Thoughts on DIY bouquets and arrangements

Although most of my clients are not DIY-ers in the floral department, I have come across 2 extreme scenarios that I want to share with you. The first scenario, the DIY bride did a good job of planning on floral assemble requirements; the second, not so much.

Bride #1 had very minimal floral needs. She wasn't big into flowers and they were not high on her priority list. She was not doing flowers for the centerpieces so she really only had a few bridesmaids bouquets, some boutonnieres and simple arrangements for the church. She practiced making her flowers a few months before her wedding. Once the yellow roses arrived on the Thursday before the wedding, she got to working on them all day. By Friday morning, only a few bouquets were left to do. She was done in plenty of time for the rehearsal. No rushing around. She really did a great job and there was so little floral setup.

Bride #2 was a designer so she clearly had a good artistic vision for what she wanted. There were a lot of flowers to put together though. There were 15 tables worth of centerpieces, bouquets, bountonnieres, corsages, ceremony arrangements, chair posies, cocktail table arrangements, etc. The red roses arrived on Thursday. Came Saturday morning, the bride had to go to her hair and makeup appointments and left the remaining arrangements to her sister. Her sister was clearly stressed. The centerpieces came out great - half short arrangements and half tall (trumpet vases). However, the tall arrangements took forever to set up because they had to be filled with water which took many trips to the bathroom (kitchen was too crowded). The boutonnieres were huge and lacked the refinement a professional would have been able to do. Also, some of the thorns were not removed so they were a hazard to anyone handling them.

Before you commit yourself to doing your own personal flowers and arrangements, ask yourself these questions:

• Why do you want to do your own flowers? If you are not a flowers person, why have any flowers at all? There are plenty of other decor options. Is it because of budgetary reasons? There are plenty of options at any budget level.
  
• When will you be putting the arrangements together? Will you have enough time? Will you have time to practice? Will you have any help? Do your helpers have any experience in flower arranging?
  
• Do you have a place that can be kept very cold when the flowers arrive from the wholesaler? (like the freezer at the flower shop)
• Do you know how long it will take to put the arrangements together?
• How will you transport the arrangements to your venue? Flowers kept in buckets of water? not in water?Who will transport the arrangements?
• Once at the venue, do they require assembly? Who will assemble them? Is this person reliable? Most venues will not do this for you. How long will it take to assemble them? Does the person you have designated know how to assemble them?
• What if a vase is broken during transport? What if you forgot a vase? Forgot an arrangement? Realized you miscounted? Short a boutonniere.
  
• At the end of the night, what will become of all the flowers and vases? Are you taking them all home? Who will break them down so that they can be transported?

If after looking through this list of questions you are able to come up with a plan that makes sense and will not cause more stress, here are some pointers to consider:

• Aim to have everything else you need to do for the wedding DONE by the weekend before the wedding. I mean EVERYTHING - programs, table assignments, escort cards, packing. Couples underestimate how hectic the week before the wedding can get. Once your relatives and friends are in town, they ALL want to see you. They ALL want to have drinks, dinner, lunch, breakfast with you every day. Maybe you have to make some runs to the airport. Think hard about how you want to spend your time the week of the wedding.
  
• It always takes longer to do the arrangements than you realize. Allot AT LEAST one and a half days for this. Allow time for making mistakes, or trying a different method.
  
• ALWAYS do practice bouquets, boutonnieres, and arrangements ahead of time. Buy flowers from your local grocery story and practice. Have someone with some experience of arranging flowers and doing bouquets look at your work. Maybe take a class. Don't forget to account for the cost of the trial runs.
  
• Choose flowers that easy to work with, forgiving, and hardy. Roses are the most DIY friendly.
• Keep your floral requirements to a minimum. And I mean the fewer the better.