The bride, Sarah, along with her sister, Emily, and their mother, opted to undertake the intricate task of designing all of the wedding flowers themselves. Armed with an array of seasonal blooms and a shared vision, these women dedicated themselves to curating arrangements that would not only complement the picturesque garden setting of Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft Gardens, but also bring Sarah’s idyllic wedding vision to fruition.
Below, in an exclusive interview with sister-of-the-bride, Emily, she provides a firsthand perspective on the meticulous research and planning, artistic decisions, and poignant moments shared during the process of creating their own wedding florals. Discover the behind-the-scenes narrative of how the family planned, prepared, and executed the floral arrangements, the challenges met, and the joys experienced as Emily reflects on her family’s journey in wedding floral design.
Did you ever consider hiring a professional florist for the wedding?
Yes! We looked into many florists in the surrounding area.
What influenced you to DIY the wedding flowers?
Sarah (bride) only wanted four bridesmaid bouquets, her bouquet, a couple of arrangements, and bud vases. She had difficulty even getting many florists to respond to her inquiries for such a small amount of designs. Those that did respond had a minimum of around $5,000 for their services despite the fact that Sarah didn’t want a lot of arrangements.
What were all of the DIY floral arrangements that you created (i.e. bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, centerpieces, ceremony altar arrangements, etc.)?
We made four bridesmaid bouquets, the bridal bouquet, a few boutonnières, 2-3 bud vase arrangements for each table, four arrangements for pots surrounding the couple at the ceremony altar, and 1-2 small floral arrangements for welcome table and cake table.
Were you originally thinking of creating other/different floral arrangements? If yes, what were they? And what changed your mind?
Sarah originally didn’t want arrangements for the ceremony altar since the venue was a garden and all of the guests would already be surrounded by beautiful plants. But, we ended up using a different area and she decided two arrangements on either side of herself and her husband would be a nice touch to center them. They purchased the terracotta pots and now have the pots displayed on their front porch at home!
We also weren’t sure if we needed welcome table and dessert table arrangements but we ended up having extra flowers and our grandma decided to make those herself on the wedding day!
How and where did you source the flowers and other materials (i.e. bud vases, candlesticks, candles, vases) needed for the arrangements?
We picked up the flowers on Thursday morning (two days before the wedding) at a wholesale flower store in Sacramento called Flora Fresh. We needed someone with a business license to register us, but after that it was super easy and they were extremely helpful. The store gave us a list of expected in-season flowers to order ahead, and we picked out the rest from what was available on the day we picked up our floral order. The downside was that the store could not guarantee some flowers because those were dependent on the weather. But since Sarah was so flexible, that didn’t matter to us.
We sourced the bud vases and candlesticks from various thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace in the months leading up to the wedding, bought the pots for the altar from a local gardening store, and bought taper candles on Amazon.
How did you calculate how many flowers to buy?
We Googled how many stems to put in bride and bridesmaid bouquets based on the size we wanted them to be. There are charts for the average amount of stems you’ll need for the size of the bouquet or arrangement. Then we made adjustments based on how many blooms there were per stem on the particular type of flowers we chose.
We estimated 3-4 stems per bud vase multiplied by how many vases we had. Then, we estimated how many we’d need for the other arrangements we created, and then added some extra stems.
When did you buy all of the flowers? The day before? Multiple days before?
We purchased and picked up the flowers on Thursday morning (two days before the wedding), prepped them that same day, and made the arrangements on Friday (the day before the wedding).
How did you manage your time leading up to the wedding day to ensure all the floral arrangements were ready?
The wedding rehearsal was scheduled for Friday morning (the day before the wedding) with the rehearsal dinner that evening. So, we knew we’d have a chunk of time that day when everyone from our family and wedding party would be in town. We made a fun event out of getting the bridesmaids and women of the family together to all pitch in and make the bouquets and arrangements together.
Overall, how much time did it take to create all of the floral arrangements?
It only took a few hours! This was with the help of four bridesmaids, the bride, mother-of-the-bride, aunt-of-the-bride, and grandma-of-the-bride.
Did you find it stressful at all to be arranging all of the flowers the day before the wedding?
We had watched several videos beforehand, so I felt confident enough in the technique for assembling the bouquets to be able to instruct the others. Since we had several hours free that day, I’d say we weren’t very stressed at all! It was a fun, relaxing activity and a special thing to share with the women closest to the bride.
Did you face any challenges or unexpected obstacles while working on the floral arrangements? How did you overcome them?
We made sure the men were in charge of picking up lunch for everyone while we were hard at work ;)
In all seriousness, Sarah was very flexible and not super particular about everything turning out perfectly. She gave us a vibe and inspirational pictures for design direction and we gave each other some helpful criticism here and there. But, if you’re a bride who wants everything to look identical to inspirational pictures and are very specific, then this may not be the best option.
Looking back, is there anything you would do differently, or any advice you would offer to brides planning to DIY their wedding flowers?
Make sure to have plenty of clippers on hand, as that was one of the only things that slowed us down - waiting for the “good clippers” to be free. We also did a test run months before the wedding using cheap flowers from Trader Joe’s to practice making bouquets and figure out how the altar arrangements would work. That turned out to be immensely helpful on the day, as we had fixed whatever problems we had originally. Storing them properly was also essential. As soon as we purchased the flowers, we trimmed them at an angle, stripped them of leaves on the stems, and put them in buckets with a few inches of water to store in a dark, cool room. We had reached out to the hotel and venue ahead of time to ask if we could store the flowers in their refrigerators. We also found that dark bathrooms turned out to be a good place to store them, too. Once we made the bouquets, they were placed back in the buckets with a few inches of water and stored back in the dark, cool places. This was to discourage them from opening up fully until the wedding day. Overall, I’d say the research and prep that the bride did leading up to the week of the wedding and the crafty spirit of everyone involved is what made it a success. I believe we only spent about $600 on the flowers and less than $1000 when we include the price for all the vases, candlesticks, and supplies. In order to save that much, you do have to put a little effort in to the prep. But, given the fun we had while doing it, I’d say it was more than worth it.
From the mother-of-the-bride:
I’ll admit it was a little stressful the day we went to pick them out/pick them up. It could have been a lot worse if Sarah didn’t have such a great attitude about it. More ordering ahead would have helped with that.
I have to say that as fun as it was to have everyone help do the flowers, if you have a bride who is very particular about how they turn out and tends to micromanage, then having different people doing different things with so much going on at the same time the day before the wedding could be very stressful.
Sarah did good research on how to prep the flowers and how to build a bouquet. I recommend doing the practice session, like we did. I think meeting the day before to have everyone participate was a highlight of the weekend. But you need to be flexible if things don’t turn out EXACTLY as you intend. If someone is looking for a specific, precise, exotic design, then it might not be the way to go. And you need to have access to a fridge to store them all, too.
From the bride:
I probably would have spent more time picking out specific flowers and colors to order ahead of time, but I just didn’t because I was busy and lazy. I also agree with what my mom said about doing more research on how to prep/preserve flowers and practicing making arrangements and bouquets beforehand, which is also just a fun activity to do.
The flowers were at the end of still-looking-pretty by the time it was wedding time, so I would say not to get flowers any earlier. And again, prep/preserving them is KEY.
Now that you've done DIY wedding flowers for your sister, are you currently leaning towards DIY flowers for your wedding, too? Or would you consider hiring a professional florist?
I’m totally leaning towards it! I don’t think I will want a lot of flowers at my wedding anyways, given that I’m uncomfortable with that amount of waste (not to mention the cost). Besides, I’m a crafty girl at heart - I love a project.
