The Perils of Doing Your Own Wedding Flowers & A Simple DIY Floral Centerpiece For Any Occasion

I quite often hear a lot of brides very strongly floating the idea of doing their own flowers for their wedding in effort to save money.  While I understand where they are coming from, let me stress something really important.  Your wedding day, no matter how well planned, no matter how well executed, no matter how well prep the days leading up to it went, will be chalk full of more then enough things to do and worry about, like yourself.  Trust me, its a big task really.  The more you layer onto your To-Do list, the harder it all becomes, even with a small army for help.

Hubby & I personally took on a lot, A LOT of DIY tasks, well I so on the DIY side, he so on the logistics side, the result?  I was a freaking nightmare for the 3 days leading into my wedding.  I dont mean bridezilla, but I do mean visibly over stressed, trying to hold about 50 loose ends together, remembering not to forget details, organizing this and that and more so.  I literally could not shut off my brain.  Sleeping was pretty much impossible.  If I had thought to add doing something as huge as my own flowers for the wedding….eek!  I probably would have exploded.

Understand, flowers are a fickle fickle thing, each unique in its own needs leading up to show time.  If you dont have the proper place to store them (you will need them a day or so before you even work with them), then store them once they become centerpieces & bouquets, dont even consider this.  Execution is another major factor, do you have someone that you really feel confident in to assemble them and execute as needed?  You certainly wont be walking into your own wedding adjusting as needed, so get that out of your mind.  Do you really want to risk walking in the room for the first time and rather then feeling elation and joy, thinking, crap that flower is out of place, or that doesnt look as good as it did in the picture and so on?

Floral is actually an area where I think brides assume they can skirt on in attempt to save money.  I completely disagree.  Its risky in a way that could totally kill your joy of the day in a way you arent even considering yet.  Florist are a super important part of the day that takes pressure off that you never even imagined.

The Sweetest Occasion DIY Floral Centerpiece

With all that said, I know there are those of you that no matter what I say, will still want to try it, maybe even for the rehearsal dinner vs the big day.  I am not telling you its a terrible decision, I just think its a lot more work then you realize and a lot could not play out as you would hope.  As I come upon DIY’s for great centerpieces & floral arrangements, I will continue to pass them along all the same. I cant stop you, but perhaps I can guide into ones that are easier then others.  If nothing else, they can also serve themselves for other occasions.  Anything from a dinner party, engagement party, rehearsal you name it.  The Sweetest Occasion has a super cute, pretty low fuss DIY Centerpiece featuring tulips & peonies (though this can be easily done with various blooms).  The idea in theory is simple and it is defiantly something I want to try out for a dinner party in the near feature.  For the full DIY, head to The Sweetest Occasion

*All photographs by Alice G Patterson Photography

You Might Also Like: