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When we first heard that you could do your own wedding flowers, we'll admit, we were pretty surprised. But after our friend Julia did her own flowers for her wedding last September, we were totally sold! Now she's telling us exactly how she did it. Deciding to order and arrange our own flowers for our wedding was a great idea for us, but it may not work for every wedding. We were planning a destination wedding in northern Michigan, a few states away from where we live and several hours from where our families live, so we really had to consider the logistics of how DIY wedding flowers would work! Here are some questions to ask yourself before you commit to doing your own flowers.
Will you have the space to assemble and store the flowers? 
We were able to use space within a house my siblings rented for the week of the wedding to assemble the flowers and store them in a cool place out of direct sunlight. Will you have time to assemble the bouquets? The week of the wedding is busy for any couple - we had to make sure we would have a few hours to cut and arrange the bouquets, centerpieces, and boutonnieres we were planning to make. 
Can you rally the troops to help you? 
Thankfully, family and bridal party members stepped up to help us unpack, assemble, and transport the flowers. 
What will be your backup plan? 
One of the reasons we decided to DIY our flowers was because there weren't many affordable florist options in the small  town where we were getting married...which also meant there weren't going to be a ton of backup options if something went wrong with our DIY flowers. Fortunately, the online wholesalers we ordered from offered various types of guarantees on their flowers, so be sure to ask your wholesaler what its satisfaction guarantee is!
After making the decision to DIY your wedding flowers, the next step is the fun part -- deciding what flowers to use!
If you're ordering from an online wholesaler, your choices are almost endless -- most flowers come in a variety of colors, shades, and sizes. However, different flowers are in season at different points during the year. Peonies, for example, are really beautiful and popular, but you will pay a premium for them unless your wedding is in late spring when they are in season. Other things to think about when selecting your flowers: 
What exactly am I DIYing? 
Just because you decide you want to DIY your wedding flowers does not mean you have to DIY everything! We chose to order corsages for our mothers and grandmothers from the local florist because, while we felt comfortable assembling simple bouquets, making a corsage was above our pay grade! Consider whether you want to make bouquets, centerpieces, corsages, boutonnieres, other arrangements, or some combination thereof. 
What should my bouquet look like? 
This is probably the most daunting decision because there are so many pretty options. Decide what look you are going for and browse wedding flowers online to get a sense for what types of flowers you'd like to work with. We went with monochromatic flowers in shades of ivory and each bouquet was a little different. What size bouquet(s) am I making? I planned to have 25-30 stems in my bouquet and 18-23 stems in each bridesmaid bouquet, but there is no hard and fast rule for the ideal size of a bouquet. Order more flowers than you think you will need so you have some wiggle room if you make a mistake.
Kellee Khalil
About The Author
Kellee Khalil is the Founder & CEO of Loverly. She lives in upstate NY with her fiancé and two dogs.
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