Here at Nature’s Posy we’ve noticed more and more couples wanting to do their own, or at least some of their own, wedding flowers. It’s undoubtedly a wonderful thing to be so closely involved in such a big part of your wedding day. There are countless pictures on-line to give lots of inspiration and with budgets stretched by the cost of living, flowers are one area where it might be possible to save some money.
A wedding’s worth of table posies 
Mixed summer flowers 
Cut flower buckets waiting for collection
So what do you need to think about when deciding to DIY your wedding flowers? Here are some key considerations to help you.
- Time
The number one consideration is a purely practical one. Will you actually have the time to create the arrangements you want?
Flowers cannot be arranged too soon. Even if they are placed in water, somewhere relatively cool, your wedding flowers can’t really be arranged until 3-4 days beforehand at the absolute earliest; and preferably the day beforehand. Your wedding bouquet cannot be arranged until the day before, and button holes the afternoon before.
Many people choose to arrange their flowers in the venue, which means not starting until the morning or afternoon before the wedding. Bearing in mind you may also need to set up other table arrangements / decorations etc this means limited time for flower arranging.
You also need to factor in time for the last minute double check. There is nothing worse than finding a wilting flower in the moments before your guests start to arrive, so everything will need a final check on the morning of the wedding.
- Skill and experience
Some floral arrangements require a greater level of skill to create than others. A floral arch installation is not the sort of piece that can really be tackled by an inexperienced flower arranger. A jam jar posy is less skilled – although still requires an artistic eye to ensure the flowers are balanced.
The bridal bouquet and button holes are very challenging and require a competent flower arranger and/or some practice beforehand.
There are lots of guides on-line and an increasing number of workshops to help with creating wedding flowers. If you are keen to go down this route I would recommend getting some practice in to help you feel more confident.
Finally, you need to understand your flowers. If you are making your own bouquet, you need to know that your flowers will hold out of water and not wilt. If you are cutting your own from your garden you need to know which stage to cut at, how to condition your flowers and how to manage cutting in different weather conditions (such as a heatwave, cold snap, heavy rain etc).
- Stress
Your wedding is a big day. What you think is a good idea and totally manageable before the nerves, excitement and adrenalin kick in might not be when the moment arrives. You do need to think through what type of person you are. If you’re relaxed, chilled and generally take things in your stride then creating your own wedding flowers is more likely to be the lovely experience you’re hoping for.
If you’re prone to getting a bit stressed, or you’re a perfectionist then creating your own wedding flowers might be one thing too many on top of all of the other jobs. I have seen this happen in reality with DIY-ers which can create more stress as the day approaches. It definitely needs thinking about very honestly before you make your decision. What would your best friend or a close family member say to you?
- Who’s lending a hand?
It’s great to have an army of people willing to help you to arrange your flowers. But as the saying goes, ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’! There are practical limits to how many people can helpfully fit around a table to arrange flowers. You also want to achieve a co-ordinated look so having too many different styles of arranging might not work. Finally, these are your flowers so having people to help who ‘get’ this and won’t railroad you into something you don’t like will be key.
- Mix and match
If you’re starting to panic about how much work / skill is involved in arranging your own flowers, but you still really, really want to give it a go then you could look for a mix and match approach.
This is where you arrange some of the flowers yourself – such as posies for the tables at the venue – and find a florist who will arrange your bridal bouquet, bridesmaid’s bouquets etc for you.
This can give you the best of both worlds, taking away the most highly skilled, time consuming and probably most stressful parts of the job leaving you free to concentrate on the others.
I hope this is a useful guide to help you to think through whether arranging your own wedding flowers is the right choice for you.
If you do decide to go for it, then my next blog will go cover some of the practical questions you may want help with, such as how many flowers you’ll actually need.
And in the meantime, if you have any questions at all, or would like to visit the flower farm or order flower buckets then please contact me!
Pew end decoration 
Late spring bridal bouquet 
Autumn bridal bouquet