To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
PeteysBride
Posted:
Member since
To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
Ok so we all know weddings are EXPENSIVE and the biggets cost aside from band and reception is usually the wedding flowers and what happens to the bouquets? They get tossed after the pictures and there goes a lot of moola to waste.
Since the FH and I are on a super tight budget. we are DIYing a lot and cutting corners where we can. Our florist wants to charge us 85 dollars per BM bouquet for only roses and gerber daisies. Nothing exotic in there folks. He gave us the same estimate for plain roses, for plain gerbers and carnations and roses....
Sooo we are considering nixing the BM bouquets either completely or making them ourselves because I like the 'just picked' hand-tied look and honestly we can probably do each one for under 15 dollars. So that is one idea.
The other is to nix them completely and do something else. Our wedding is outside so we were considering 2 other options.
1. Colored paper parasols. The girls are wearing very brightly colored dresses (they are in my album) so I thought parasols would be a cute touch.
2. Fans. I saw this in Martha Stweart and loved it but not sure if people would think it 'weird.'
What do you ladies think?
FAN IDEAS:
sandalood fan:
paper fans(I really love these colors though they don't have them in red now due to chinese new year)
silk fan (out of stock till May but I LOVE the color. I will be wearing red heels under my dress and the FH is wearing red doc martens)
PARASOL IDEAS: (these are our wedding colors-each girl will be wearing a diff color so I thought the parasols could be the opposite of their dress)
This one would probably be what MOH would carry because her dress is a bit diff than other girls-she will be wearing bright pink, trimmed with ivory.
HELP! I need input!
BTW these are the BM dresses. The last one is the MOH dress-it will be that same shade of pink as BM with ivory ribbon.
GettinHutched
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I think that is SO COOL and so original! I say go for it!!! Love it!!! It will look awesome with the BM dresses!
tricia3381
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
go with DIY bok's they're not that expensive and they're super easy. u can get the flowers from costco and then just have ur bm's help u make them the night before the wedding. we did this for our friends wedding and they came out great and it was a lot of fun.
PeteysBride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
Thanks GettinHutched, but which one! LOL
1. DIY bouquets?
2. Fans?
3. Parasols?
myranscott
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I like the fans! I think not spending a lot is a fine choice.
The one thing I'll unofrtunately remember about this time is the constant nickel and diming from vendors. Anything you can DYI, do it.
luvabul
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
i agree, i also like the fans alot too
BrideInBlue
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
im torn between fans and parasols they are both so unique and will look amazing in your pictures. I almost feel like you should do both, fans for the ceremony and have the parasols on hand for pictures afterward.
portjeffbride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I hear you on that.... It bugs me too that the flowers are so temporary and $$$$$$.
hate to say it, I think your florist is overpriced! Our florist has a reputation of being $$$, and she is giving us a more ornate bouquet than what you want, and is charging the same amount!
If you'd like to keep the bo-k's, how about asking him to reduce the size of them, instead of the contents? He may be planning some huge thing for them... See if that lowers it down a bit....
The parasol idea would be great if you're ceremony is outside.... it would even serve a purpose to protect them from the sun! If you would like to dress them up a bit, you could go to michael's and attach something to the handle like a beaded tassle.... they're really inexpensive and pretty! (Do they really cost much less than a bo-k?)
I also like the fans... but to me, it would require something more ornate than a solid color fan.... maybe you can find something on Canal street?
by the way, the dresses are GORGEOUS!!!
portjeffbride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
oh, the one thing I wouldn't recommend is a DIY bouquet.... I've heard numerous horror stories of assembling the bo-ks, and putting them in the frige overnight. The next morning, they either wilted or FROZE.
PattyK
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
For me it is between the DIY bouquets and the fans. My cousin was on a tight budget when she got married last year and ended up with her girls carrying 2 long stem calla lillies that were tied with ribbon and it looked great.
Snickers76
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
The fans and parasols are a unique and modern look. If you want flowers, you can have each girl carry a single cala lily or long stemmed rose.
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
Can you try silk flowers for the DIY BM Boks?
lacey&mark
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
out of the 3 choices i would go with the diy bo-k's. but first i would get some more quotes! you will probably be very busy in the days before your wedding and making your own bo-ks would be another thing on your to do list.
i had the same feelings about flowers...i did not want to spend a lot because they would get thrown out at the end of the night. so we went with candle centerpieces (supplies from walmart and target, cost about $20/table). for bo-ks and boots we went with a florist who would work in our budget. we got my bo-k (had roses, calas, stephanotis), 5 bm's (roses), 8 boots , 2 corsages, 2 presentation roses, and flower petals for less than $500.
good luck with whatever you chose!
Pencils
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I like the fan idea. The parasols, not so much. What if it rains? The parasols will look silly inside. I'm hoping our wedding will be outside, too, but I'm not making any plans that can't be changed.
However, you might want to consider going the DIY route. I love fresh flowers, but there's no room in our tight, tight budget for more than $1000 for a florist. So I'm DIY-ing my bouquets and the CP flowers. People here on LIW have mostly said 'don't do it' but it's such a huge savings, and I've read numerous Knot bios where they said it wasn't a big deal. I'm only doing roses, and I'm not even going to mix colors. All we have to do is nice hand-tied arrangements, and I think it will be OK. But then I'm only having four attendants, and ten tables, so it's less than many peoples'. I'm going to get the only difficult things from a florist: my mom's corsage and the flower girl's hair wreath. Everything else is coming from freshroses.com. All those flowers are going to cost me about $400 including FedEx, and I'm not skimping, I'm going to have 24 roses per CP and adult bouquet. Yes, it's going to be work to strip the roses, recut the ends, etc., but I'm getting married on a Sunday and not working after Wednesday so we have time.
So, think about it! BTW, I love your plan for assorted bright colors for the BMs and MoH. It's going to look fab.
PeteysBride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
portjeffbride, the tassel idea is a great one. I will def look into it because I am leaning towards the parasols if only for the pictures because I think they will be so much fun. Our ceremeony is outdoors and I have a pic in my mind of my 4 girls with thier parasols open standing beside my in the patk where we will take our pics and then me in the middle with my bouquet doing chorus girl poses lol. And yes even if I did the parasols, DIY bo-k's, AND fans, it would still be less! Fans cost between 1.25 and 2.50 depending on how ornate it is. DIY bo-k's cost maybe 10-15 dollars. Parasols cost between 6 and 7 dollars. I did actyually go to canal street but all of the fans have a very asian feel to them-cherry blossoms and the like which I feel will clash with the fact the girls will all be wearing a gerber daisy in their hair. Thats why I was leaning towards solid color fans. Hmm maybe I could trim them somehow.
Snickers76, thanks for the visual. I like that look. I think I am leaning towards three large gerbers tied with ribbon for each girl and then the parasols for photographs. I know they might go to waste if it rains BUT the place where we are having our reception is all glass-looks like a green house; white and glass sooo even if it rains we can probably have nice photos.
The FH and I are described by our friends as a somewhat 'edgy' couple. LOL nice way of saying both of us are goofballs. My mom is going to KILL ME when she realizes I am wearing red satin heels down the aisle and a red manicure! FH is wearing red doc martens and a red rose in his lapel so it works for us.
Autumn08 I did look into silk flowers. Thanks for the idea. It was really expensive though. I thought of one larger gerber but they unlike silk orchids look fake so we nixed that idea. But thank you.
I love the ideas of the fans but most people seem to think the solid colors won't be 'weddingish' enough and the ones with prints clash too much. le sigh-cest la vie :)
Pencils
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
've heard numerous horror stories of assembling the bo-ks, and putting them in the frige overnight. The next morning, they either wilted or FROZE.
That's why you don't do that! Why would anyone make a bouquet and then put it in a fridge without water and expect it to be OK? I'm going to do my bouquets and centerpieces and put them in water in a cool room. They're not going to die any more than any arrangement does the second day you have them. In fact, they'll be better, because they won't be at room temperature. My Valentine's bouquet didn't die by the second, or even third or fourth day. If I had taken it out of the water and tied a ribbon around it, it would have been fine to carry as a wedding bouquet.
Mandyin2007
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I love the idea of fans... go for it!!
portjeffbride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
Posted by PeteysBride
portjeffbride, the tassel idea is a great one. I will def look into it because I am leaning towards the parasols if only for the pictures because I think they will be so much fun. Our ceremeony is . Parasols cost between 6 and 7 dollars. I did actyually go to canal street but all of the fans have a very asian feel to them-cherry blossoms and the like which I feel will clash with the fact the girls will all be wearing a gerber daisy in their hair. Thats why I was leaning towards solid color fans. Hmm maybe I could trim them somehow.
I love the ideas of the fans but most people seem to think the solid colors won't be 'weddingish' enough and the ones with prints clash too much. le sigh-cest la vie :)
yeah, I was thinking that too.... but they may have solid fans there. whats the name of that infamous store? pearl river?
ah, they have an online site! can you believe it? http://www.pearlriver.com/v2/FramesCat.asp?iGroup=297 they have a red parasol with a white 'drizzle' and black wood. and they're a bit water repellant, but I wouldn't trust that
If you go the fan route, you could still add a (thin) beaded tassle in the same color as the handle....
LOVE the idea of red shoes! it will look fantastic! (Mine are ivory, but snakeskin... also a bit non-traditional)
Summer07Bride
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
Flowers are expensive, your alternatives sounds like great ideas and will add a special personal touch. I like the idea
Becks526
Posted:
Member since
Re: To have bouquets or not..that is the question..HELP!
I love the idea of fans. Especially if your wedding is outdoors, then they'll be practical too!
If you do decide to have flowers, I like the idea of a single rose or calla lilly, maybe tied with a pretty ribbon.
