Big Blossoms.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.  ~Claude Monet

Confession- I might be a little too excited about flowers. 


Early on, I priced a number of florists and realized that flowers were way out of my budget. It left me with three options:
1-Not have flowers 
2-Only have bouquets and boutonniere's (which would still cost a few hundred dollars)
3-Do my own flowers


Because I love them so much, I decided on option #3-to order and arrange my own flowers. If I order wholesale and arrange them myself then I'll be able to have over 300 stems, including some more expensive blooms, like garden roses and peonies for under $500. That's about 1/5 of the cost of ordering from a florist. For example, to order just the bridal bouquet from a florist would cost more than $120. Add in the bridesmaid bouquets, boutonniere's, ceremony flowers, or any centerpieces and you're way over $1,000 just in flowers. 


I've logged some time researching good wholesale flower distributors and I thought I'd share the results of my little investigation. Whole Blossoms has the best reviews. I considered price but also reliability, selection and the quality of the flowers. So, I'll order the majority of my flowers from Whole Blossoms and pick up the rest locally. Fortunately, my talented grandmother has offered to help me with the centerpieces and bouquets. 


You could save even more by skipping flowers altogether. And there are a ton of non-floral ideas out there. Like this:

Photo by Martha Stewart Weddings