Frugal Wedding Flowers

Back to my list of frugal wedding how to save money. Next to the dress and the place and the food what is the next huge expense? Flowers.. My modest budget of $350 was going to be enough for the bouqets and boutonnieres and that was using the mot inexpensive flower a daisy and red rose as the other flower.. that's it. Nothing for in the church or on the tables. I was sticker shocked.. especially since that was the quote from County Market!!

If our wedding had been this year I could have provided all the flowers growing them myself. But last year we were not as far along garden wise. So what to do? Not decorate the hall and church or figure something out.

That's when I started my internet hunt. There had to be some way to save money on flowers. And I figured it out. Bulk Flowers.. I bought 350 Roses for $200.00 :) I did research and realized I needed a dozen Rose's per bouquet and 24 Rose's for my own Bouquet. Then we needed Rose's for the reception and for the church.

I ordered from www.abacoflowers.com    





They were so wonderful, even when my debit card company didn't want to release the money. They worked so hard and the shipment arrived and the flowers were wonderful.  Just a tip here you need about 4  5 Gal buckets to put the flowers in so they can get water and either a refrigerator or a very cool room otherwise order for delivery the day ahead not 2 days ahead.

I bought ribbon, floral wire, floral tape, pins,burlap, those green spike water holders, beads that expand in water and enough green/blue old fashioned canning jars to fill the tables. Total I spent $250 on  Flower arragements :)

In the church we made burlap bags that said FEED on them and placed 3 Rose's in Green waer holders inside the bag ( I could not have gotten this done with out my cousin, her friend and my aunts!)

It was so pretty seeing these lining the pews as I walked down the isle.. simple, fun, inexpensive and pretty :)

The bouquets my maid of honor and yes oddly enough best man made the night before :) We did not trim the ends until right before the ceremony. They were transported there in our old canning jars with the water beads in them to keep them hydrated. 

Check out how to do them on You Tube! There are tons of videos there.  I do suggest a trial run with Rose's like from walmart to make sure you know what you are doing and you'll like the result. That way you don't order flowers first and decide you just can't do it.

I was blessed that my best man had been in FHA and had oddly enough learned how to make boutiniers. There are videos on You Tube about how to do these also. Make sure there is no fruit in your refrigerator and place these in ziplock bags and they work out wonderfully :)

So that's how I did our wedding flowers for a total of $250.00 our cost :) Will post the rest of the pics later my internet is running slow :( 

Changes

We have been so busy around here I have not had the time to blog. So far we have finished cucumber harvest. Some not so nice squash bugs killed off the pumpkin vines so the pumpkins have been harvested and our sitting out front.. I love the scarecrows Rose and Corey made with the backdrop of corn stalks :) Double uses get me every time:) It's been very warm here so my time outside has been limited to say the least. We have planted the first of 3 4X4 Raised onion and Garlic Beds.

The surprise happened when I started to get the 8X4 bed ready for strawberries I plan on transplanting to there. I put in some of our wonderful worm compost and ended up growing 4 cucumber plants :) This is a nice surprise.. I don't know if they will produce or not but I can't wait to find out. If they do I'll have to remember to set seeds back to plant them at this time again next year.

My father in law was a huge money savor for us and was able to get us about 20 pickle 5 gallon buckets for our Potatos next year :) I was so worried we would have to plant in ground again! So excited to try the bucket trick.. no more killing my wrist harvesting Potatoes :) 


So things are coming around nicely. We have plans for an in-ground worm bin for next year.

But my biggest reason for being slow not only on the prodgets but on the blog is the simple issue of Colt being the only child home. Both sisters are in school as of this year and he's having sister withdrawal bad. I have been lucky to do dishes, and fold laundry at this time. I am hopeing like everything else he will adapt to life with out the girls at home. He enjoyed yesterday when we harvested another crop of worm compost.. the worms were doing the  "butt dance" according to him and a few tried to run away.. across the table.. we also found that we were growing snails.. how cool! I know we were building a little eco system but wow!

We have tried one batch of popcorn and you should have seen my husbands face! He's never had homegrown popcorn before and is not a big popcorn fan... But umm I belive we'll be planting an extra bed of popcorn next year :) His smile was so big and hearing " I could eat this everyday" was awesome...

I'll try and moble blog some of the pic's of our flower Gardens.. I believe I am being paged by a dragon at the moment.. time to go play :)