Anybody do their own Flowers?

I'm trying to cheap out on my July 9th wedding by doing the table arrangements myself and just hiring the florist to do the the bouquets and corsages. Has anybody done this?
I'm thinking of ordering the flowers online and have found many great - sounding sites that seem perfect but I'm terrified of it looking like garbage. I'm doing red roses in a four inch glass cube with clear glass beads to hold the stems in place. It sounds pretty easy to do and I am pretty artistic... The florist wants $850 to do 10 arrangements with 18 roses each and I already have the vases.
If anyone has any advice I would truly appreciate it.
Thanks!!!!

i have done wedding flowers before and heres a few tips.

1. if you will be arranging your flowers in a warm area you can order them to arrive 4 days before the event. if you are working in an area that is cold an plan on refrigerating the flowers, order them earlier because they will take longer to open up. this is particularly important for roses since most farms put them through a special cooling before they are shipped to prevent them from opening too early if the cold chain is broken.

2. make a sample and order 25% more flowers than you'll need. some heads might snap, and others might not be ideal.

3. make sure you have plenty of time and help the day the flowers are set to arrive. bulk roses come with lots of leaves and thorns and you'll need to strip them in order to more easily work with them. i suggest purchasing a rose stripper - they are very cheap and will help you work faster. i buy mine from: sixstarsales on ebay click here

4. places ive purchased from that sell good quality roses for great prices:
http://flowerfarmstogo.com/s/home/home.php



http://www.globalrose.com/

5. theres a big difference in head size between 40cm 'short' stemmed roses, and 70cm long stemmed roses. you may think that cuase you are doing short centerpieces theres no reason to buy long stemmed roses. however, the quality of long stem heads far surpasses the short stem when youre buying from bulk suppliers on the web. the short stems tend to be much thinner and can break easier if youre not experienced at working with flowers. so although its defintiely cheaper to buy shorter stems, because the head size is considerably smaller, you may actually need more roses to fill up the container.

6. when choosing a variety have a back up. no matter how early in advance you order your flowers, the farms still may not have the exact variety. but they are usually good at recommending a similar substitution.

7. if you find theres too much space between your larger headed flowers, trying filling the space with spray roses. they open beautifully and look just like their full size counterparts, and you get multiple heads per stem. the buds are cute too.

ok now you should be good to go!! fm me if you need any help!

i am doing my nephews flowers-go to -the knot -website for insructions- web sites i have found that you can get 200roses-(you chose colors-can be up to 4 colors) free shipping/fedex-for $130.80
flowersandfreshness.com
fiftyflowers.com-free shipp/fedex-also