With that said, I want to talk about my flowers.
I knew when I got married that I wanted bright, colorful flowers. Although we got married in March, it was right around the early signs of Spring and I wanted to celebrate it! After searching theknot.com and other websites I saw Gerber Daisies and I fell in love with them. I knew I wanted those all over our wedding. The only trouble was our budget. Florists range depending on where you are but we were quoted anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 dollars!!! There was no way we could do it.
Then a colleague of mine was telling me about his wedding and when he showed me pictures I noticed that they had Gerber Daisies as well. I asked him where they got their flowers and I was surprised when they said Sam's Club. You heard me: Sam's Club! For those of you who don't know what that it, it is a similar to a Bjs or a Costco. Items you can get for bulk. So I did some searching and sure enough, you could order bouquets and free standing flowers online. I read all the reviews and about 85% of them were positive. I was so excited so I ordered 6 bouquets and a bunch of free standing ones for centerpieces, boutonnieres and corsages.
They came in on Thursday before our wedding and the directions said to keep them in a cool, damp place so we kept them in the garage. On Friday my godmother and mom got to work wrapping the bouquets in green ribbon (my main color) and forming the boutonnieres and corsages for the groomsmen and family.
They were looking great! They weren't fully bloomed when they arrived but once we put them in water (mixed with plant food) they opened right up.
I couldn't get enough of them. They were everything I wanted. Bright, colorful and a big hit with the bridal party.
I also used them for centerpieces. Since we made them ourselves, we kept it simple. My mother in law and I collected various glass vases from thrift stores in the area. Not all of them were the same but I'm not always a matchy matchy kind of gal. :)
Oh and don't forget about the cake topper of fresh flowers.
Did I mention the best part about the flowers? They cost me a total of $350! That's right. Tim and I saved at least $700-$1,000 by ordering them at Sam's Club and coercing begging some family members to assemble them. And everybody was none the wiser.
But my flowers didn't stop there. I also used fake flowers in our wedding. Our Flower girl was adorable but she wasn't about to toss flowers down the aisle. She was too busy being downright adorable and keeping her little brother (our ring bearer) in line so I saved a few bucks by snagging these fake ones at the dollar store and sticking them in her basket.
No one noticed but with those faces, could you blame them?
We also grabbed some last minute fake flowers at Walmart for my hair. While I was getting my hair done, everyone agreed that it was beautiful but it needed a little something. So my maid of honor stepped up to the plate and ran to Walmart to grab this.
Yes- its a funeral wreath. Its wrong on so many levels but those little white flowers were perfect for my hair and this was all they had. My mom got a kick out of it and all of us agreed that it was definitely a story we would always remember. Gotta love Walmart coming through in a pinch!
So that was one way we saved money. I have to admit it felt so good to save close to $1,000 on flowers. We decided to put some of that money towards our venue and our photographer since those things were more important to us.
Do you guys have any fun tips on saving a buck or two on your wedding? Did it fall right into place? Or end up being more trouble than it was worth.
PS: All this beautiful photography from the post is from our wedding photographer, Dave Direntis. He was wonderful and really knew how to capture our day perfectly. If you check him out, you might even see our mugs on the home page. :)
PPS: Anyone wondering where exactly on the Sams Club website the flowers are? Check out here for the bulk flowers I bought. Also, try not to fall for the "Wedding labeling". That means they bump the price up. Shop around. And dont forget that buying some green filler or babies breath is a great way to beef up your bouquets!
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