Weddingbee Blog
It’s been glaring at me from my to-do list since “6-8 months” before the wedding. Book Florist. I know I should do it, I know we need to decide, but there are just too many choices out there! On top of choosing what flowers, there is the DIY vs Florist choice to make. I’ve seen Bees and Brides in the hive make beautiful bouquets themselves and save lots of $$ doing so. Here are a few homemade bunches from the WB gallery:
Good job ladies! At first, I was taken by hydrangeas and did extensive research to find a bulk supplier, thinking it would be so easy to bunch a few of those together and make bouquets. Wedding Hydrangea Flowers, a supplier, even tells you how to DIY them on their site to make arrangements like this:
I then saw these posts by Mrs. Cherry Pie. Her flowers. are. beautiful. I started noticing dahlias all over the internet and I thought great, found the flower I want! So I made an inspiration board to convey my idea to a local florist. The flowers in the center are leftovers from another idea.
(Source, top left and center left, Source bottom left, bottom center, and right center, Source center, and Source, bottom and top right)
Lynch Creek Farms grows and sells dahlia tubers and had tons of varieties listed - many sold out for 2009. I decided to contact them about cut flowers even though there is no mention of them on their website. I am happy to report that they do sell cut flowers! In fact, all varieties were available cut! Like a kid in a candy shop, my eyes couldn’t get enough of their online collection, and now it could be just a matter of color scheme! Of course, it would still be great to find a florist to take the creative guesswork out of making bouquets. I thought to myself while staring at my to-do list - florist box get ready to be checked. Then I saw black and white anemones. They just had to stir the pot.
Did you have trouble picking out flowers for your wedding? Or are you letting your florist have creative freedom and forgoing having to decide on the exact flowers?
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Oooo how pretty! I just went to Michaels when they were having an “all silks 50% off sale” in January and bought what blended well with our colors (shades of blush, some richer pink, mostly creams) and winged it. I love real ones, but I have some beastly allergies!
Easy peasy-we preordered red & cream roses from Costco & picked up a couple of other mixed bunches while we were there-voila! 6 bouquets & A LOT of boutonnieres & corsages all hand-crafted by my BFF/BM who had never arranged flowers in her life. Pew decor was baby’s breath & centerpieces were potted Home Depot orchids. Big impact-little dinero. Be wary of ordering flowers online–I splurged on my own bouquet (Lily of the Valley that we hand-tied). We paid over $100 for 20 tiny stems, & they just didn’t look that great. My toss bouquet looked much better! I have pics of everything if you want to PM me. I think we spent ~$500 TOTAL on all flowers.
omg anemonies are so beautiful! If you end up finding them for your september wedding, I’m all ears! I think they’re out of season, though 
Don’t stress! I juuuuust booked our florist this week. I was worried about how long I’d been procrastinating on it, too, but it turned out fine! Your flower ideas are gorgeous!
I love all the same flowers as you do! We ended up buying all our flowers from a local farmer and then my BMs did all the arranging - he had snapdragons, ranaculus, and irises freshly cut. In my search I found another great option - http://www.californiaorganicflowers.com - they sell a dahlia party mix box, through september 
I was just discussing flowers with my mom the other day, and she said that dahlias spoil very quickly, so we will be picking them and putting them into bouquets right before the wedding. Luckily my parents own a garden center (and my mom worked at a florist shop for years) so it will (*crossing fingers*) be pretty easy for us, but that might be why you’ve had trouble finding a florist/supplier that would work. My ma specifically said if we cut them Thursday they won’t last well until Saturday.
I do loooooooove dahlias though and will probably be using them myself (as long as they are blooming)! Good luck!
Wow, I was thinking of using dahlias, too, but I didn’t know they aren’t good bouquet flowers! I’ve probably changed my mind about flowers 700 times. I’m DIY-ing and I can’t wait to go look at Lynch Creek Farms’ website. Grower’s Box and Fifty Flowers also sell dahlias.
i am not looking forward to the flower/florist decisions either!
That’s awesome you found the cut dahlias! I think we’re going to try to do some trial runs of fake but we’re not totally sure yet. We also might do a paper flower bouquet and then centerpieces also…so many decisions to still be made!
Oh Miss Sunbeam, what a sweet surprise to find my bouquet here! I am glad you like it I was very determined on using dahlias in my bouquet - they are my favourite flowers by far and so the choice was obvious. At the moment, dahlias start to pop up in flower shops around here again and every time I see them I get this little happy feeling and thing of my wedding day
I am really nervous about my flower options, because my wedding is in February. I’ve always wanted to DIY my bouquet by cutting the flowers myself, but alas.
I’ve been in love with dahilas ever since I walked through a farmers market when visiting my (now) fiance at Penn State. Some local growers- I think they were PA Deutch- were selling all kinds of Dahlias including HUGE oversized beauties! You can probably find a more local Dahlia farmer in PA a little further out of the city, but it’s great that you found Lynch Creek farms too. The world is getting smaller- it’s so cool you can order cut flowers from Washington!
@St. Patrick: If you contact the folks at fifty flowers . com, they are really helpful in letting you know which flowers they can get for you - might be worth looking into if you really want to DIY
@Miss Bear Cub: email fifty flowers . com - they said they would be able to get them for me if I wanted them!
@Mrs Swordfish: You did a great job with your flowers
@Miss Star: I am so glad you said that! I felt like such a BAD bride not getting the flowers sorted out till now (literally yesterday!)
You need to check out Toy’s Flower shop in Kittanning or Anderson’s Greenhouse in Franklin… They both have great floral designers without the big city price tag!
i love dahlias! very textural. i would probably try to DIY my wedding flowers, but FMIL is a florist…so…that idea never really made it off the ground. so which flowers did you decide to use?
i wouldn’t stress about it, i am 7 weeks out and have made absolutely no flower decisions. i keep telling myself “things will magically fall into place” at some point!
i love flowers and i am having a hard time figuring out which ones to go with, yet i enjoyed this!
I am buying in bulk from Wegmans and assembling myself but I am leaving my bouquet to the pros… I will have enough to worry about that morning.
Martha Stewart’s flower guide says anemonies are one of those flowers that are always in season. My guess? Because they are bulbs and can be forced. I want to DIY my flowers, too. I found this site for black and white anemonies: http://www.fiftyflowers.com/product/White-Fresh-Cut-Anemones_264.htm But you have to order 75 (that’s a lota black and white beauties!) Does anyone have experience with this? I’m going to try to order a “sample” from this company by calling, but I’m doubtful. I might be better off just going to a large flower market (like the one in S.F.) two days before the wedding to hand select some anemonies. BUT I don’t even know if they’ll be in season/available then. Does anyone else know if anemonies will be avail. in S.F. in late June???
Love the cute little blue and green arrangment above! Our florist was open to hearing specific ideas — but we turned to her for info on particular flowers (since I don’t know too many varieties) including what would be in our budget and stay looking pretty all day even if it’s HOT at the end of August.
Ahhhh dahlias are so pretty - I understand your obsession! I honestly have no freaking clue what I’m going to do…I need some inspiration! I can’t wait to hear about how your flower planning goes!
[...] I look at it. I have a definite crush on the style of whoever’s wedding this came from. Much like Miss Sunbeam, I fell in love with anemones because of this picture. Aren’t they perfect for a polka-dotted [...]
Dahlias are so pretty. My bridesmaids will have dahlia bouquets and my florist even suggested them…
Glad you liked our bouquets!
It was quite cool the day of our wedding, but we had dahlias EVERYWHERE and none of them spoiled! I never heard that they are poor bouquet flowers, and in my experience they last MUCH better than much more commonly used flowers (roses, for one, and gerbera daisies, both of which often have to have their heads WIRED ON). So pooh, I say, to the idea that dahlias are poor bouquet flowers. I don’t know how ours would have fared in the heat, but our florist didn’t seem to think it problematic, and they were quite lovely!
What the heck about Dahlias! So random!! I will have to ask our florist about that since that’s a flower we’re considering!
Congratulations to the high school sweethearts! Thank you for the positive comments about our dahlia farm. We sell dahlia tubers online throughout most of the year and like mentioned, our cut dahlia flowers during the summer months. Our colorful dahlias make for some pretty amazing wedding flowers. Switching topics, if you’re looking for a unique gift idea around Christmas time, we also sell fresh decorated Christmas wreaths.
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Mrs. Sunbeam, San Francisco/Grove City, PA
Age and Occupation: 26, Grad Student & Office Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Motion Designer
Engagement Date: May 10, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Harbison Chapel & The Maple Lane Farm
About Me: Mr. Sunbeam and I are high school sweethearts. We both come from a small town in PA but are growing to love the California lifestyle. He loves wine and I love cheese... the perfect combination! When I'm not drooling over wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school, out being a foodie, or attempting to "walk" our cat at the park. Two things guaranteed to excite me are wedding cakes and breaking out my suitcase to travel. Mr. Sunbeam and I are personalizing our hometown wedding to celebrate our high school sweetheart status and PA roots with a few CA touches. After ten years of dating we couldn't be more excited to call each other husband and wife!
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