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Growing Your Own Wedding Flowers to Save Money? Read this First!

June 27, 2018

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Weddings are expensive, and you’ll do anything to save money, right? While growing your own flowers sounds like a great way to cut costs, you need to be smart about it. I’ll show you all the things you need to consider, plus link to some fabulous DIY’s for your cake, boutonnieres, centrepieces, and bouquets.

Want to save money with DIY Wedding Flowers? Here's what you need to know if you're growing your own, plus links to how to make centrepieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, and more for the wedding. #diywedding #frugalwedding #savingmoney #wedding #weddingflowers

What Flowers Bloom Around Your Wedding Date?

The first order of business is to figure out what is in bloom in your area around the time of your wedding. Bloom times can vary depending on whether it’s a cold, normal, or exceptionally warm year. To counteract this, you’ll need to plant a variety of flowers in the colours you want so that something will be in bloom the day of your wedding.

If your wedding is in the fall, keep an eye on frost dates. My Dad grew half the flowers for my wedding, but frost was in the forecast a few days before the day. To keep the flowers safe, he had to cut everything two days before to make sure that my flowers weren’t ruined.

Click here for a guide to 38 Cut Flowers that would be perfect for your wedding.

All Flowers are not created equal for Wedding Arrangements

Wedding flowers need to be cut flowers–flowers that have strong and long stems. The only exception to this is flowers for your boutonnieres. You can get away with thinner stemmed flowers, although they might wilt by the end of the day.

If you’re planting perennials the year you’re getting married–think again. Many perennial flowers don’t establish themselves well until year three. If you don’t already have perennials in your yard (or someone else’s that you have permission to use) you’ll have to rely solely on annual flowers.

 

Annual flowers may also need to be started indoors in the winter to bloom by the time of your wedding. Carefully read the seed packets to know which ones to plant in winter, and which ones to start in spring.

You’ll Need Way More Flowers Than You Think

If you’ve never done flower arranging before, you’ll be surprised at how many flowers it takes to make a bouquet. However many flowers you think you’ll need–double it. . .maybe even triple it.

Sweet and elegant bridesmaid bouquet with beautiful pink peonies

Don’t Forget the Greenery

Greenery adds a welcome break and contrast to the eye. You can use cuttings from cedars, leafy trees, and vines to add flair to your arrangement.

Cut Costs By Sourcing Flowers From the Side of the Road

Some weeds are genuinely beautiful. Depending on the time of the year, alfalfa, clover, ditch lilies, goldenrod, and more may be available in your area for the picking. Please stick to public property or areas where you have permission to pick.

Peony arrangement perfect for a summer tablescape.

Check out this post of autumn boutonnieres I was able to create. One of them is entirely from flowers found in a ditch near a family acreage. AKA, free!!

Related: 8 Unique Boutonnieres for Autumn Weddings

Arranging Flowers Takes Time

If you are a bride reading this, please do not do your own flowers. You will not have time the day of the wedding, and taking on this task will leave you extremely stressed out. Enlist a creative friend or relative to do it for you.

I’m an amateur and I’ve arranged flowers for three weddings. Here’s approximately how long it took me. . .

Removing all unwanted leaves from flowers the night before= 2 hours
13 boutonnieres= Around 1 hour
4 bouquets=90 minutes
Floral Cake Decorations=45 minutes

For a wedding party of 10 (Bride, Groom, 4 Bridesmaids, 4 Groomsmen) plus boutonnieres for parents and people involved in the wedding party, it took me approximately 4 hours to do everything. I should have allowed myself 5 so I could have taken a few more breaks. In every instance, I barely had time to get myself ready for the wedding.

Of course, your situation may require more or less time.

So now that I’ve possibly scared you out of doing this, what else can you do to save money on flowers?

How to Save Money on Wedding Flowers

If you still want to have someone arrange your flowers, you can order flowers in bulk online or at big box stores like Costco. Then, you can supplement these flowers with whatever you’ve grown that is blooming at the right time.

Here’s a helpful article on purchasing flowers online, and here’s 5 places you can buy them.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of baby’s breath and greenery. Both these items are cheap and go a long way in your floral arrangements.

If you’re lucky enough to live near any flower farms, you can often arrange to go and pick flowers and be charged by the pail.  Prices are usually quite reasonable and you can get a better variety of flowers than you would find in stores.

P.S.  Want to see one of the weddings I’ve done the flowers for?  Click here to see a beautiful coral & navy themed wedding.

Want to save money with DIY Wedding Flowers? Here's what you need to know if you're growing your own, plus links to how to make centrepieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, and more for the wedding. #diywedding #frugalwedding #savingmoney #wedding #weddingflowers

How to Arrange Your Own Wedding Flowers

If you’re still on board with arranging your own wedding flowers, here’s how to make it happen:

  • Boutonniere tutorial
  • Cake tutorial
  • Bouquet tutorial
  • Bouquet tutorial 2
  • Centerpiece tutorial
  • Floral Hoop Wreath tutorial
  • Easy Mason Jar tutorial
  • Teacup tutorial
  • Rustic statement piece

I’ve also made this handy downloadable checklist and planner so you don’t forget a thing.  No email address required!!  (Although, if you’d like to get emails about creating a beautiful garden the easy way, you’ll want to subscribe.)

If you're planning on DIY wedding flowers, you need this free printable checklist and planner. No more headaches as you keep everything organized. #diywedding #weddingchecklist #weddingplanner #weddingflowers #frugalwedding

Click here to download your free DIY Wedding Flowers Planner

Pin me for later. . .

Want to save money with DIY Wedding Flowers? Here's what you need to know if you're growing your own, plus links to how to make centrepieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, and more for the wedding. #diywedding #frugalwedding #savingmoney #wedding #weddingflowers

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Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

1 Comment
Filed Under: Flowers, Saving Money, Weddings Tagged: annuals, Bouquet, boutonnieres, cut flowers, Flowers, perennials, saving money, weddings

About Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

Comments

  1. Jane says

    June 27, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Those arrangements look amazing! I really like the one with the light and dark pink flowers with the plate.
    Reply

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Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

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Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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Do any of you watch gardeners on YouTube who grow in way warmer climates than yours?  Basically, almost all of the YouTubers I watch garden somewhere warmer than I do, except for the one in Alaska.  The first time my husband introduced me to the world of gardening vlogs, I just sat there fuming.  It was February.  It was -30.  And here I was watching people with green lawns starting their vegetable gardens. ⁠
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Growing a luffa sponge was possibly the most chall Growing a luffa sponge was possibly the most challenging and finicky thing I've taken on so far as a gardener in zone 3.  And all I got to show for it was 3 baby loofah sponges, which are so precious to me that I can't bare to actually use them. (Kind of defeats the point, doesn't it?)⁠⠀
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