Wedding Flowers?

Question

I really want to do lillies for my wedding and my dad is trying to cut corners with money. Well he came up with the idea of ordering them from Costco and then having someone make the arrangments. Would this really save money? Has anyone every ordered flowers from costco? How did they turn out?

Answer 1

I have heard of people ordering their flowers through Costco or Sam's Club and while I haven't personally seen them, I have been told they were very nice. The question being do you have someone with some experience in arranging flowers and making bouquets? It's not as easy as just throwing them together and hoping for the best. If you do and they are willing to make everything for you last minute, then sure it would be a money saver, but if not then you will still need to pay someone to do it and there goes the savings.

Also, you will still need supplies - bouquet holders, vases, containers, oasis foam, styrofoam, floral tape for corsages and boutonnieres, pins, elastic for wrist corsages, baskets for flower girls, someplace with a big enough cooler to keep them fresh, boxes to transport them in. You will also need a vehicle big enough to handle not only the 'raw' flowers, but also all the arrangements to the church and/or reception venue.

These are all things to keep in mind when you want to cut corners and do things yourself. It can be a money saver if you have the supplies and experience, but if not then it may not be to your advantage.

Answer 2

Call and price it out.  Simple can be very elegant.  They probably get thier flowers from the same wholsalers as the high priced florists.  I ordered mine from a reputable florist, paid big time and didn't like them.  I ordered small and cute, they gave me big and well, overdone.

Answer 3

Doing the arrangements yourself will save you money, yes. Say you pay $80 for flowers, expect to pay another $80 in "labor". Are there reviews on Costcos website in their flower section? Sams Club has a similar selection and the reviews I read seemed happy with their order.

Answer 4

I ordered mine from the floral dept at Albertson's.  The girl who worked their arranged them for us.  It was a lot cheaper than a regular florist.  I was happy with how everything turned out.  And I was lucky . . .roses were on sale at Albertson's the week of my wedding for $4.95 a dozen so it was cheap, cheap, cheap!!  (all my flowers were roses)

I think that we basically paid for the flowers and then a small arranging fee.  I think that the convenience is probably worth the small amount more that you will pay.  

I dropped off the vases I wanted her to put the large arrangements in a few days before out wedding and my parents just picked everything up the morning of my wedding.

An alternative to a "real" florist will save you a ton of money so it is probably worth looking into.