Wedding florist’s average cost of $3-6k + at least $200 travel fee, bridal bouquet’s average cost of $250, are just a bit beyond my budget for wedding flowers, especially with an amazing, gorgeous, outdoor venue like La Grande Estates. Quite last minute, I finally decided to make my own bridal bouquet + 2x bridesmaid bouquets.
TLDR; I ended up making 5 bouquets (1 bridal, 2 bridesmaids, 2 moms) of total cost $275 ($175 actual wedding bouquets, $100 two rounds of practices).
- If you need to make center pieces, arch, aisle decor, go with a florist
- If you just need your own bridal bouquet, go with a florist as flower market sells in bulk, at least 10 stems per type of flower, and flower shop sells at $5 on average per stem. If you need 20 stems + cost on practice round + time sunk, that’s almost a bridal bouquet’s price?
Round 1 Practice – 8.3
I went to the SF Flower Market with my friend Grace, who arranges flower with friends from time to time and gave me a lot of helpful tips on making bouquets, such as diversifying the flower types, main vs side vs decor flowers, paying attention to which flower types may last long over at least 2-3 days from the day of purchase to the day of wedding.
When we got to the market, it was already ~11:30AM on Saturday. A few shops are throwing out flowers in BUCKETS into the trash can, but refused to let us take them. It made sense, if people know they can just come late on the weekend and get free flowers, who will go buy flower early in the AM??
Charles and Snickers also joined me, but I realized Charles may like flowers with more saturated colors, he’s not as interested in bouquet making and Snickers is technically not allowed in the flower market… So I didn’t bring them with me the next two times.
Key learnings from this practice
- The longer stem, bent over flower looked a bit messy; just 1-2 stems of orchid would be better
- The decor flowers on the side like baby’s breath ($4 at TJ), better to be white instead of colorful, to balance out the main flowers’ non-white colors
- Need to get flowers of different shapes. For example, besides getting round shaped flower like Dalia ๅคงไธฝ่ฑ, get some longer, vertical shaped flowers arum lily ้ฉฌ่น่ฒ, radiating flowers
- Dalia ($10 on Sat, $15 on Fri) is better as side flower, not the main flower
- Cosmo ๅฐ้่ ($5-6 for 1-2 bunch depends on time of day) is very cute at first sight, but they can be VERY droopy in a short time, not good to keep in water for a few days
Before and After
Different types and shapes of flowers
Round 2 Practice – 8.17
Xinyue, my friend who’s also a bride to be early October, is also interested in making her own bouquet. She even bought a flower arrangement book from Anthropology! We decided to hit the SF Flower Market earlier on Saturday, around 930AM.
Key learnings from this practice
- Bridesmaid bouquets do not need to be as complicated and have as many types of flower as the bridal bouquet. Just 2-3 types are perfect. I tried tulip with 2 other types of flower and they turned out great. Evy and Cloudia liked them better than my 1st practice as they said “looks great!!” instead of no reaction for a long time after I sent them the bouquet photos haha
- Tulips ($5 at TJ, $15 at mkt).. gosh they are SOOOO fragile. Their stems look wide and straight like a straw, but they get bent so easily.. minimize maneuvering and arranging is the best way to go with tulips
- TJ has basic white or more saturated color, if you are going for pastel, lighter pink color, grab them from the SF Flower Market
- If I want a bouquet to be both purple and pink and blue, that’s too much color. Only have a few stems with saturated color while the rest are almost pastel/white will be more visually attractive
- As the bottom/”tear drop” part of the bouquet is white orchid, the flowers above it should be closer to white color for better transitioning (thanks to Xinyue’s demo)
- Texas bluebells ($9-15, that price range…), the flower with pink edge and white pedals, are from local. Apparently it’s a wild flower? It comes in such a wide variety of colors, pink, purple, white, peach, etc.
- When they bloom, they look like ranunculus but they are at half or even one-third the price. However, their stems are crisp like potato chips, similar to tulip, avoid too much arrangement
- In water, they stay fresh for such a looooonnngggg time!!
- Since they have so many petals, if you do not want to use rose petals down the aisle, texas bluebells is the valuable option as petals
- Don’t be afraid to ask for prices across stores. Even within the SAME store, ask different people and you will get different prices… Same store, same tulip, I got $15 vs $12; ranunculus, I got $20 vs $16 ็ไบบไธ่็ข
- The stores right next to the parking lot are not necessarily more expensive than the stores inside the main warehouse. I saw some droopy, 6 stem orchid, each with 4-5 buds are being sold at $65 dollar at one of the upfront shop in the warehouse, but each fresh orchid with 9 buds is sold at $10 dollar at store right next to the parking lot
Before and After
D-2 DAY 8.30
My parents arrived the States on 8.29. Since dad and mom were jetlagged (my mom woke up at 1AM after sleeping at 10PM…, my dad slept from 10PM-6AM, good job!), they were up bright and shine! I am also an early riser due to work schedule…So we drove to the SF Flower Market, arriving ~8:45AM on Friday.
OH BOY..! There were so many more shops open within the warehouse, and there was this inner, 3rd area that was usually just dark/close on weekends, but vivid and had 4-5 stores open on the weekdays! There were also way more types of flowers, more shades of each type of flowers earlier in the morning. The flower shops arrange them in color shade (as a Virgo, that means A LOT). I had so much fun just walking around, but of course still stressed to find the perfect type, perfect freshness, perfect color as my bouquets because this is it! No longer practicing!
Key learning from the actual bouquet making day
- While there are more shops, more diverse and fresher flowers on weekdays, be prepared to pay a bit more as well. The shop owners only lower prices later of the day
- Be ready to improvise from original plan, flowers available changes all the time. The most surprised found I had that day is the pastel purple bell flower!! They also surprisingly last long in water, look great in photos. I paid $16 or $18 for them, totally worth it
- Ranunculus is definitely pricy, even more than roses. Its price varies by color shades as well. Lighter, peach, light pink ranunculus with 6-7 stems, could be ~$16-20. Brighter could be $12-$16
- They definitely last long in water
- Some have wider, firmer stem, which should be used for the center flower with more maneuvering, while others with thinner stem should be added on later to the side
- I am not sure why but arum lily (~9 stem, longer stem) are sold $15 in the SF Flower Market, but arum lily (~5 stems, shorter stem) are sold $3.99 at Trader Joe’s?
- Side flowers like baby breath, small yellow ping pong ball like flower, are better to get at TJ; getting them in bulk in the SF Flower Market may not be a good deal and could be a waste
- Longer stem flower could be used alongside orchid to add a bit of color to the “tear drop” part of bouquet
- Have some artificial flowers mixed in the real flower does not hurt as they can keep the bouquet look “alive” and fresh. But you need to find the artificial flowers that really look like real ones. I have shopped for artificial flowers in stores when I was back home in Guangzhou, so I was able to buy them from Taobao and my parents helped bring them over.
- They can also be used to decorate the cake!
Before and After for 5 bouquets ($175), collab with Cloudia
- Light peach ranunculus x2, $40 total (grab them right away, not that many bunches!)
- Delphinium x1, $16 ($9 on the weekend in 2nd practice with AMAZING gradient, $16 on the weekday and more quantity, at least that’s how I persuaded myself)
- Purple bell flower x1, $16
- Purple pom-pom like x1, $10
- Pink tulips x1, $15
- White tulips x1, $5 at TJ
- Arum lily x1, $4 at TJ
- Pastel lavender stock flower x1, $10
- Pink decor flower x1, $8
- Baby’s breath x1, $4 at TJ
- Yellow ping pong x1, $4 at TJ
- Pink Veronica (Speedwell) x1, $4 at TJ
- Green leave decor x1, $4 at TJ
- Pink Texas blue bell x1, $10 for petals
- Artificial flower, $10 from China
Artificial Flowers
