Wedding Flower Arrangements- Home Made

This is actually the second wedding I done for a friend of mine. The first was my own, but I don't have any good craft pictures to show from my own wedding. This wedding cost me less then $200. Unfortunately I only have a few pictures documented from this wedding. Her wedding theme is fairy tale.

To start off, this is a wedding invitation that we made for her wedding. We turn the invitation into a scroll, and decorate each scroll with different flowers and ribbon. Since it was a small wedding, about 60 people or so, each wedding invitation was hand delivered.

Here are couple of candle stands that I turn into a 3 1/2feet tall floral stands for her wedding ceremony at the altar, and again are used in reception hall.

My friend and I found these items in a craft store that are perfect for her fairy tale theme.
The glass slipper was the certer display on top of cheesecake for desserts. We decorated each cheesecake with berries around it and fresh flowers around the glass slipper on top of the cake. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of the cheesecake that we decorated.
The little carriage is her parting gift to wedding guests. Each carriage is decorated with a blue ribbon (part of her wedding color) and chocolates inside.

This is yet another wedding I've done for a friend of mine. This was a scottish wedding in October, and they wanted 'fall' theme for their wedding. I spend probably just a little over $400 to get all the materials I need for this wedding. And yes, this was my wedding gift to them, wedding floral arrangements. It was a good size wedding, about 120 guests.

This is the table centerpiece for the reception. I made about 14 of those in total. Each one is about 15" high and just over 12" wide. The bride has a thing for wheat, and has asked me to incorporate as much wheat into the design as possible.
So this is what I came up with. a wheat bundle in the center surrounded by sunflowers and other flowers with fall color leaves at it's based. Added few ivy here and there to give some greenary to the centerpiece.

This is the flower girl's basket. It is a flat bottom basket and perfect for the arrangement to sit in. The main flowers through out the designs are sunflowers, ivy and fall leaves. Couple of long ivys make them trail over either side of the basket. A touch of fall leaves and main flowers in the center. Everyone just loved the design. Wish I could kept that basket. lol

Here are the bridal bouquet and bride's maid bouquet. She wanted her bouquet to be different and fill with fall colours and wheat. That is exactly what I've made for her. And she really loved her bouquet, and since the bouquet is made up of dried flowers and silk flowers, she still has that bouquet sitting at home. Their wedding was in Oct 2005.

Then there's bride's maid bouquet in the picture as well, and there were 5 of us bride's maids. (yes, my husband and I were part of the wedding party, it was a lot of fun) I found these bundles of different colour tone of sunflowers from Micheals. They were perfect for the bouquet. All I did was touch them up with ivys and filler flowers, wrap the stem with ribbon and all set to go.

And finally, the head tables centerpieces.
I found these 3 feet long wave shape candle stand from grocer store (of all places.. lol) They were perfect for the long bridal party tables. I decorate each one with ivys, fall leaves, sunflowers and filler flowers. A burst of flowers in the center and thin out on each side of arm. There were 3 of these 3 feet long arrangements in total.

So there you have it. I've made a lot of flower arrangements with just aorund $400 of budget with a lot of left over materials. It was a lot of work, but I loved making them all. Everyone loved the displays and the wedding left a great impression on guests mind.

So why not get some ideas and make your own arrangements. It will be fun to make, costs you a lot less and everyone else will praise you for it!

This wedding I've done was for my cousin. But because I found out just a little too late, they've already put deposite into a floral shop for the wedding flowers. Since I kept on insisting to help out, they've asked me to make them few little things that weren't supply by the floral shop. I spend just over $200 to get the materials for this wedding. The wedding colours were plum, red and gold.

This is a box for wedding guests to put their cards in at the wedding reception. This is a basic box that I bought from Business Depot. I decorated it with marble wall paper and tied plum colour ribbon around it. Then I made a separate floral piece that contain all the wedding color scheme arrangement to go on top of the box to give this lush looking box for guests to put their cards in.

I found these great looking set of 3 floating candle holders from grocery store. Grocery store sometimes carry really great display items. Down side is.. they are seasonal items only, once they sold out, that's it.

These candle holders have great space in between the bowl and the candle holder. So I arranged some purple colour roses, yellow orchids and red berries into the empty space. These candles set were placed by the guest signing book at the reception hall.

I reuse the wave candle stand for this arrangement for the cake table. Same idea as before, only flower colours are different, and much lusher design.

They've ask asked me to make couple of baskets for them to hand out the wedding programs with. And this is what I came up with. A lush floral arrangement on the basket handle, similar to the piece I made to go over the top of the card box.

My cousin asked for couple of tall flower arrangements for the dessert table display. And this is what I've come up with. I bought couple of tall glass vases from grocery store, around $10 each. I went to dollar store and bought a few bags of stones to anchor the vase, and tied red and gold ribbon around the vase. The greenary, orchids and filler were from dollar store as well. I only shop in craft store for items or flower colors that I can't find anywhere else, like the bird of paradise, the purple colour roses and few other things. That's what cost me the most, stuff from craft store if they are not on sale. I made 2 of these tall arrangements, both stood about 2 and a half feet tall.

This is another wedding that I have done recently for the floral arrangements. People often think that dollar store silk flowers are not worth to look at or buy just because they are so cheap, but I disagree. The bride supply me with the silk flowers, and she bought all of her flower supply from the dollar store. If you have a creative mind, you can turn anything kind of flowers into fabulous floral arrangements. The following are the arrangements I have done using 90% of dollar store silk flowers.

To start off, this is a boutonniere I've done using those flowers. It is another Fall wedding by the way, that's why you will see a lot of Fall leaves in all the arrangement. The primary flowers are Fall leaves, orchids, gladiolus, and dry limonium as filler.

Here is a corsage. Again, similar flowers, only I use the gladiolus bud flowers instead of open flower. Plus I added some berries into the design to make it different from the boutonniere.

This is a bouquet for throwing. The family didn't want anything too fancy for the throwing flower, therefore I put this together quickly with the left over materials. It is basically a gladiolus in the center, surrounds by limonium and orchids with ivy around them. I wrap the stems with tulle ( a long lace material that is commonly use for wedding decorations), and using tulle to tie bows around the base of the leaves and fluff all the bows to give the bouquet a fuller look.

This is the bride's maid bouquet. I made 3 of these. The flowers for the bouquet cost less then $10 to put it together. Again, you don't need expensive flowers to have it look this beautiful. A bouquet like this can easily cost you well over a $100 from the floral shop, so why spend that much from floral shop when you can have a beautiful bouquet like this one for less then $10?

(p.s. do excuse my husband's hairy arms, I grabbed him to hold the bouquet for me for the picture. lol)

This is the bridal bouquet. The bride wanted mostly the fall leaves, berries and roses in her bouquet. This bouquet is a lot bigger then the bride's maid bouquets, which is perfect to hide her pregnant belly and she loves the bouquet. This bridal bouquet costs less then $20 for all the flowers you see here.

I reuse the wave candle stand to put this table arrangement for the head table. A big tulle bow in the middle, with fall leaves hanging down at the edge of the table. It will look great at the wedding dinner reception for them. I shall get a better picture of it at the wedding after their wedding in November 2009.

This is what the arrangement looks like facing the bridal party at the head table. Gladiolus and orchids with ivy. Beside the wave candle stand, the flower arrangement itself cost less then $10 to put it together.

So do you believe these arrangements are all made from the dollar store silk flowers? It's true! But it's ok if you don't believe it, many people couldn't believe it either when I show them what I've made. lol
Once again, you don't need to spend a fortune on your wedding flower arrangements. You can still have a fabulous flower display for your wedding at fraction the cost then floral shops.

So here's the brief story about this wedding. It was my husband's boss wedding in late August of 2010. I found out about the wedding during the spring time and offer to make any arrangement if require. His fiancee said to me out of joke "Not if you can make table centerpieces out of a bunch of old photographs. lol" Althought it was meant as a joke, but I did came up with couple of ideas for them, and they loved it. So this is what I ended up making for them for their wedding. And by the way, for this wedding, I made total of 11 guest table centerpieces, 2 head table centerpieces, and a wedding card box for them. Materials wise only cost less then $180 after taxes to make all of these arrangements.

This is the wedding card box I made for them for guests to put their wedding card in. This picture is taken on the wedding day by the way.
It is basically done the same way as the previous box I've made for my cousin's wedding. Turning a simple storage box into a marble stone box with decorative paper. Secure the lit with ribbons and design a massive flower arrangement to go over the top of it for a grand display. Materials for the box cost about $20.
(There is a link down below on how to make a wedding card box like this if anyone interested.)

This is the centerpiece they wanted for their wedding. It's really different and unique, because the main part of the centerpiece is photos. They wanted to share their memories with their families and friends. What a better way to do it then this. The more I thought about it, the more I love their idea, it truly made their wedding unique and memorable for everyone.

So this is the basic idea for the centerpiece. 4 photos formed a square and stack them 2 high like a lantern. In the center, sits a glass jar only about as high as 1 stack of photo height. Inside the jar there is a flameless candle that give off soft flicker glow through the photos ( looks super neat by the way), and on top of the jar sits a flower arrangement that peaks through the top of the photos. And all of these sit on a 12"x12" mirror to reflect itself on. Each centerpiece is about 12" tall. The break down cost of each guest table centerpiece is about $10.

The 2 head table centerpiece probably cost the most materials to put together. About $25 each. They are basically balls of flowers sit on top of tall glass vase with a flameless candle inside the vase along with 12"x12" mirror at the bottom. They are about 18" tall and 16" wide.

Just incase you're wondering why so much red in the designs.. that's because it's the only request I had from the Bride. Her dress has cranberry color on it, it's her only request that perhaps I should match it. Otherwise I was free to choose what ever types of flowers or color I want. I like that!! I wish all wedding couples could all be this easy going. lol

So there you have it, they didn't cost me a lot to make and I have a lot of left over materials that I can re-use. I also recieved a lot of good complements from people too. For a flower design to really worth your while to make, the key is to know where to shop for materials and when.

My primary shopping place is actually from Dollar Store. They have great selections on artificial flowers and all kinds of beautiful candle stands that can easily be turn into a fabulous arrangements. Walmart is another good place for supplies. I'm not sure about down in the States, but up where I am in Canada, our grocery stores carry some pretty neat seasonal items. Those wave candle stands and set of 3 floating candle glass bowl were from grocery store. Down side of seasonal items is that once they're sold out, that's it.

I visit crafts store such as Micheal pretty frequent. I only get my crafts supply there if no where else has them. Knowing when to shop for flowers from craft store is the key, and always plan ahead. Craft store always have their seasonal flowers out months before the season is in place. So the best time to shop for seasonal flowers is during mid-season to the end of the season. Christmas season for example. All the Christmas stuff will be out even before Halloween is over. If you want Christmas sales items, shop in December, because by then they will have sales going since they need to make room for the Spring flowers.

So always plan ahead and shop wisely for your crafts supplies. Enjoy making your crafts for all occasions. Cheers!