How to Make a Wedding Bouquet: Flowers, Seasons, Where to Buy and a Simple Timeline

To make a wedding bouquet, pick one or two sturdy focal flowers, a filler and some greenery, buy them two days before the wedding, and gather them into either a loose hand-tied shape or a round posy held with tape and ribbon. If you would rather do it weeks ahead, make it from faux flowers instead, and either way you spend a fraction of the $200 to $400 a florist usually charges for a medium bouquet (Paperlust).

It is honestly one of the friendliest DIY jobs of the whole wedding. You need no special talent, just good flowers, a bucket of water and an hour of calm. Here is what to decide first, so the making part feels easy.

Fresh or faux: decide this first

Everything else depends on this choice, so start here.

Fresh flowers smell lovely and look natural in photos. The catch is timing: you buy them two days before and make the bouquet the day before, right when everything else is happening too.

Faux flowers can be done a month early, travel well, survive heat and can sit on a shelf afterwards. Our faux flower bridal bouquet costs $30.06 to make. A ready-made faux bouquet is about $39.99, so you save under $10. Make it for the fun and the control over every stem, not to save money.

A mix works too. Some couples use faux roses as the base and tuck in a few fresh stems of eucalyptus on the morning.

Choosing flowers that hold up

A bouquet spends hours out of water in warm hands, so pick flowers that forgive that. Think in three layers:

• Focal flowers. The ones people notice: roses, spray roses, carnations, lisianthus, dahlias, ranunculus. Five to nine stems is plenty for a medium bouquet.
• Filler. Small flowers that fill gaps and soften the shape: baby's breath, waxflower, alstroemeria, statice.
• Greenery. Eucalyptus, ruscus or pittosporum. It makes a bouquet look full for very little money and gives it that relaxed, garden feel.

Skip the divas for a DIY bouquet. Hydrangeas wilt fast out of water, and peonies can open too early or too late. If you love one, use one or two stems and keep everything around them tough.

What's in season

Flowers that are in season are cheaper, fresher and easier to find in bulk. Paperlust notes that in-season blooms cost less to source because they skip the import markup (Paperlust).

Season	Good bouquet flowers
Spring	Tulips, ranunculus, sweet peas, anemones, early peonies
Summer	Garden roses, sunflowers, dahlias, lisianthus, cosmos
Fall	Dahlias, chrysanthemums, amaranthus, rose hips, dried grasses
Winter	Roses, carnations, amaryllis, eucalyptus, pine and berries

Carnations, spray roses, alstroemeria and baby's breath are available almost all year, which makes them the safest base whatever your date.

Where to buy the flowers

You have more choice than you might think:

• Grocery stores. The easiest option. Walmart sells a bunch of 8 mini carnations for $4.97 and a small bunch of baby's breath for $4.97 (Walmart, Walmart). Trader Joe's, Costco and Aldi are worth a look too.
• Wholesale flower markets. Bigger bunches and better variety. Many sell to the public on certain days, so call first.
• Your local florist, for stems only. Plenty of florists will sell you loose stems if you ask, even if they will not make the bouquet.
• Craft stores and IKEA for faux. IKEA's SMYCKA white dahlia costs $0.69 a stem (IKEA), and craft stores often run flower sales.

Buying for the tables at the same time? Our grocery store table flowers use the same kind of bunches, so you can plan one shopping trip for everything and use the leftovers in the bouquet. For a full flower plan for 100 guests, see our guide to cheap wedding flowers.

Hand-tied or posy?

These are the two shapes most DIY brides choose, and both are easy to learn.

A posy is round, tight and tidy. The flowers sit close together in a neat dome and the stems are wrapped all the way down in ribbon. It looks classic, holds its shape and works well with roses and carnations. Since it is compact, it needs fewer stems than you would think.

A hand-tied bouquet is looser and more natural, with greenery spilling out at the sides and stems of different heights. It feels relaxed and garden-like, and it forgives small mistakes because nothing has to be perfectly even. It usually needs more greenery and a little more space in the hand.

Not sure? Hold a few stems in front of a mirror in your dress style. A big, loose bouquet suits a flowing dress, and a small posy suits a sleek or short one.

Matching pieces for the rest of the party

Once you have the flowers, the small extras are quick to make from the same bunches:

• Boutonnieres. Our DIY boutonnieres cost $3.75 each, against about $14.69 ready-made, and use a single bloom with a bit of greenery.
• A flower crown. A fresh baby's breath flower crown is $12.98 to make, where a florist charges about $78.
• Bridesmaid bouquets. Smaller versions of yours, or just three stems tied with ribbon. Florists charge $80 to $150 each (Paperlust), so this is a real saving if you have a big party.

Keeping a fresh bouquet fresh

Most wilting happens because flowers get thirsty or warm. A few habits make a big difference:

• When you get the flowers home, cut the stems at an angle and put them in deep, cool water straight away.
• Strip any leaves that would sit below the water line.
• Keep everything somewhere cool and dark, away from fruit and direct sun.
• After making the bouquet, stand it in a vase of water overnight and until the moment you walk out the door.
• Between the ceremony and the photos, ask a friend to put it back in water. A glass from the bar is fine.

A simple timeline

• 6 to 8 weeks before: Decide fresh or faux, pick your colors and save a few photos of bouquets you like.
• 4 weeks before: Buy faux flowers and make a faux bouquet. For fresh, buy one bunch of each flower and do a practice run.
• 1 week before: Call your store or market and order or reserve your flowers.
• 2 days before: Pick up fresh flowers, cut the stems and let them drink.
• The day before: Make the bouquet, the boutonnieres and the crown. Keep them all cool overnight.
• The day: Dry the stems, add the ribbon and hand the bouquet over with a towel.

To fit this into the rest of your planning, see our DIY wedding planning timeline.

When DIY is not worth it

Be honest with yourself here. If the two days before your wedding are already packed, a fresh DIY bouquet adds stress you do not need. Choose faux, or order just the bouquet from a florist and make everything else yourself. Big cascading bouquets also need wiring and practice, so if that is the look you want, it is the one piece worth paying for.

For ceremony flowers that can be made weeks ahead, look at our altar flower swags. They are $32.43 a pair and move easily to the head table afterwards. Our guide to ceremony decor on a budget covers the rest of the aisle and altar.

Whatever you choose, the bouquet that ends up in your photos will be one you picked, held and maybe even made with your own hands. That is a lovely thing to look back on.