Should You DIY Your Wedding Flowers?

You're getting married! Congratulations!

Now you're faced with the daunting task of planning the perfect wedding. One of the biggest decisions you'll have to make is about the flowers. Industry averages show florals are roughly 10% of your overall budget. So, do you hire a traditional wedding florist? Or do you try your hand at DIY?

If you're thinking about DIYing your flowers, I'm here to tell you that it's totally doable (I did it for my wedding!). But it's not always easy. There are a lot of factors to consider, like the time commitment, the cost, and your own skill level.

When thinking about flowers for your big day, there are a few options to consider.

1. Hire a wedding florist

2. DIY your floral dreams

3. Partner with a DIY Flower Pro

Hiring a Wedding Florist

There are several benefits that come along with hiring a professional wedding florist. The benefits also include a typically hefty price tag. Pros in the floral wedding industry have years of experience. They know how to work with brides and grooms to create unique and memorable wedding flowers.

Wedding Florists also have expertise when it come to selecting, storing and building flower bouquets. They can help you pick blooms that are both on trend, and in season.

Let’s not forget about the time hiring a professional florist will save! They will take care of all the details including: souring flowers, pick-up and delivery, building all the bouquets and flower installations, vase purchases or rentals, and event tear down. All of this will save you both time and worry so you can focus on other wedding planning items.

As you dream about your big day, a wedding florist will give you piece of mind, knowing that they’ve executed on hundreds of weddings.

DIY Your Floral Dreams

Do-it-yourself wedding flowers can be a great way to save money! You'll have a lot of creative control over the arrangements, but you will also need help from your friends or family. So, it's important to weigh the pros and cons before deciding if DIY is right for you.

First, the pros of DIY wedding florals

• Save Money: if you are willing to do the work yourself, there is the potential of saving a lot of money. The cost of wedding flowers is not only the price of each stem, but you have to also consider the designers time purchasing the flowers, designing the arrangements, set-up and tear-down of the event, plus the hours it takes to create the perfect floral recipe and vision board for brides.

• Complete Creative Control: creating your own wedding bouquets, centerpieces and floral installations give you full creative autonomy to design exactly what you’re imagining. You will be in charge of creating the exact look and feel of your dream wedding arrangements. You’ll get to pick the exact flowers, textures and colors you desire.

Now, the cons of DIY wedding florals

• Time Constraints: because you are dealing with a product with a short shelf-life, the timeline in which you prep your flowers and start the design process pushing into your final wedding prep week. Typically flower prep happens 2 days before the wedding. Design happens 1 day before your wedding. Consider if you have the time to dedicate towards flower arranging before deciding to go the DIY route.

• Skill Level: building a beautiful bouquet of flowers, worthy of an Instagram post, takes time skill (and magic!). Creating wedding bouquets, centerpieces and floral installations require some basic floral arranging knowledge. If you’re not comfortable with the basics of floral design, you may want to buy flowers and practice leading up to the wedding (4-6 months out).

• Event Set-up & Tear Down: do you have a person, who is not part of your wedding party, that will be able to get your flowers to the venue, then set them up according to your master plan? As you contemplate DIYing your bouquet and centerpieces, carefully map out how the flowers will become part of your wedding dreams. The last thing you want to do is stress the morning of over flowers. And the very last thing you want to worry about at the end of the night is how all the vases will get removed from the venue.

The cons of full DIY are that it's a lot of work. You'll have to spend a lot of time sourcing the flowers, arranging them, and transporting them to the wedding venue. You'll also need to have some basic floral arranging skills.

Partner with a DIY Flower Pro

With a DIY Flower Pro you strike a balance between completely doing-it-yourself and hiring a traditional wedding florist.

Flower Pros who specialize in helping brides DIY flower for their big day are industry professionals, who have experience in the same ways as a typical wedding florist. They understand flowers, trends, what it takes to execute an event successfully and they have the knowledge and skills required to help navigate event the most stressful DIY flower situations.

The best part is that you’ll get to brag about doing your own flowers, while you have having a secret helper in the background making sure the transportation, assembly and set-up of your wedding venue go according to plan.

Hiring a DIY Flower Pro will save you time and money. They can loan all the supplies it takes to prepare your arrangements, the tools required to build bouquets, and can even help with set-up and haul away (flowers are messy!). Partnering with a DIY Flower Pro will also give you piece of mind to ensure you’re staying on budget with your flower recipes and design cohesion.

The cons of hiring a DIY Flower Pro: it's slightly more expensive than doing it yourself. But what is the cost of peace-of-mind?

So, which option is right for you?

If you're on a tight budget and you have the time & skills, then full DIY route is a great option. If you think flowers will play a major role in your wedding day, and you’ve allotted 10-15% of your overall budget to flowers, hire a professional wedding florist! We promise, you don’t be disappointed. Let’s say you're confident you have the skills required to DIY your flowers, but don’t have all the tools, and time to dedicate towards a full do-it-yourself approach, partnering with a DIY Flower Pro is the right way to go.

No matter which option you choose, make sure to start planning early. Flowers can be expensive, so it's important to book your flowers well in advance. And if you're hiring a DIY Flower Pro, make sure to book them as soon as possible, too. They are there to guide you through the entire DIY process; from helping you pick the perfect design to match your big day to giving you and your friends a in-person floral workshop coaching session.