How to DIY Affordable Wedding Flowers from Trader Joe's- 5 Easy Steps

BRIDES!

You don't have to spend $1000-3,000 on flowers! The reason why flowers are so expensive is because you are mainly paying for the florist's time to arrange them and keep them alive.

But I'm here to tell you that I successfully made all my wedding flowers and spent only a fraction of what I would have paid if I had them professionally done. And the best part? IT WASN'T HARD! Thankfully after watching several amazing YouTube tutorials, I felt confident enough to go out on a limb and put my DIY skills to the test.

So how did they turn out? See for yourself all my beautiful bridesmaids and our bouquets!! (Also, shout out to Tommy & Emily Tran for all the incredible photography!)

I was absolutely blown away with the final results! Before my wedding I had never made a floral arrangement before, so I had no idea just how easy making a bouquet is! After I watched Michael Gaffney's tutorials on his channel, I felt so confident that I could pull off a DIY flower wedding. The hardest part in the whole process was decided which flowers I actually wanted. But before that stage, you need to decide for yourself if you think you could pull this off, so:

STEP 1: Get comfortable with the process of how a bouquet is made

After watching this tutorial, as well as others on his channel, decide for yourself if you think you want to do this the week of your wedding. Though making an arrangement is easy, it does take a good chunck of time to make if you have a lot of arrangements. I decided to do all my flowers DIY, so that included my bridal bouquet, 8 bridesmaids bouquets, 8 boutonnieres, 15 centerpieces, 2 large arrangements for the ceremony, a cocktail hour welcome room arrangement, and a gorgeous Mr. & Mrs. table (click here to see how to DIY this light-up love sign). However, the ceremony flowers and Mr. & Mrs. table had to be set up the day of at the venue, so you'd definitely have to have someone willing to help with those if you do extra flowers like I did.

As for the regular bouquets, boutonnieres and centerpieces, those can easily be made beforehand! But I highly recommend seeing how many hands you can get to help make these several days before your wedding. If you have several bridesmaids in town early, don't be afraid to put them to work, most likely they would love to help!

So, if you still think you want to go this route, it's time to move on to the next step!

STEP 2: Decide on your wedding flowers

Like I mentioned before, this was the hardest part for me. Thankfully Trader Joe's was right down the road for me so I purchased several different flowers and gave it a test run before I really knew what I wanted. If you've never been to Trader Joe's before, then you're in for a treat! When you walk in, you see all the gorgeous, fresh flowers they have to offer! You might be wondering why Trader Joe's? It's because after a ton of research, I found this was the absolute BEST PRICE possible for wholesale flowers for what I wanted. Where else can you get 12 roses for $6.99?!

FLOWERS I USED:

Here is a shot of the flowers I had in my parents living room right after we picked them up from Trader Joe's! Of course, the time of year you're getting married will determine the available flower selection you'll have to choose from. My wedding was in August, so the following flowers would be available for a summer wedding:

Here's a list of what you're seeing and how I decided to use them:

25 sets of Hydrangeas (3 stems in a set)
35 bunches of Baby's Breath
10 sets of White Roses (12 stems each)
7 sets of Blush Spray Roses (6 stems total, but average 3 heads on each stem)
8 bunches of Eucalyptus Baby Blue
6 bunches of Eucalyptus

Bridal & Bridesmaids Bouquets: Hydrangeas, Baby's Breath, White Roses, Blush Spray Roses, Eucalyptus

Boutonnieres: White rose and Eucalyptus Baby Blue

Centerpieces: Hydrangeas, Baby's Breath, White Roses, Blush Spray Roses, Eucalyptus Baby Blue

Large Ceremony Arrangements: Tons of greenery filler from my backyard bushes, Baby's Breath, White Roses, Blush Spray Roses, Eucalyptus & and Lillies

Mr. & Mrs. Table: Baby's Breath, White Roses, Blush Spray Roses, Eucalyptus & and greenery filler from my backyard bushes.

STEP 3: Buy the additional products you'll need for your arrangements

So if you haven't watched the tutorials yet, you may be wondering, but how will the flowers stay alive by the day of my wedding?! The answer is CROWNING GLORY!!! This product literally works wonders and makes flowers last and look lush for much longer - I made my flowers on Thursday before my Sunday wedding, and they still had a whole week after before they even began to start losing it's color. This product is used by the professional florists and they swear by it!

OTHER PRODUCTS YOU'LL NEED:

Floral Shears - Regular scissors will do if you're willing to ruin them and be frustrated, but I highly recommend purchasing professional grade floral scissors if you want to make the job faster. They are specifically made for cutting and trimming flowers.
Flower wire & Flower tape - You will need flower wire and flexible green stem wrap to hold everything in place after you have finished creating the bouquet. First the sturdy and durable floral wire, then the self-sealing tape will cover the wire and make everything stay tightly in place.
White Satin 1 1/2 inch ribbon - You will then wrap the satin ribbon, or whatever ribbon/cloth you decide, around the middle section of the flower, covering where the green tape is for the finished bridal look.
White Pearl Corsage Pins - You will need these pins for the boutonnieres as well as pinning the ribbon down on the bouquets.
Hemp String/Twine - These can be wrapped around the boutonniere stems if you prefer. If you do go this route, you'll also need a hot glue gun to hold the string in place.
Crowning Glory Flower Spray - This is an ABSOLUTE MUST - without this, all your efforts to save money are for not! It works wonders and made my florals look perfect on my bid day!

Click the photos below in order to view the current prices on Amazon:

STEP 4: Place your order with Trader Joe's

You can go in person or call ahead of time to place your order. You have to give yourself at least 7 business days before the official date you want to pick them up by! I called a month before just to double check they could do everything I wanted and then I called the week before my wedding to actually place my official order.

When it's finally time to pick up your flowers from Trader Joe's, make sure you have a way to transport the flowers without them getting ruined! When I got there, we brought a few tubs just to keep everything from moving around, but Trader Joe's let me keep the buckets the flowers were in and they already had all my flowers set aside and ready for me. They were in 4 different shopping carts near the check out and everything was just super easy! I really had no complaints with the whole process and I highly recommend it for brides who are on a budget!

STEP 5: Make your arrangements

Last but not least, it's finally time to make your arrangements! Have a blast and enjoy the creative process but DO NOT FORGET TO SPRAY THEM WITH CROWNING GLORY!

(Here is another helpful tutorial no how to make centerpieces!)

I hope this information helped and may your wedding day be as happy as mine was!! Good luck with all the planning and may God bless your marriage in this exciting new season!!