Who knew flowers could cost so much? My mom knew. She came to the flower shop with her checkbook and expecting the worst, which ended up costing about $415 or so.
I had a lovely bouquet of pink stargazer lilies, I think they’re called. I have no idea what happened to it after the wedding. It cost $100. Uh.
The alter flowers were a large, pretty arrangement of mostly lilies and roses. It got two uses, as we left it there for the church service on Sunday. $100?
The bridesmaids carried one or two stems of lilies tied together with a ribbon. They were $15 each, and $30 for the maid of honor’s, I think. $75?
Then, we had corsages and boutineers all around. The moms, the dads, the grandparents, the groomsmen and groom, ushers, the soloist, and maybe a few others.
That’s it! A lot of money for something that dies right away. If I had been able to keep track of my bouquet, I might have hung it to dry, but oh well. Someday, maybe I’ll just plant a garden of pink lilies.
To add a little decoration to the windows, I found rose bunches and vases at Hobby Lobby. I got the bunches for $3 each on sale, and the vases for a little over $1. If these had been real flowers, I think we would have paid at least a billion dollars. Or more likely, several hundred-$1,000 for 12 rose bouquets. Since these were out of the main line of sight, looked reasonably realistic, and were so cheap, I think it was worth it. We even put water in the vases! It was to add weight to them so they wouldn’t tip, but it also added to the realness. I plan to resell these on eBay.
The toss bouquet was also a fake. I made it with rose stems tied together with ribbon. I thought it was really pretty, and it cost $15.
Some brides choose to make their own flower arrangements and corsages. To me, it wasn’t worth the extra work or stress it would have caused me and my friends/family. I’m not that good at flower arranging, ya know?
Related:
Our wedding: The dress
Our wedding: The wedding party
For anyone who is brave enough to make her own floral things, try Sam’s Club. I got all my wedding flowers there for a great price. They sell two dozen roses for $16. That’s less than a dollar a stem! I never would have been brave enough to make my own bouquets and arrangements, but some of my friends had experimented with floral arranging for a few weddings, and I trusted their judgment explicitly. And they were happy to help :-).
I used faux flowers too… :) I would’ve even been happy with green leaves but everyone thought I ought to go more traditional *rolleyes* so Mother-in-Law brought me a faux flower bouquet.
Wedding Flowers are ridiculously over-priced! I wanted daisies and was quoted a price of over $700. So - I made my own daisy and sunflower bouquet. All the bridesmaids had very simple daisy bouquets as well. I just bought all the flowers at a nice grocery store the day before the wedding. It was a little stressful to do right before the big day, but they were very cute.
Thanks for sharing your stories, everyone! It doesn’t have to cost a fortune–as long as you have some skilled florist friends :)
we used all fake flowers and my matron of honor (who is really artistic and good at bouquets) put the bouquets together and also made the guy’s little flowers to pin on their tux, as well as the corsages for the mothers. they all looked beautiful (it was a fall wedding…flowers were sunflowers, cat’s tails, gerbera daisies and wild flowers in orange, red, and yellow). i think i spent maybe $60 total for all the flowers and supplies :)