"Pardon me, can I prune your hydrangea bush?"

I always knew that I wanted to use hydrangeas for the wedding bouquets and centerpieces.  Since I made the boutonnieres ahead of time, I thought it would be great to go ahead and make the bouquets and centerpieces early too.   That was until I found out how much it cost to buy decent fake hydrangea stems...   So, I decided to talk with local florists on buying the stems and arranging them myself.  $10.00 for 1 stem?  No thanks!   I quickly found out that the best place to buy hydrangea stems (and any type of flower really) is Costco!   You can order flowers online and have them delivered.  Or, you can pick them up at your local Costco.  

A few days before the wedding, I decided to chance it in hopes that Costco (or Sams) would have blue and white hydrangea stems, white roses, and baby's breath...  Which is totally not like me... The worst case scenario plan ahead type of person that I am.

However, two days before the wedding, my future husband called and said "You're not going to believe this, but there is a huge blue hydrangea bush in full bloom outside of a company close to my work!"  (It is very unusual for hydrangeas to bloom in South Carolina at the end of October).

The day before the wedding, my mom and I got some hedge trimmers, buckets, and sweet southern charm, and went to the company.  I walked into the office, told them I was getting married the next day, and asked if I could possibly trim some of the blooms off of their hydrangea bush.  They told me to go for it.  And boy did I!  These bushes were FILLED with huge blue blooms.  I completely packed the entire back of my car and the bushes still had plenty of blooms on them (I wish I had taken a picture!).  Some friends of ours also let us cut some of their hydrangeas.  They had several bushes that had different colored blooms on them.  (See below)

I used these as centerpieces for the bridal party tables. 

The night before the wedding, after our rehearsal, my mom, one of my bridesmaids, my aunt (wedding director), and I, all worked in my parent's garage making the bouquets until 11:30.  We cut the stems to the desired length, bunched them together, wrapped them with sticky floral tape (like used for the boutonniere tutorial), wrapped ribbon around them, and used pearl straight pins down the side for extra hold and decorative purposes. 

For the mothers and grandmothers, I simply used one hydrangea bloom stem and tied a bow around it with ribbon in the wedding colors.  Simple and pretty!

We did purchase the white roses (Costco) and baby's breath (Ingles grocery store) and spent a whopping $35 total on all of the flowers for the ceremony and reception.  

You don't have to spend a ton on flowers!  It isn't necessary!  

There are plenty of gorgeous flowers and greenery options that you can use in your area.  Don't buy greenery!  Trim some hedges and cut blooming branches off of trees.  You're saving money by doing this and you have the added bonus of doing yard work at the same time!  :)