Hey everyone, I was a 2025 bride who ended up experimenting with all three major floral routes: hiring a high-end professional for our ceremony in Ireland, doing a massive DIY wholesale haul for our Brooklyn celebration, and sourcing faux florals for our court house ceremony. I spent a lot of time going through the receipts and photos this weekend and put together a recap. I wanted to share with the sub as I found a lot of great insights on here and want to pay it forward.

So here is a breakdown of the "Roses and Thorns" of each method, because the aesthetic reality and the logistical reality are often wildly different.

Route 1: The Professional Florist

• The Roses:
  • Total peace of mind and structural magic. You are paying for someone’s years of expertise, sourcing power, and physical labor. Seeing a complex installation come to life while you just get to sip champagne and get ready is an unmatched luxury.
  • It's really fun to collaborate on all the pretty parts and leave the logistics to someone else.
  • They communicated with the venue about load-in, striking and restrictions. I was completely looped out of any of those stressors.
  • It looked AMAZING!!
  • I feel like I got a lot of florals for what I paid. They worked with my budget and gave me great advice on what to spend on to have the most impact and where to pull back.
  • The florals added so much to the overall atmosphere and magic of the day while not causing stress. The photos have a lot more life and texture to them because of the florals.
• The Thorns:
  • The budget footprint. You have to be comfortable paying for that premium labor and the invisible logistics (like transportation, setup, and strike). It is a massive investment in your sanity as much as the aesthetic.
  • Less creative control. I gave inspo and colors but wasn't sure what the final product would actually look like.
  • I didn't like the ribbon they used for button-hole/bouquet. Luckily I had brought additional options and they were able to swap.

Route 2: The DIY

• The Roses:
  • The sheer volume you get for your money! Going straight to the flower market meant being able to afford massive amounts of premium stems.
  • There is a very real sense of pride in seeing your own handiwork on the tables.
  • You get to pick exactly what you want. The outcome felt very unique and special.
  • Thrifting the vessels was super fun.
  • You get to keep the vessels and the arrangements after.
• The Thorns:
  • The brutal, unglamorous logistics. The reality of DIY is waking up at dawn the day before you event, hauling stuff around, investing in snips and buckets and sacrificing an entire day to stripping leaves instead of relaxing with your friends.
  • In retrospect I wish I had hired a few task rabbits to help with the install/strike. It takes longer than you think! We ran behind schedule and it did cause me stress!
  • Safety Note: Candles fall under the florist. Since I did all DIY and no real experience, I didn’t get hurricanes for the candles. That was a mistake a professional wouldn’t have made. Someone’s hair and someone’s blazer caught fire. In my defense the hair one was definitely user error, a guest moved the candle to head level shelf. These are the kinds of risks you run when you go rouge.

Route 3: The Faux Option

• The Roses:
  • Zero wilting anxiety and ultimate reusability. I used high-quality faux tulips for a statement bridal purse, and it was the perfect worry-free accessory that held its shape all day through court house metal detector and paperwork.
  • I mixed faux with real, which by the way is totally allowed and enhances the illusion.
  • I have these in my home still on display.
• The Thorns:
  • The sourcing hustle. Finding faux flowers that look genuinely chic—rather than cheap and plastic—takes research and trial-and-error.
  • No smells associated with the memory. As a big scent person this is a bit of a bummer.

Anyway thats the scoop, happy to answer any questions in the comments!

I really like the marquise band but idk if marquise is for me long term yk ? I thought I was an oval girl but now it looks too round. The moval looks too skinny ? Idk please give advice. I’m so indecisive.

Hi, all!

My partner and I are having a very small, budget-friendly wedding this upcoming September. We're trying to save money—student loans, planning for a family, you all understand—by keeping things small and intimate. This means our guest list, if everyone RSVPs yes (and including my partner and I) is 24 people total.

The hiccup: we're getting married in our local city hall, and then walking down the street to a lovely dinner venue afterwards. City Hall strictly limits the number of people who can be inside for a marriage, so only my partner and I, our two sets of parents, and our officiant are allowed to be present (our parents are our witnesses). I'm not really worried that our other guests will be offended by that—everyone invited is super chill, and our friends who we would like to come to dinner afterwards will understand. We're mostly starting at City Hall because we love how gorgeous the location is, and to take photos.

As opposed to including an all-event RSVP card with the invitation, we're instead enclosing small RSVP inserts which direct folks to our wedding website. (Invitation and RSVP insert attached.) Here, they'll be provided with more details, and when dinner guests enter their names to RSVP, it will only populate the events they're invited to (after-party dinner, farewell brunch at our house) vs. a grayed out ceremony response or something. So I feel pretty confident about our website; it's full of details and explanations about City Hall capacity, and people who aren't being included in the ceremony itself won't have that rubbed in their faces with their RSVP options.

How should I word this on our invitations? It feels awkward to say a start time, since not everybody will be arriving at the same time for the same event. It also feels odd to give a specific location, since not everybody will be congregating there to begin with. Should I just trust the RSVP portion of our website will clear things up, and then make sure people have reminders on the day of? Should I list a ceremony and dinner time? Should I add more to my invites as they are now?

Thanks! 💐

EDIT: I guess I could also make a note of this on the RSVP insert? The same RSVP enclosure, but with a statement like "XXX City Hall strictly limits the number of people who may be present at a wedding to the couple, witnesses, and officiant. Our website link will specify which event to RSVP to." But is this too harsh? I don't want to be tacky!

Hi, everyone! I am a wedding photographer. Me and my boo are getting married 7/7/27. I’m looking for a digital + film photographer with this style. However, I would prefer to edit these myself. I understand this is out of the norm, but I unfortunately cannot take them myself. I would get my photography friend to do so, but I am looking for someone with experience shooting at the SF City Hall. My style is moody/dreamy.

I am willing to supply the SD cards and film. I am also fine processing it myself, just let me know how much you charge to actually take the photos minus film cost.

Would love you there for the ceremony, family photos, + a few pictures inside/outside afterwards.

Looking for:
- A mix of romantic candid + editorial (for formal shots)
- Max 2 hrs of coverage
- Canon shooter, R6 Mark II or R5 and above
- 3 rolls of 35mm film
- More than 3 weddings at SF City Hall

If this is possible, please let me know! Would love a link to your website or socials. Just message me! Would prefer under $2k, but open to higher rates. ($

Wedding decorations $400.00
12 4’’ Candle Holders, 12 3’’ Candle Holders, 12 Votive Candle Holders, 12 Tea Lights, 2 3 1/2 Garland Flowers with a big flower in the middle, 5 25” Garland, 5 Bootineers, 1 Maid of Honor arrangement, 3 Bridesmaids arrangements, Ribbon and other wider ribbon for other flower arrangements or decorations, Material for tables 5 blue and 5 Berry 30” wide and 5’ 28”long, 1 tall vase and 1 Brushed Gold
Arch. Original all over $1200.

I have a shoestring budget and planned accordingly. We planned for a small BBQ reception at a local park with 60 of our family and friends.

I knew the shelter we were renting was popular due to how pretty it is. So I booked my shelter reservation in December last year as soon as reservations opened.

I was able to book a Saturday in June at the shelter, which includes 15 picnic benches, for only $180 for the entire day.

Since I'm DIYing a lot of my decor, I've been thrifting materials for months now and slowly chipping away at my $1,000 budget for the event.

I've kept several spreadsheets of all my expenses, managed to borrow yard games and serving utensils, asked my grandmother to grow our florals in her garden etc.

We were completely on track for our budget and we were even coming under budget. Until last week when, at 1 am, the shelter mysteriously caught on fire and burned to the ground.

Every person who had an event planned there obviously had their reservation cancelled and their money refunded. This includes other weddings, as this shelter is incredibly popular for these kinds of events.

I took two hours off work and started calling around to all other parks or rentable venues in my area. Since it's already May, everything is completely booked out for weekends in June. I can't move the date since many out of town guests have already bought plane tickets and hotels inorder to attend. Addition to this, many family members are just flying up for the day.

After hours of calling and searching, I found a small summer camp that had availability on the day of my wedding reception. The owners are very sweet and accommodating, but the price for renting the venue is $425.

I'm aware that this is still a good price for a venue. But it is still more than the $180 I originally had budgeted for and swallows almost half my budget.

I'm grateful to have found anything at all since it's possible other brides were not so lucky. I'm just frustrated to have worked so hard to stay on budget, only for everything to still spiral out of control.

Update 5/20:

I decided to go with the $425 venue. With the new venue, we need liability insurance which also added to the cost.

Both our parents were very kind and offered to help cover the cost. I was a little reluctant and embarrassed to accept money from them. But they explained that this isn't our fault and they are happy to help.

I'll be in a large tent instead of a shelter at the new venue. It's also a timed booking for 7 hours, instead of all day. Many of my friends and family offered to help pitch in during the limited set up time.

I'm truly grateful to have such supportive friends and family. Even though the day won't be exactly how I imagined, the important thing is that we have a space to come together and celebrate.

This sub was very helpful when I was in my planning stages, so I wanted to share how our wedding went!

Biggest cost savings was the venue and having a small guest list. At the very beginning, my now-spouse and I sat down together and went over what was important to both of us, which was helpful to know what to focus on.

The biggest stressor was planning out all the logistics, but I’m happy with how it turned out! Our goal was $10k, so we ended up a bit over budget. Especially in the last month I struggled to not spend extra $ on little things that we didn’t need, but I swear in the moment I felt like we did 😅

In general it was fun, it was colorful, and I’m glad to be on the other side. Best of luck to everyone planning their own!!