do it yourself flowers?

Hi all,
I am doing the centerpieces for an engagement party my parents are throwing us. I was hoping to get an inexpensive flower, like large carnations, to use in the centerpieces. I need about 100 of them, which can really add up. I called most of the wholesalers in the flower district in NYC and they won't sell to me b/c I'm a retail consumer. Does anyone know of a very reasonably priced florist or cut-flower wholesaler that I can contact?
Thanks a million!

hey sorry i dont have the exact info you are looking for but ...

i am doing my flowers for my eparty aswell (which is 2 weeks from tomorrow ) and i just went to my local florist whom I use for EVERYTHING. I told him my budget and he worked with me.

I ended up going with light and dark pink gerbers and yellow roses. Normally for the amount I ordered (40 of each) it would have been about $4 per flower. He cut the total in half for me since I was ordering so many.

Also, what are you looking to spend? Have you thought about roses? You can find 2 dozen for $10 all over the place. They arent long stem HIGH end, but they would work fine for an eparty. Have you thought about trying a grocery store...? as odd as that sounds, many have great floral departments!!

HTH!!

You can get better specials on roses, especially at supermarkets like Waldbaums and Stop n Shop.
Usually 2 dozen for 14.00 or so.

I'm not sure how much time you have, but I got my wedding roses from freshroses.com. They were great, and quite inexpensive, although you'd have to pay for fedex, which might add up if you're not getting that many flowers (100 isn't that many for an affair.)

Are you a member of Costco or BJ's? I know some brides worked with their local discount warehouse to get their flowers. I've bought flowers at BJ's that were wonderful, so fresh they lasted more than a week.