Do it Yourself Floral Arrangements for Weddings for Under $20 Each

A good area to attempt to economize at your wedding is table centerpiece arrangements. Here is a simple how to do it yourself wedding table centerpieces. Costco.com does sell rose centerpieces, but they are much more expensive than you might think - they are $399 for six arrangements and they do not look much different than that which you can easily do yourself.

Price around your local floral venues for roses. One of the cheapest options is the roses available at Costco, that are typically $18 for 2 dozen roses. This deal rarely can be beat, but you can try to see if any local competitors will price match. The colors vary, but you can always count on red roses being available. If you prefer another color, you may have to special order in advance. This may cost $139 plus shipping for 125 roses at costco.com in dark, light or bi-color pink roses, orange roses, bi-color orange, yellow, peach, peach and yellow, off-white or rainbow roses. This will give you ten dozen and a few spares. You can probably do one dozen per table centerpiece, but you can always use 18 to 24 roses per arrangement is you have enough roses.

Some Costco's will take reservations in advance for a set number of roses for no extra fee; others just are a first served first come basis. Inquire as to what your Costco does. A day or two before the wedding, purchase the roses from your local Costco. You can always remove a few outside dead or damaged petals, but for the best quality roses, try squeezing the rose bud and make sure it is firm and not mushy inside. Also check the stem just below the bud and make sure it is strong enough to hold up the head to make sure your roses look fresh when they open in a few days. You might want to get an extra bunch in case you make a mistake or a vase breaks or some roses wilt so that you can replace roses that do not bloom. If a rose does wilt or does not open, pull off all the petals and use these for the flower girls basket or strewn them around the table centerpieces you make or use them to decorate around the cake table, place card setting table, or other focal point. There are about 40 - 50 petals per rose depending on your decorating needs, a full $18 two dozen rose batch can get you up to 1,200 petals to decorate your wedding reception area with.

Put them in warmer water if you want to speed up how fast they open the day of the wedding, but keep them in cool water if you do not want them to open anymore. Otherwise, keep the flowers at about 35 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Avoid extreme temperatures when you transport the flowers, air conditioning might be helpful; on the way over of the car is any warmer than 75 degrees. The colder the storage space, the better to conserve the flowers. Do not freeze the flowers; the heads will wilt when they thaw.

Before the wedding, look for vases on eBay, tag sales and estate sales, flea markets, or craft stores. A simple clear ginger vase should run you less than $10 at stores like Target or Michael's Craft. People often sell their vases that they got when someone sent them flowers, so you may be able to get matching ones on eBay or tag sales. Assess if the vase is the right width and height for your roses, the vase should be two thirds as high as the flowers in the vase.

You will want to keep your roses in tact while you transport them to the reception site. To do so, you will want a frog. This video shows you how to make a frog step by step.

If you have any flowers in your garden, you can add them to the arrangements or leave them as just classic roses that look very presentable for your wedding. If you wish to add some color or texture to a clear vase, consider the colored clear glass marbles (you can coordinate to your wedding colors) or gather small smooth pebbles or even sea glass or sea shells.

Have a large box and bubble wrap to transport the roses in their vases, leave plenty of room per box to protect the vases and arrangements. This will likely take having the boxes seat belted in on the back seat and the floor as well as the front seat. Depending on the size of your reception, you might need multiple trips or multiple people.

You total cost will be your vase (hopefully less than $10 per vase) and one dozen roses are $9 each, so for about $20 you can do your wedding table centerpieces. For more ideas for wedding floral savings, read the article How to Save money on your wedding flowers.