Disney Floral AND Outside Vendor?

[sambycat]

Spending waaayyyyy too much time on the boards this morning since we just faxed in our LOA. Here's my question - has anyone used (any reason you COULDN'T use) Disney floral say for the tables and centerpieces and whatever other odds and ends go under the floral order but use an outside vendor for say, personal floral and further decor of the reception site (assuming it isn't in the parks and all that)?

trying to get ideas of how to get more bang for the buck while sticking close to the wishes minimum. not sure how much disney floral will work alongside an outside vendor if some of the areas... not overlap.... but are say both on the table or something.

specifically, if it can even be in my budget at all, i am betting some kind of ceiling treatment or the ficus trees - something to bring interest around the room or to the cieling - might be more bang to the buck from an outside vendor then from disney with their "$1000 for 6 fake trees sitting around the room" deal.

thoughts?

 

[lurkyloo]

One thing to consider is that most of the outside florists have a minimum amount you must spend in order to hire them, and just doing bouquets and some swagging at the ceremony site might not reach it. A ceiling treatment and a tree package would prolly do it, though.

But it seems to me that since they usually give you way more bang for your buck, you may as well just do everything through an outside florist rather than breaking it up between the two. Also, I would not be surprised if Disney had a policy preventing you from using an outside florist if you're also using the Walt Disney World Florist, but of course it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[sambycat]

thanks for the ideas - i like the mad hatter centerpieces disney now shows with the mad hatter tea party theme - got a pic somewhere but not enough time at the moment to do the 8 things i need to do to post it here! - kind of an upside down mad hatter hat with branches and wild flowers? now i know that the original beginning estimate is not any kind of work order and that the prices there are low-balled, but i am sure diane indicated waiting on getting us that initial estimate because the design was changing (which the pics seem to have changed from a tea pot deal to the hat) and that floral was saying about $100/centerpiece (which seems low but maybe - hopefully!!! - not).

i like the hats - although i am sure the alice theme could take many different spins here. i'm using free time to over think things i am sure - so your point about other floral minimums is well taken and other than WANTING some kind of ceiling thing, we weren't aiming to do tons of floral due to budget and that we wouldn't even be at the parks after to just pile them all in our room and sniff them for a couple days after!!!

by the way - i forgot to ask and see if we can take any of our flowers on the cruise? i mean not take them off the boat but i wonder if that is like potential bug danger to the environment or whatever it is with that? i don't really want to "preserve" my bouquet, but i certainly am not going to toss it in the garbage or stick it in a box and mail it home!

 

[puente0629]

It all depends on the outside florist u get...my outside florist does not have a minimum, we decided to use her for all our flower needs it is a lot less then what Disney would of charged us. im getting all the personal flowers, altar arrangements, lots of scattered petals for the aisle, small arrangements for each cocktail table, centerpieces with crystals hanging from the candelabra, rental vases/candelabra's, flowers for the cake, guestbook and escort card table for $2800 (includes tax, delivery and set up fee)...the flowers i chose were lots of orchids (2 different types to be exact), ranunculus, anemones, hydrangea's and roses...my flowers with Disney would of probably pushed it close to the $4000 range...im also using outside vendors for the chairs and linens...with flowers, linens, and chiavari chairs the total price is $3500

 

[puente0629]

thanks for the ideas - i like the mad hatter centerpieces disney now shows with the mad hatter tea party theme - got a pic somewhere but not enough time at the moment to do the 8 things i need to do to post it here! - kind of an upside down mad hatter hat with branches and wild flowers? now i know that the original beginning estimate is not any kind of work order and that the prices there are low-balled, but i am sure diane indicated waiting on getting us that initial estimate because the design was changing (which the pics seem to have changed from a tea pot deal to the hat) and that floral was saying about $100/centerpiece (which seems low but maybe - hopefully!!! - not).

i like the hats - although i am sure the alice theme could take many different spins here. i'm using free time to over think things i am sure - so your point about other floral minimums is well taken and other than WANTING some kind of ceiling thing, we weren't aiming to do tons of floral due to budget and that we wouldn't even be at the parks after to just pile them all in our room and sniff them for a couple days after!!!

by the way - i forgot to ask and see if we can take any of our flowers on the cruise? i mean not take them off the boat but i wonder if that is like potential bug danger to the environment or whatever it is with that? i don't really want to "preserve" my bouquet, but i certainly am not going to toss it in the garbage or stick it in a box and mail it home!

another idea would be getting teapots and putting flowers in them, like the pic below, i think it takes the Alice in Wonderland theme and makes it more wedding like...

 

[pezaddict231]

We are using both. Outside florist for all floral and Disney for linens and the pre-reception and dessert party centerpieces which are the same and will be moved from the pre-reception. They haven't said it would be a problem and they know I'm using an outside florist.

The only thing I would worry about is not having a cohesive look with the flowers. We're using non-floral centerpieces for the pre-reception / dessert party.

 

[erin.w]

thanks for the ideas - i like the mad hatter centerpieces disney now shows with the mad hatter tea party theme

would love to see this if anyone else has it! or you get time to post it

 

[Princesspunkin]

Thanks for bringing this topic up. I would like to ask what are the name of some of the outside florist people are using? I need to find someone who does silk flowers because I am highly allergic to regular flowers. I want to compare their prices with Disney's.

TIA
Dawn

 

[pezaddict231]

I'm using Lee Forrest but I'm not sure if he does silk. Couldn't hurt to ask or maybe he can recommend someone who does.

 

[puente0629]

Thanks for bringing this topic up. I would like to ask what are the name of some of the outside florist people are using? I need to find someone who does silk flowers because I am highly allergic to regular flowers. I want to compare their prices with Disney's.

TIA
Dawn

I'm using Atmospheres Floral & decor but I don't think she does silk flowers...

 

[sambycat]

thanks for all the great thoughts and ideas! here is a picture of the centerpieces but its not a close up and i cant seem to enlarge it without a lot of distortion - but the "vase" is an upside down mad hatter hat. i think.

 

[Skylarr29]

The majority of my floral was from an outside vendor but I used Disney as well and had no problems using them both.