in the grand scheme of things, it just feels a little silly. The flowers will be way overpriced and will undoubtedly die the next day anyway. And while I’m not the greenest girl out there, I do know that’s a lot of unnecessary stress on the environment in transportation just for some flowers.

So, what if I mixed in some not-so-real flowers with my real in-season, readily available flowers?

[side note: If I were witty enough, this would be the point where I make a hilarious analogy regarding those chicken cutlet booby things everyone seems to like so much and how its essentially the same thing because you're mixing the real ones with the fake ones. That's if I were witty enough.]

My real flowers could be:

• dahlias
• poppy
• zinnia

I could mix in fake stems of:

• peonies
• anemone
• tulips
• gardenia

Anemone. Source: fleurs nyc

Gardenia. Source: The Knot

Peonies. Source: Vogue Flowers and Gifts

Possibly Related Posts:

• DIY Bouquet Trial #2
• Less Expensive Flowers: Carnations
• Less Expensive Flowers: Baby’s Breath
• DIY Grocery Store Bridal Bouquet
• Grocery Store Flower Magic

Technorati Tags: Bouquets, DIY, Flowers

You might remember my first bouquet trial. That one was mixed and was red, yellow and orange.

This time around, I did a trial with all white carnations. I’m leaning toward the idea of having an all white bouquet for myself and the mixed color bouquet for my girls. The carnations were pretty cheap. I got 2 dozen for $18 from a wholesale flower distributor. I took basically the same steps as with the first bouquet:

• Strip all the leaves
• Bunch the stems together and secure with floral tape
• I didn’t use a cardboard wrapper around the stems this time, but I should have
• Wrap the handle in ribbon and secure it with pins

The good thing about the carnations is that they’re very durable and very forgiving even at the mercy of my novice ability. I felt like they looked pretty good. My main concern is probably the fact that the stems are jointed so they snap pretty easily at the different joints in the stem. Other than that the were pretty easy to work with. If I do decide to do this, I might add one more dozen to make it a little fuller.

I’ll try and post some better pictures over the next few days, but I think you get the idea.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Take a Picture – Click! Click! DIY: Boudoir Pics
• Getting Things (MYSELF) In Order
• Wedding Invitation Mailing Tips
• Headpiece: Splurge or Steal
• Ringbearer Pillow – A DIY Tutorial

Technorati Tags: Bouquet, Bridal, Carnations, Cheap, DIY, Florist, Flowers, store

I talked before about using baby’s breath for your flowers because their inexpensive and look nice in bunches. But I really like these carnations too. They always seem to get treated like the bad apple of of the bunch, but really they’re not bad. Just like baby’s breath, if used in deliberate ways instead of just afterthoughts, carnations can look just as nice as any other flower. And since they come in a bunch of different colors, they’re way more versatile than the baby’s breath.

Watch and observe:

Source: Weddingbee.com

Source: Jupiter Images

Source: Weddingbee.com

Source: IntimateWeddings.com

Source: Weddingbee.com

Possibly Related Posts:

• Mixing Fake Flowers with Real Flowers
• DIY Bouquet Trial #2
• Less Expensive Flowers: Baby’s Breath
• DIY Grocery Store Bridal Bouquet
• Grocery Store Flower Magic

Technorati Tags: Bouquet, Budget, Carnations, Cheap, Flowers, Inexpensive

Now, I don’t really know which flowers are in season, in which zones and which varieties. A florist I am not. But I’m pretty sure that in general, baby’s breath is pretty inexpensive, no matter the season or the zone or the variety.

You know baby’s breath – it’s the filler stuff the florist puts in your arrangement to make it look fuller than it actually is. It’s never been a favorite of mine, but now I’m having second thoughts.

As a bouquet or a boutonniere, where it’s execution is very deliberate, rather an a misguided afterthought, I love it.

Source: The Bride’s Cafe

Possibly Related Posts:

• Mixing Fake Flowers with Real Flowers
• DIY Bouquet Trial #2
• Less Expensive Flowers: Carnations
• DIY Grocery Store Bridal Bouquet
• Grocery Store Flower Magic

So, remember the post about grocery store flowers. Right – how could you forget?

As promised, I tried it out myself. I ventured out in the cold and rain this morning and paid a visit to Trader Joe’s. I bought 2 bouquets of flowers for $5.99 each. One was a red/orange/yellow mixed bouquet and the other was just solid red roses.

I stripped all the leaves, thorns and extra stems. This was pretty easy except for some of the yellow flowers, which I think may be mums, unless you want them all grouped together, the stems end up pretty short once you separate them from the main stem.

I started grouping them together in my hand. There was no particular order to it – I just tried to mix up the the flowers so that there weren’t large groups of any one flower. This was a little challenging with the shorter stem flowers because they kept popping out and didn’t want to cooperate at times. I didn’t have any wire, which i looked at in the store and decided I wouldn’t need, which also made this part a little challenging. I ended up just wrapping the floral tape directly around the stems. As I’ve read before, the tape sticks better to itself if you pull it just a little taut.

The flowers were pretty secure with the tape but the stems were jutting out left and right. The ribbon would’ve looked just as uneven. So I needed something smooth and sturdy to serve as a base for the ribbon. First thing I thought of was a paper towel roll. Go figure, but I couldn’t find one anywhere.

The roses came wrapped in some semi-thin corrugated cardboard. It was perfect because it was smooth on one side but pretty sturdy so you wouldn’t be able to see the stems through the ribbon.

I bought a roll of clearance ribbon when I got the floral tape. I wrapped it all the way around the stem-handle and put in a column of pearl pushpins.

It’s by no means perfect but pretty good for a first try (I think).

What do you guys think? Any tips or tricks to share with the rest of us?

——————————————–

Cost:

$5.99 mixed bouquet

$5.99 rose bouquet

$1.59 stem tape

$1.00 ribbon

=14.57

Possibly Related Posts:

• Take a Picture – Click! Click! DIY: Boudoir Pics
• Getting Things (MYSELF) In Order
• Wedding Invitation Mailing Tips
• Headpiece: Splurge or Steal
• Ringbearer Pillow – A DIY Tutorial

Technorati Tags: Bouquet, Bridal, DIY, Flowers, ribbon

Thanks to Ten Thousand Only and A Cup of Jo, I stumbled upon a pot of gold. They posted about bridal bouquets made from supermarket flowers on the Real Simple site.

I’ve gotten flowers from the supermarket before just to put on the table because the look and smell nice, but nothing I’ve put together looks half as professional as these done by Real Simple. This just further confirms for me that, not only will I be making my own bouquet, but my girls will likely be making theirs.

I’m thinking the night before the wedding we get a wholebuncha flowers and all sit down and do them together. That way the less crafty of us won’t feel overwhelmed.

I’m trying this this weekend. Can’t wait.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Mixing Fake Flowers with Real Flowers
• DIY Bouquet Trial #2
• Less Expensive Flowers: Carnations
• Less Expensive Flowers: Baby’s Breath
• DIY Grocery Store Bridal Bouquet

Technorati Tags: Bouquet, Bridesmaids, DIY, Florist, Flowers, store

I haven’t looked into the cost of flowers yet. Honestly, I’m scared to. Florists will probably be just as expensive and overpriced as the venues and caterers I’m looking at now. I think I have a backup plan though:

membership warehouse club

Hear me out before you judge.

I don’t think we’re going to have flower centerpieces for the reception tables. I’ll use something else there; maybe wheat grass. So that means the flowers will mostly be for our bouquets and boutonnieres.

I’ve seen a lot of bouquets I love and a lot I could really do without. I think i definitely want one with a wrapped handle, but I haven’t decided if want it to be solid white, a different solid color, or many different colors.

I’ve read other brides talk about going the diy route and getting their flowers from the local flower warehouse in their city. As far as I know, Detroit is lacking in that area. We do have the Eastern Market, a large farmer’s market with fresh produce, plants and flowers. Problem with that is, the Eastern Market is only open Saturday morning. There’s no way I’ll be able to put together bouquets the morning of my wedding. I would much rather do them the night before.

So, I think that I’m going to check out one of the big warehouse clubs. I already have a membership and I’m pretty sure it’d be a pretty good discount. I’m not getting my hopes up about the variety; that may just be a sacrifice I’ll have to make.

I’d thought about this before, but was re-inspired (that’s definitely a real word) by these DIY Wedding Flower Tips.

Do any of you know of a place in the Detroit-Ann Arbor area where I can bulk flowers on the cheap on a Friday?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Take a Picture – Click! Click! DIY: Boudoir Pics
• Getting Things (MYSELF) In Order
• Wedding Invitation Mailing Tips
• Headpiece: Splurge or Steal
• Ringbearer Pillow – A DIY Tutorial

Technorati Tags: Bouquet, Bouquets, Bridesmaids, Bulk, Cheap, DIY, floral, Flowers, Inexpensive, market, wholesale