My husband and I wanted a big, beautiful wedding, and we didn't want to have to cut anything! Every part of wedding planning for us was like, "okay, this idea will cost a bunch of money, but if could do it slightly differently, and it would cost much less." Flowers were a perfect example: I wanted flowers everywhere at our wedding - we were going for a English garden-inspired wedding, after all, so lots of flowers were a must. And I didn't want to settle for basic flowers - there had to be roses, and lots of them! Roses aren't cheap, so we had to look for more affordable alternatives to get the look we were going for.
We got quotes from florists, but after finding FiftyFlowers I realized we could cut out flower budget by more than half (yes, seriously), and do many, many more flowers and pick the exact kinds of flowers we wanted. Picking which ones we wanted was probably the hardest part, but a few calls to the 1800 line and we figured it out pretty quickly!
The flowers came exactly when they said they would - even a little earlier than scheduled, if I remember right. I got an email right as they were being delivered, as well as an automated call with flower care instructions. I was totally floored by how organized and helpful FiftyFlowers was in the days before our wedding. As any bride will tell you, even a little extra effort by a vendor goes a long, long way to making things easier and less stressful! The flowers came exactly as I envisioned, and we put them right in water. One of my amazing bridesmaids took over the pre-wedding care of the flowers, thankfully - definitely make sure someone is assigned to help you with this, if you're going for DIY flowers!
We got together a group of 5 or so bridesmaids and family members the day before the wedding to assemble all the flowers. I had pictures of the bouquet ideas and a list of how many flowers should go in each centerpiece and bouquet, which really helped make arranging them less stressful! I did my bouquet myself, which was really fun. I actually LOVED the process of putting together the flowers ourselves - there were no surprises the day-of about how the flowers looked or when they were delivered, because I knew exactly how all the flowers were put together! That was definitely one of my favorite parts of the wedding, and it made the flowers at our wedding even more special. A little advice for other brides: I would recommend spending lots of time looking online for floral arrangements that you like, and watching a few videos on ways to put together bouquets and centerpieces. And if you have friends helping who aren't florists, be ready to train them before they start making centerpieces, or have a friend ready to explain what the look you're going for!
I am so happy we chose to order flowers from FiftyFlowers - it was so affordable, and the flowers were GORGEOUS. People afterward asked who our florist was, which was pretty sweet. I loved every part of the process, and I'll never forget the time we spent with friends and family arranging flowers the day before our wedding. If I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing!
