DIY Wedding Flowers by the Bucket
Bulk flowers grown in West Bend for brides who want to arrange their own
Bulk flowers grown in West Bend for brides who want to arrange their own
For the bride who wants her hands in the flowers
Some people want their flowers handed to them finished. Some people want to make them surrounded by friends and flowers the night before their wedding. If you are the second kind – this is for you.
I sell flowers by the bucket to brides, families, and event planners doing their own arranging. Everything is grown right here in West Bend and cut the morning you pick it up, rather than shipped in from another hemisphere. You get flowers at their actual peak, you choose what goes where, and you keep a good share of your budget for the rest of the day.
Every DIY Bucket of Blooms holds 60 stems, and it is the same split every time so you can plan against it:
The stems people notice first – dahlias, peonies, sunflowers, lisianthus, zinnias, depending on the week.
The smaller, airier stems that make a bouquet look full and unfussy instead of stiff.
Foliage cut from the farm to give everything shape and a place to sit.
Buckets are an equal mix of whatever is seasonally available and genuinely good that week. Flowers are seasonal and it is honestly hard to know exactly what will be open on any one day – that is part of what makes farm flowers what they are. Tell me about colors, tones, and textures rather than specific blooms, and I will get you as close as the season allows.
60 stems, and I cut whatever is at its very best that week. It is the better value and it gives you the widest variety, because I am not working around a list – I am bringing you the flowers that are genuinely ready. If you are relaxed about exact colors, this is the one I recommend. Grower's Choice buckets need only one to two weeks of lead time.
60 stems cut to your palette. You pick up to three colors and I cut toward them. You get real control over color, and it takes more planning on my end, which is what the difference in price reflects.
Both are priced per bucket, plus 5.5% Wisconsin sales tax. There is no minimum order – one bucket is a perfectly good order.
This is the question I get most, and the one most brides underestimate. Here is how the buckets generally work out:
| What you are making | Roughly how many buckets |
|---|---|
| Bridal bouquet | 1 bucket |
| Two bridesmaid bouquets, plus your corsages and boutonnieres | 1 bucket |
| Centerpieces | Depends entirely on how big you want them – see below |
I do not put a number on centerpieces, and I would rather be straight with you about why: a low, loose mason jar and a tall statement piece can differ by three or four times the stems. Decide roughly how full you want your tables to look, and we will work backwards from there together.
Weddings are most of what I sell buckets for, but they are not the only thing. A bloom bar – a table of buckets where guests build their own bouquet to take home – is one of the most-asked-about things I do, and it works beautifully for bridal and baby showers, birthdays, retirement parties, graduations, corporate events, and shop openings.
The buckets are exactly the same, and so is the pricing. Grower's Choice tends to be the right call for a bloom bar, since variety is what makes the table look abundant.
As a rough starting point, plan on one bucket making about five to seven small hand-tied bouquets. Bud vases stretch much further, since each one takes only a few stems. This is a planning estimate rather than a promise – how far a bucket goes depends entirely on how full you want each bouquet to be. Tell me your guest count and the look you are after, and I will help you land on a number.
Families putting together flowers for a celebration of life or a memorial are welcome here too. Tell me what you need and I will help you work out the quantity.
Send me your wedding date, your colors, and roughly how many bouquets and tables you are planning for. Email is best – it means we can both look back at what we agreed on. I will send you a quote.
I send you a contract. Sign it and send a 30% deposit within two weeks of your quote. That deposit is non-refundable, it holds your date, and it comes off your final total. The balance is due three weeks before your wedding.
Come to the farm the day before your wedding, any time between 11am and 7pm. Everything is cut that morning and waiting for you on the covered porch. I send you the pick-up address when you book.
DIY Buckets of Blooms are meant to be straightforward, so the price includes two email exchanges with me. If you would like more than that – design coaching, detailed questions, specific floral requests – I charge $60 per hour in 15 minute increments, and I will always email you before anything is added to your total. Nothing gets charged as a surprise.
Wisconsin gives us a short, generous season. What I can cut for you depends entirely on where your date falls in it, and that is worth knowing early – it is the single biggest thing that shapes what your flowers will look like. These lists are not exhaustive, and the season shifts a week or two either way depending on the year.
Ranunculus, Foxglove, Laceflower, Sweet william, and Yarrow, with Cress, Privet, and Ninebark for foliage.
Peony, Sweet William, Ranunculus, Calla lily, Scabiosa, Zinnia, Yarrow, Stock, Campanula, Ammi, Lavender, Feverfew, Veronica, Bells of Ireland, and Strawflower, with Cress and Dusty Miller for foliage.
Calla lily, Scabiosa, Sunflower, Lisianthus, Echinacea, Dahlia, Ammi, Cosmos, Lavender, Feverfew, Veronica, Bells of Ireland, Celosia, Strawflower, Allium, Liatris, Hypericum, and Delphinium. The loudest, most colorful stretch of the whole year.
Dahlias in every size and color, Sunflower, Lisianthus, Zinnia, Echinacea, Yarrow, Cosmos, Celosia, Strawflower, Hypericum, Nigella, Ammi, and Dusty Miller.
For a pictures of all the blooms mentioned above, you can download our Flowers by Month guide (PDF).
DIY buckets are pick-up only – I do not deliver them. Pick-up is the day before your wedding, any time between 11am and 7pm, from our covered porch here in West Bend. I harvest everything that morning and have it out and waiting by 11am. You will get the exact pick-up address with your booking confirmation.
Bring an SUV or a van if you can – something with a flat area where buckets can sit upright without tipping. Buckets of water in a car trunk do not go well.
One thing worth planning for: I do not have a space at the farm for you and your party to assemble your flowers. Arranging happens wherever you are staying, so have a table and some elbow room lined up.
This is where we differ from most DIY flower options, and it matters more than people realize. Our stems come to you with the bottom leaves already stripped and the blooms fully hydrated. You can start arranging the moment you get home.
Many other DIY sources ship you wholesale florist material in a dry cardboard box, leaves and all. Those flowers need 24 to 48 hours of hydration before you can touch them, and some arrive partly or entirely dead. That is not what you are getting here.
Fresh flowers are more forgiving than people expect, but they do want a few things. Get these right and your blooms will be every bit as good on the day as they were when they left the farm.
Leave them in the containers I send them in until you actually need each stem. They are hydrated and happy in there.
Let them drink whenever you can. Any time flowers are going to sit for a while, get them back into water.
Drive with the air conditioning on, and expect a little splashing on the way home.
Do not refrigerate them. A dark, cool spot – a basement, a shaded garage – is what you want. A household fridge will damage them.
Keep them out of hot sun, and away from vents and fans. Moving air dries petals out fast.
Remember your photographer. Long hours in the sun during a first look will change how the flowers look by the ceremony. Give them water in between.
Scissors, ribbon, rubber bands or zip ties to secure your bouquets, vases, and a calm approach to your creative time. That last one is not a joke – give yourself the evening rather than the morning of.
The Dollar Store and Amazon both have good vase options at reasonable prices. For design tips, Flower Moxie on YouTube is one of my favorites – it is where I send brides who want to see hands actually building a bouquet.
Any vaseware or hardscape I send along with your buckets is yours to keep – nothing needs to come back to me, and you are welcome to give the flowers away at the end of the night. I do not offer hardscape rentals or end-of-evening breakdown at this time.
Substitutions happen. If a flower is not of a quality I would want at your wedding, I will swap it for something of equivalent look and value, and I will protect the color scheme we agreed on. DIY flowers are 100% grown on our farm, though if I cannot hit a specific color from my own field I may bring in a stem or two from another local grower.
Changes and cancellations. Up until the final payment, three weeks out, your quote is still open to some editing – things change and I want to work with you. If you cancel before final payment, everything but the 30% deposit comes back to you. After final payment, you are refunded everything except the deposit and any flowers or materials already purchased for your day.
Grower's Choice bucket, 60 stems – $100. Bride's Choice bucket, 60 stems, up to three colors – $170. Plus 5.5% sales tax. No minimum order. A 30% non-refundable deposit reserves your date, and the balance is due three weeks before your wedding.
Book at least six weeks ahead, and you are welcome to book up to a year out. Grower's Choice buckets need only one to two weeks of lead time if you are working on a shorter runway. DIY buckets fill up through the summer, so the earlier you get in touch, the more I can plan around you.
Email me with your date, your colors, and roughly what you are making, and I will send you a quote and the full contract – policies, care, pick-up details, and the order form.
If you are a florist looking to buy local blooms, click here to explore our wholesale options.
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Planning a wedding you would rather not arrange yourself? See our full service wedding flowers, which start at $800.
Anna Merkt-Owner
anna@littlelocalfarmers.com
262-365-4691
