Register or log in —

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Avocado
more by Mrs. Avocado (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Avocado
Mrs. Avocado's Picture
Mrs. Avocado, Seattle Age and Occupation: 23, Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Consultant Engagement Date: July 27, 2008 Wedding Date: October, 2008 Blogging Since: June 30, 2008 Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000 About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
About Mrs. Avocado

Wholesale Has It All

August 5th, 2008 @ 2:19 pm by Mrs. Avocado

The day after I flew to Seattle, it was “Wedding Whirlwind” Thursday. I actually live in central Washington, 3 hours from any type of civilization, and so whenever I do wedding things, I have to stuff them all into one trip. In one day we bought the reception/ceremony decor, did some antiquing and found a necessary guestbook component, had our tasting at Hotel 1000, found the bakeries for both our convention and gluten/dairy/egg free cakes, and visited Paper Source. I was almost too tired to do some guest list revising on the drive like I had planned.

My MOH Shay brought along her camera because she knew I would want all of our adventures photo documented for blogging. We dressed alike and had an impromptu photo shoot to start the day.


We mapped out several different wholesale warehouses that we wanted to visit, but we ended up only visiting Northwest Wholesale Florists because it had everything we wanted. Apparently my mom is a card carrying member of the wholesale floral club, which allowed us to get stuff at unbelievable prices. I will warn you though, if you decide you want to handle all of the reception decor yourself, and you figure out how to get it all wholesale, the experience can be a little overwhelming at first.

You walk in and at first all you can see (and smell) is the flowers. They are so organized and pretty, and MOH Shay and I had so much fun walking up and down the rows inventing bouquets for ourselves. I took a few notes to remind myself what flowers I liked most.

We walked back a little bit farther into the warehouse, and that was when reality struck. The place looked like a jumbled mess to me, and I wanted to run back towards the entrance and bury my face in the pretty flowers and relax.

All of the sudden my mom was everywhere, pointing out things to me as we went to get my opinion. A kind of a theme began to emerge, and soon I was running around as well, grabbing elements I thought might work and adding them to the pile. I still can’t believe what we came up with for the decor in just an hour or two of browsing. I won’t be revealing the outcome to you until we create our table mockups, but it just may involve some of the feathers that you see MOH Shay peeking out from below. (I am a feathers bride! I never thought it would be true!)

Let’s finish up this post with a lesson. As the MOH is demonstrating below, just because an item comes in your wedding colors, it doesn’t mean you HAVE to have it.

Anyone else forgoing the florist completely and using a wholesale warehouse to design their decor?

Tags: , |   Link for this post | Share this post: Wholesale Has It All      
Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Avocado
more by Mrs. Avocado (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Avocado
advertisement below

11 Responses to “Wholesale Has It All”

1.
Guest Icon
Guest
skimmy

That’s what I’m planning on doing since my mom is also a card carrying member of the wholesale floral club. ;) We haven’t made a visit yet to the “warehouse” yet but it’s this Thursday. Kind of scared! Glad to hear you got your floral theme set out…

 
2.
Member Icon
Member
ChicagoSarah (message)  159 posts, Blushing bee

We got most of the calla lilies for our bouquets and reception decor at a warehouse, and they were beautiful! The warehouse we visited didn’t really want to sell directly to the public though (we got a hookup from someone who had an account there) - are there some warehouses that cater to the public instead of florists and event planners?

 
3.
KateMW
Hostess
KateMW (message)  2,714 posts, Sugar bee

I use a wholesale florist for all my flowers at home, but won’t be using them for our vow renewal, since it’s 5 hours away. I love the wholesale florist.

 
4.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Corn (message)  1,010 posts, Bumble bee

ok, don’t hurt me here…but the whole point of it being wholesale is so that the people who’s livelyhood depends on arranging flowers, making centerpieces, planning events, etc can puchase their items and have enough of a profit to allow them to eat dinner at the end of the day.

If you have access to an account, than all the power to you, but the more wholesale warehouses that cater to the public, than the more florists, caterers, and event planners that are SOL.

 
5.
suzanno
Hostess
suzanno (message)  2,694 posts, Sugar bee

I’m also in Central Washington, although after living in southern New Mexico I don’t consider it completely uncivilized. For anyone planning on doing their own flowers who doesn’t live in a big city, you might consider that both Costco and Safeway can actually order any flower you want in bulk. I have two girlfriends who did their own flowers for weddings this summer and they both went with Costco. The wonderful woman who made my cake ordered all the fresh flowers to decorate it through Safeway. Prices at both places (to order in bulk) are very good.

 
6.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Emerald (message)  901 posts, Busy bee

Wow, I would LOVE to visit a place like this!! It looks like so much fun…

 
7.
cannotwait
Member
cannotwait (message)  1,046 posts, Bumble bee

you are a girl after my own (gluten free) heart…who is gluten free?

 
8.
Guest Icon
Guest
Erin

We did our own flowers, too! We got all the flowers for my entire wedding for about the cost of a single professional bouquet!

We ordered from a local dahlia farm. We picked them up on Thursday, assembled on Friday, and set up on Saturday. The centerpieces were very simple (basically nosegays in short vases), but I prefer simple arrangements. The only thing that I would do differently is more practice making bouquets - my MOH’s looked good all night, but mine fell apart by the end of photos. But I already wasn’t planning on carrying it up the aisle, otherwise I would have made an extra.

 
9.
Guest Icon
Guest
Natasha

My boyfriend lives in the Tri-Cities, so the fact that it’s so far away from major airports is kind of a pain when I fly to visit him! (I live in Missouri.)

Anyhow, we have a friend whose mom used to be a florist and still has her card - I imagine she’ll probably do the flowers when/if we get married!

 
10.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Avocado (message)  1,407 posts, Bumble bee

@skimmy: It’s completely overwhelming at first, but after a few minutes of wandering around it’s really fun!
@ChicagoSarah: @Mrs. Corn: I don’t know if this warehouse caters to the public specifically, but my mom has the license and so they sold to her. She had to pay the same fee that all florists pay to get it…..
@cannotwait: My sister and dad gluten/dairy/egg free. And my mom is dairy-free. It’s an interesting household.
@Erin: Oh! I think I will do some investigating to see if I can get myself hooked up directly with a grower in Seattle. I LOVE that idea!

 
11.
Guest Icon
Guest
DIY Stick Based, Moss Covered, Feather and Crystal Centerpieces » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] when we visited the wholesale warehouse for our decor elements, I never thought we would wind up with [...]

 


You can also just...

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Avocado
more by Mrs. Avocado (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Avocado
Visit our sister sites Project Wedding
Wedding Songs
eHarmony Advice
Dating Advice
JustMommies
Pregnancy Calendar
Fertile Thoughts
Infertility Support
Copyright 2004-2009, eHarmony, Inc., Advertise
 


Sponsors
Mrs. Avocado
Mrs. Avocado Mrs. Avocado, Seattle Age and Occupation: 23, Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Consultant Engagement Date: July 27, 2008 Wedding Date: October, 2008 Blogging Since: June 30, 2008 Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000 About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
Weddingbee PRO
 
Boards
 
Classifieds
 

Blog Calendar
November 2009
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930

Weddingbee Bios
Wiki
More