Do It Yourself - Wedding Flowers

Doing your own flowers can work out cheaper, but you need to consider the amount of work involved. Bouquets should be made the day before your wedding at the earliest if you want them to look at their best, so think about how many other jobs you will have during the week leading up to the wedding and how many helpers you will have.

If you just want to do your own flowers in order to save money, you should calculate all the costs carefully in advance before making the decision to go ahead. Factor in hte cost of buying not only the flowers for the day itself but also flowers and foliage for practising beforehand plus the tools you will need: green floral tape, florists wire, bouquet holders, wired ribbon, secateurs, wire cutters and plenty of containers.

Buying lots of flowers can get very expensive. You might want to visit a flower market the day before the wedding or see if you can come to an arrangement with a local florist or market stall if you are buying in bulk.

If you have no previous experience of floristry, you might wish to attend evening classes. Include the fees for that in your budget.
Draw up a list of the flowers you’ll need: buttonholes for the groom, best man, ushers and both fathers and corsage for both the brides and groom mother. Traditionally the grooms buttonhole should be made up from the same flowers as the brides bouquet and might be a different colour from the others to distinguish him from the group.

Prepare your flowers carefully. When you get the blooms home, cut about ¾ inch (2cms) off the bottom of each stem. It’s best to cut on a diagonal to increase the surface area for the flower to take up water. Take off thorns and any leaves that are below half way down the stem. Put the flowers in a large bucket of tepid water and add some flower food.

They should rest there for about 6-12 hours before you start working with them. Change the water at least once a day.