by Leila Morris
Instead of going into the florist's shop, consider ordering flowers from Costco.. They offer a variety of flowers -- from roses and sunflowers to gerbera daisies. They also offer floral arrangements for a higher fee.
You can probably do one dozen per table centerpiece. Have you considered flowers from Trader Joe's? They have great prices on flowers in their stores.
You can order bulk flowers online from Costco at http://www.costco.com under the bulk roses category. To find the roses on their site, you have to do a separate search for roses, for some reason!
Purchase the roses a day or two before the wedding. You can always remove a few outside dead or damaged petals. Order some extra roses in case any get damaged or to sprinkle rose petals for decoration. Remember to keep the roses in a cool a place as you can (air conditioning). But, don't freeze them or they will get ruined.
You can get inexpensive vases from Ikea. Vases are one those ridiculously inexpensive things that Ikea sells to draw you into the store to by furniture. They even sell a reasonably large vase for about $1.50! Also, the 99 cents stores sometimes carry some nice vases. Also, look for sales at craft stores like Joanne's and Michaels. You can also try yard sales or swap meets. Who says the vases have to be identical? However, unless you go to a huge swap meet like the one in Pasadena, Calif. you would have to put in a lot of time and effort to purchase enough of them.
Another great place to get nice vases is Big lots. They have large crystal vases for as little as $10 and substantial glass vases for as little as $3. Ross has great prices too!
by Sarah Russell
Most people assume that all silk flowers look fake. The development of new plastics and other materials has created some incredibly realistic look-a-likes. In fact, your guests may not be able to tell that your flowers are silk.
If you don’t feel that you can arrange them yourself, ask a local florist if they work with silks. You’ll still be paying for the labor, but you’ll save a lot of money on the raw materials. I
However, if you’re a real do-it-yourself kind of person, you can save even more money by arranging your own silk bouquets. Silk flowers won’t wilt and the wire stems mean you can adjust flowers again and again. Consider taking a flower arranging class or buy a book..Study pictures of the bouquets in magazines and on the Internet. Notice how floral designers use leaves and green material to break up a bouquet, and they create different shapes with different flowers.
One of the easiest ways to make a bouquet is simply to tie a bunch of flowers together with ribbon. This works best with flowers like calla lilies and daisies that have long stems and simple flowers. Rubber band the flowers together while your wrap ribbon diagonally down the stems, securing the ribbon with a dab of hot glue in the back.
If you’d like something a little more complicated, you can purchase a bouquet holder. Basically, it’s a small piece of floral foam on the end of a handle. Using a pair of wire cutters, you can snip off the flowers you like and arrange them in the holder, creating the round or draping bouquets that many brides prefer. It’s a good idea to buy an extra holder to practice on. If you rearrange the flowers to often, you risk weakening the structure of the foam,
Another advantage to working with silk flowers is that you can make them several months ahead. You’ll also have time to practice your floral arranging skills
Sarah Russell, aka "The Sexy Secretary," is a connoisseur of living the good life on a budget. Check out her website at www.thesexysecretary.com for more fabulous ideas on how to trim down your expenses without reducing your quality of life.
Summer Wedding Flower Trends
Pink and green flowers are popular for summer weddings. Also on the most wanted list are Gerbera daisies. Hot pink, orange and white are in style.
Hydrangeas, while roses and calla lilies are still classics. "Brides are using hot pinks, greens and whites this season. Rose petals are the highest selling item on Fiftyflowers.com. Rose petals can be used to accent arrangements, tables, or walkways.
The most popular rose colors are white, classic red, orange, and green. Mixed bouquets are being arranged with Roses and Mini Callas. The white mini calla lily and white rose petals are at he top of the trend list.
Other flowers being used are ranunculus and freesia.
Greens and pinks capture the bold and beautiful mood of the season. Orange is a good color for distinction, and bohemian vibes. White is the pure classic color, and Hot Pink brings a Ralph Lauren Polo or Laura Ashley innocence.
The following list is the highest selling summer wedding flowers ranked by total volume of sales.
- Roses and Mini Callas - Mixed
- White Standard Calla Lily
. Finding cheap wedding flowers takes some creativity. According to TheKnot.com, the average wedding costs $10,000 and about 8 percent to 10 percent of that is the cost of flowers. A thousand dollars just for flowers?
WeddingFlowers-DIY.com, offers resources that include a number of tips for potential DIY brides.
