Saving Money with Fifty Flowers

Special thanks to FiftyFlowers.com for providing me with the flowers for this post and for our upcoming wedding!

This week I’m sharing wedding planning and projects. Today, I want to share with you how we’re saving money with my new friends over at FiftyFlowers.com.  They are also offering my readers a 10% discount on all orders before July 1!  Scroll down for the discount code.

I’m sure many of you know, planning a wedding can get EX-PEN-SIVE!  Our budget isn’t very big but so far we’ve been able to stay in it.  My husband asked me if I was going to do a blog post on “how to plan a wedding on a small budget”.  When the whole thing is said and done…we’ll see.  It may depend on how well I actually do accomplishing that task. HA!    

We, along with lots of help from family and friends, are doing most of the food and decorations ourselves….including all the flowers.  Food I feel pretty confident about….decorations….well, thankfully, Grandma (my MIL) will be here in a few days to help with that.  Flowers….I’ve been practicing.  To my surprise they’ve been easier than I thought and turned out pretty well…some better than expected!  Not to mention, we’re saving a bundle with FiftyFlowers.com!

In case you haven’t heard of them, I’ll give you a quick run-down.  

Fifty Flowers is an easily navigated website offering “Beautiful Blooms and Wholesale Prices”….delivered right to your front door….with FREE shipping!  Seriously, with all that goes into planning a big event like a wedding, having things delivered to my house is THE BOMB!  The fact that it’s free just makes it even better, especially when you’re trying to save money. AND the flowers really are high quality and BEAUTIFUL!!!

Here’s how it works….

I visited the website and chose from hundreds of varieties of flowers.  

I chose the Beautiful 50 Rose Wedding Pack since I was going to practice several types of arrangements.  

My kit included 2 colors (25 of each) of roses (we chose red and white),  

A LARGE quantity of Baby’s Breath

Leather Leaf, Lily Grass and Tree Fern.  

I was able to order in advance and set my delivery date, which was great for planning ahead.  A day or so after ordering I received a call from Katie, a very nice and quite knowledgable customer service rep from Fifty Flowers.  She reviewed my order with me and explained how and when the flowers would arrive and what to do once they got here.  She gave me her number and told me to call back with any questions once the flowers arrived.

The day before arrival, I received a text reminding me they would be coming.  It’s important to make sure someone is home when they arrive.  

Sure enough, the next morning they arrived…earlier than I expected!  I received another text telling me my flowers had arrived.  I was surprised because I hadn’t heard a delivery truck or anyone at the door.  When I opened the front door, sure enough, there they were.  Before I could get the flowers inside my phone rang.  It was a recorded message from Fifty Flowers telling me the flowers had been delivered and step by step instructions of what to do next.  

The flowers are cut while the blooms are tight then shipped overnight.  When they arrive you find they have been carefully packed in a nice sturdy box.  

Here’s what to do when the flowers arrive….

• Prepare buckets of water (3-4 inches) with Fresh Flower Food (from your local florist or online) or use recipe for homemade Flower Food at bottom
• Carefully remove roses from box but NOT wrapping (Other flowers may have packing removed first)

• Cut each stem on a diagonal at about a 45 degree angle (this allows the flowers to be able to hydrate well)
• Remove any leaves that will be below the water line (this is VERY important as it helps eliminate bacteria growth)

• Place in prepared water

• Now, remove wrapping roses were shipped in
• Don’t crowd, they need room to open

• Remove guard petals (the 3-4 large outside pedals of each rose) 

• These may be stored in the refrigerator 3-5 days in an airtight container with a dry paper towel on top.  We’ll be using them for the flower girl and reception decorations
• Flowers should be stored in a cool dark place and will take 2-3 days to open nicely and be ready to use.  Take this into consideration when ordering.  Warm rooms with more light will cause flowers to open faster.  I stored them in our study, with the curtains closed.  That room is right by the front door so every time I walked into the house I smelled the beautiful aroma of 50 Roses!  

Keep on eye on the water while waiting for your flowers.  They may drink a lot so have some extra fortified water ready to refill when needed.  In a couple of days our roses were perfect for bouquets and boutonnieres!

In case you don’t have Flower Food Here’s a great homemade version:

• 1 gallon water
• 1 (12 oz) can lemon-lime soda – any brand
• 1 Tbsp chlorine bleach

Add all ingredients and stir

Add Flowers

Look for my upcoming posts on How to Make a Rose Boutonniere, Bridal Bouquet and Bridesmaids’ Bouquets.

In the meantime….

FiftyFlowers is offering my readers a 10% discount!  Just use the code OTASTE10 on all orders before July 1, 2016!