DIY Flowers: Bouquets and Centerpieces

It never really made sense to me why flowers were supposed to be such a big expense for a wedding. They are expected to die almost immediately and have to be done very close to the ceremony if they are going to be fresh (which is just stressful!)
Not to mention the transport of fresh flowers. Everyone has to carefully move them and be cautious not to knock off any petals or squish them. 

I found all of my flowers at Michael's and Hobby Lobby- they can get expensive quickly if you don't pay attention. I hit up the clearance section (they were moving out a lot of colors!) and of course had coupons. 

My bridesmaids' bouquets cost about 2.99 each. I wrapped the bases with floral tape to give the fake stem a little bit of bulk, and then decorated with coral ribbon and pearl pins for the base. Don't look too bad do they?
(My flowers are real. We splurged for one bouquet....even then I got them from Costco for 60 dollars. This included baby's breath for other decorations)

 We also made these centerpieces. These flowers were roughly 2.99 as well. The venue supplied the majority of our wine bottles (though we do drink wine often!) and I bought the roll of burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby. (probably 6.99?) 


Through the use of a hot glue gun and some sewing, we made little sleeves for each bottle to dress up the center piece. We also found little burlap stickers and decorations that were also glued onto the bottles for some sparkle! The best part about these flowers? I was able to store them in a plastic bag for a month until wedding day. Then afterwards they made perfect party favors for all the little girls at the wedding that wanted to take home a bouquet.

The rest of the center piece included a couple of mason jars with floating candles and river rock at the bottom. The burlap table runner was found at Hobby Lobby and the venue supplied the perfectly color correlated linens.