Flowers from Sam's Club for wedding

We spent a little over $300 on fresh flowers and we had them everywhere in the church and reception hall. We even had bouquets in the bathrooms. The reason we were able to afford so many flowers is because we ordered them in bulk from Sam's Club and I arranged them myself. Having the same amount of flowers done by a floral shop would have cost at least a couple thousand - probably more. Of course mine don't look as nice as a professionals, but I was happy with how they turned out. Good enough for me :)

If you haven't read this post from last fall, please do. I think flower arranging is a great skill that anyone can learn. Keep scrolling to see pictures and my flower plan.

I recommend going to Sam's in person and talking to the worker in charge of the floral department. They should have a list of flowers that they get in on a regular basis and those should be cheaper than some of the more exotic/seasonal flowers that you see on their website. We picked our flowers up from the store on the Thursday before our Saturday wedding which saved us from paying shipping costs. Make sure you have large buckets. When you get home, cut about an inch off the tips of each stem and fill the buckets with water and plant food. Sam's should send you with plant food.

Below is my flower plan. It will probably be hard to understand, but I hope it gives you a starting point. It's really important to come up with a plan before ordering. We did have a lot of leftover flowers so we created many more bouquets than what you see in the below plan. Better to have too many than not enough. We used every single stem.

Flowers to Order from Sam’s

Contact Jo An Rix (north Lincoln, NE store)

402-438-3540

jarix.s06413.us@samsclub.com

25 - 12’ tables

6 – branches

10 – flower  - 3 roses, 5 carnations, 2 mini = 30 roses, 50 carnations, 20 mini

9 – baby’s breath - 6 stems each = 54 stems

4 cocktail tables

2 – flower - 2 roses, 1 mini = 4 roses, 2 mini

2 – baby’s breath – 4 stems each = 8 stems

7 round tables

4 – flower - 3 roses, 5 carnations, 2 mini = 12 roses, 20 carnations, 8 mini

3 – baby’s breath – 6 stems each = 18 stems

Church

13 – baby’s breath – 4 stems each = 52 stems

2 – alter flowers – 6 roses, 4 carnations, 3 mini = 12 roses, 8 carnations, 6 mini

1 – guest book flowers = 5 roses, 7 carnations, 2 mini

Bouquets

1 – flower (Jenna) = 12 roses, 7 carnations, 1 mini

5 – baby’s breath – 5 stems each = 25 stems

(toss bouquet – use 1 of the bridemaids’)

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20 flower bouquets total

32 baby’s breath bouquets total needing 157 stems (23 stems left over for filler)

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Pricing

# to Order   Type                                                   Qty per Order                       Price

1                      White Roses                                     75                                             $59.82

1                      Pink Carnations                                100                                           $36.88

1                      Pink Mini Carnations                       100                                           $36.88

2 (maybe 3?) Million Star Gyp (baby’s breath) 12 bunches (180 stems)   $99.76

1                      Salal (greenery)                                5 bunches (125 stems)             $35.22

                                                                                                                                  $268.56

                                                             (or $318.38 if order another bunch of baby’s breath)

**Have them come in Thursday

We also picked up leatherleaf at the store which is a great filler. The reason we didn't order it with the rest is because we didn't need that much. It was cheaper and made more sense to grab a couple bunches at the store. 

The flowers held up really well! The baby's breath and carnations lasted over three weeks! It's very important that you buy hardy flowers that won't wilt.

If you have time, take a floral class so that you feel comfortable working with flowers and aren't stressing that weekend. At the very least, do a bunch of research online. This diy project is not for the faint of heart. It's time consuming so make sure you recruit your crafty friends and relatives to help. 

Here's a blurry pic of my bridesmaids and I working on flowers Friday morning.

Of course, you don't have to do this on the scale that I did. If you just want to create a few arrangements it should be easy peasy ;)

The only fake flowers we used were for the corsages and boutonnieres. These are somewhat time consuming and I was afraid real flowers might die on me. I purchased silk flowers from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. We spent around $60 for 22 of these making them approximately $2.72 each. Having these done at a florist cost $10-$20 each on average - crazy! I basically hot glued the leaves and filler flowers to the main flower and then wrapped them with floral tape and ribbon.

The two on the left are for the wrist. The one on the right is for the chest.

My grandma and personal attendant wearing theirs.

Hosts wearing theirs.

I will leave you with a few more pics of our real flowers to give you a better idea. Please let me know if you have any questions. If you do your research and practice, I promise you can do this too and save a lot of money!

Baby's breath lining the aisle.

You can't really tell in the picture, but along the sides of the church on the shelves by the windows, are bouquets of mini carnations that were created from leftover stems.

Two bouquets at the front of the church by the alter. You'll want to use floral foam to create these instead of vases.

We had extra salal (the greenery that you see to the left of my head) so we stuck it in floral foam. There was another one on the other side that you can't see in the picture.

P.S. Here are the wedding saving posts from the past couple of weeks:

DIY pocket squares for wedding
Wedding dress for less
DIY burlap wrapped koozies for wedding favors
Painted tuna cans as candle holders
Milk cans + branches + white lights for wedding reception lighting
Ball jars as candle holders
Learn to do updos for events

Wedding wrap-up