Flowers, part 2

After the bitter disappointment relayed in my first flower post, I had to come to terms with reality and start looking at what was actually available. So, the florist and I talked about what I could actually get, and it wasn't too bad. There would still be a bunch of different kinds of mums and carnations that could be the (cheap) base of the bouquets. Sunflowers could still be in the mix and there was a brushy looking filler called limonium (I think) that could add texture. We decided to add some alstromeira, because they're cheap and are different from the mums and carnations. I'm also considering dried eucalyptus that I am assuming is also dyed as it comes in a deep brown color.

Armed with that knowledge I headed to Trader Joe's (still wish we had those in Texas) and got some flowers to see what these bouquets would look like. I was able to find sunflowers, what I think is limonium, alstromeira and mums. Of course TJ's had celosia thrown in their bouquets, but I had to make these without that, because I haven't sourced it yet (though I'm still trying).

Here's what I ended up with for a grand total of $17, see why I wish there was a TJ's in Texas.

I started off with the bouts and corsages. I followed this tutorial. The only things I did differently were to wrap the wire around the flowers instead of through the stems and when I wrapped the ribbon around the stems, I used smaller pins at the bottom to secure the ribbon ends (you can sort of see the small blue and purple pinheads at the bottoms of the two on the left).

I'm thinking the two on the left are good for the guys and the third from the left is my favorite for the ladies. I've got them in the fridge now to see how well they hold up, so far so good.

And here are the bouquets I made. I really like the limonium and the unwrapped ends. They look like they were just gathered from the field and are still warm from the sun.

I think this would be good for a flower girl or to be used as a table arrangement. Our vases don't have super wide openings, so they can't hold a ton of flowers.
This one might be good for the bridesmaids, but I feel like they should get sunflowers too, I just ran out.

Here's what I imagine my bridal bouquet will look like, except I think I'd go slightly larger and add more of the limonium (brushy stuff).And this is my craft fail. I was attempting pomanders for the flower girls, but they take a lot of flowers, I ran out of yellow after this was half done. They also don't seem as sturdy as some of the other things I made, you've got to handle the flowers fairly roughly to get them in place.

Now, my next dilemna is: to pay for someone to make corsages, bouts and bouquets or just order a bunch of flowers, save a couple hundred and have a lot of flowers to take care of the day before the wedding.

I've got about 10-12 bouts, 5-6 corsages, my bouquet, 4 bridesmaid's bouquets, 4 flowergirl bouquets or wrist corsages and 20 table arrangements. I'll definitely have some helpers for these projects, but how hectic has it been for you other DIY florists out there?