How Many Flowers Do You Buy?

How many flowers do you buy if you are going to make your own wedding flowers? Draw a map of both the ceremony and reception locations. On that map, draw where you would like the flowers to go. Then make a list of all the arrangements, bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres you will need.

If you are going to have simple arrangements on the tables at the reception, count how many of them you will need. Sit down and think of what will go in one of them. For instance, you may need 5 focal flowers, 15 transitional flowers and 1 ½ bunches of foliage. Multiply the number of flowers needed for each arrangement by the number of how many you need in total.

For your bouquets, sit down and draw them out. Looking at bouquet pictures will really help with this. Count out the flowers in your picture and write down the numbers. For example, your bouquet could have 7 roses, 9 carnations, 9 freesia, 15 miniature roses, ivy, fern, bear grass, and leather leaf.

Do the same thing for your bridesmaids bouquets. Draw them by looking at a picture, count all the flowers and write them down. For instance your bridesmaid bouquets could have 3 roses, 5 miniature roses, 5 carnations, 5 freesia, ivy, bear grass, and leather leaf. Take these numbers and multiply them by as many bridesmaids that you have.

Make a list of all the people who will need a boutonniere. Each of these will need 1 main focal flower and a sprig of foliage. Some people also like to add a small accent such as berries or tiny filler flowers. Calculate how many you will need.

Write down everyone that will need a corsage. Mother of the bride and mother of the groom corsages are usually a bit more special than the others and will therefore need a few more flowers and/or a bit more ribbon. Each corsage generally has a least 3 flowers, each a different size than the other. For example if you are using roses, you would need a tight rose bud, a partially open bud, and a fully open rose. You'll also need some sprigs of greenery and some ribbon. If you want different corsages for different people, draw them to help you write down the number and color of flowers you will need. Add up all the flowers you'll need for all your corsages.

Now add up all the flowers from all the bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and arrangements to get your total. Be sure to hang on to the papers where you drew the pictures of the arrangements, bouquets, and corsages. You'll want these as your guide when it comes time to put them all together. You don't want to cram some arrangements full of flowers and then nearly run out and have others looking very sparse.

Always order extra flowers and foliage. It's better to have too many than to come up short. You can always use and extras to float in bowls, to make a decoration on the cake knife or to make little corsages to decorate the microphone or any solitary candles. You can find places to fill in with little extras.

Do-it-Yourself Wedding Flowers
Learn how to design your own wedding flowers so they look professionally done - right down to the smallest detail.