Frugal Flowers

I knew nothing about the costs associated with flowers and bouquets until I got engaged. I immediately started drooling over the gorgeous bouquets in magazines and on web sites. I especially loved orchids! Then I started visiting some florists and that's when the price shock hit me. At first I was upset and thought I would have to grow my own flowers and use daisies as my bouquet (not that there's anything wrong with daisies, they can be pretty for the right style of wedding). Then I started to do my research.

I wanted my flowers to be eco-friendly and budget friendly. I soon realized orchids would have to go. Any flower that can't be grown in my home town has to be shipped in and that adds all sorts of carbon emissions and eco-friendly no-nos. Then I started to consider flowers that would go a long way, meaning I would require fewer stems to get the same effect. I settled on hydrangeas. Now the question of budget came into play.

I was definitely not willing to pay someone to tie a few stems of hydrangeas together (how hard can it be?) and a friend of mine had recently gotten married and made her own bouquets, so I knew it could be done. Better yet, she had the contact information of a local flower farm where you can buy the stems at wholesale prices - saving a bundle by not paying the mark-up to the florist!

We ended up meeting with the wholesaler and placing our order for hydrangea stems. We'll pick them up the day before the wedding and make the bouquets the night before. It shouldn't take more than an hour and voila - budget and eco-friendly flowers!