In part two of this series, learn how to host a brunch party for arranging DIY wedding flowers.

This post was sponsored by FiftyFlowers. Thank you for supporting brands that make Zen and Spice possible!

Last week, I shared the first post in this series about how my sister and I arranged her wedding flowers ourselves! We worked with FiftyFlowers – an online wholesale flower supplier. Our experience could not have gone smoother, from the one-on-one consult with a florist, to ordering, delivery, and arranging! If you are looking to save money on your wedding, I highly encourage you to check out FiftyFlowers and consider arranging the floral yourself. You will save thousands of dollars as compared to hiring a local florist, and this is more fun! 

If you need to catch up, be sure to read the first post. I talk all about ordering, delivery, and preparing flowers for arranging, including supplies you’ll need and details about the floral we ordered. So once we had all of our floral delivered and set up in buckets, it was ready for the party! 

We scheduled the floral arranging party to be Friday morning– one day before the wedding. We invited Leslie’s bridesmaids, our mom, grandma, aunts, cousins, and friends and bribed them with breakfast and mimosas. Make sure you define a start time and depending on how many arrangements you’re doing, schedule 4-6 hours. I think we spent almost 5 hours, including cleaning up the mess afterward. 

We offered breakfast to those who came to help. We went with a vegan overnight french toast, fruit salad, and a vegan quiche my mom brought. My sister is vegan, so we kept everything plant-based, but here are some non-plant based suggestions: 

Prepare as much as you can the night before, so you’re not worrying about food the morning of the party. We made our overnight French toast and the fruit salad ahead of time, so all we had to do was pull the toast casserole out of the fridge to bake, and set out the fruit salad! 

We also had a mimosa station. We offered the traditional orange juice and pomegranate juice for those who wanted a “pomosa”! Make sure to include enough glasses for everyone, and a non-alcoholic option. We set out some raspberry lemonade. Coffee was also brewing with plenty of creamer and sugars to choose from. 

Everyone really enjoyed the food and drink! We spent about 45 minutes eating and chatting before getting down to work. 

One of my mom’s friends used to be a florist, so she was extremely helpful when it came to making the boutineers and corsages. Use these guides online to help you make the boutineers and wrist corsages. The boutineers were simple, the wrist corsages are what took the longest, they’re more complicated. It helps if you know someone who has made these before! We set Cindy up at the table with plenty of floral tape, wire, hot glue gun, and the corsage wristlets from FiftyFlowers.

The rest of us got to work on the bridesmaids’ bouquets and Leslie’s bridal bouquet. We used my planning spreadsheet for each arrangement to know how much of each flower to use. I designated one person to each bouquet to gather all of the flowers, and we took turns holding them while another person used floral wire and tape to gather the stems at the base. Be sure to include plenty of different shapes, colors, and textures in your bouquet for interest. The bridesmaids’ bouquet below has several different types of roses, a mum, and a few different colored ranunculus, in addition to eucalyptus and ruscus. Keep the greenery towards the outside of the arrangement for that flowy look.

Here’s the bride with her bouquet! We included quite a bit of stems for this one. Lots of roses, ranunculus, several mums, ruscus, and eucalyptus. It turned out so beautiful! 

We divided up the rest of the stems into arrangements for the aisle, tables, centerpieces, bar top, cake table, etc. We had planned where each and every stem would go ahead of time. I would definitely recommend using the spreadsheet linked above to plan this out ahead of time. It will make arranging go by so much quicker and you’ll have less waste. Not to mention it will help you order just what you need! 

We transported everything to the venue the night before, except for the boutineers and corsages. We kept these in boxes covered with damp paper towels in the fridge and brought them the day of the wedding. 

You can spritz the boutineers and corsages with a little bit of water the morning of the event if needed, but they should hold up in the fridge overnight.

On the day of the wedding, we arrived at the venue early to set out all of the arrangements. Since we brought everything the night before, it was easy to set things out where they needed to be. We had our whole team of bridesmaids and several other ladies helping us out and got the arrangements up in no time. 

The flowers turned out gorgeous and we were so happy! My sister saved so much money doing the flowers herself, and to be honest, I don’t think you can tell a difference between our work and the work of a local florist ;). I always joke that I’d be happy to quit my current career as a dietitian to just become a floral arranger full time. It’s so fun! 

Here are a few more photos from the wedding day for you to enjoy! 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)

 

I am so happy my sister and I were able to go through this experience not once, but twice! We arranged the flowers for my wedding three years ago, and now, we were able to do hers! We can’t thank FiftyFlowers enough for working with us both times, they were a phenomenal partner. If you are ever in the need of fresh flowers, please check them out! And of course, if you or anyone you know is getting married soon, consider doing the floral yourselves. It’ll be more affordable, gorgeous, and most importantly, fun! 

Photo by Abbie Mae Photography (https://www.abbiemaephoto.com/)