Everything You Need to Know About Flower Moxie Wedding Florals
Wedding flowers are EXPENSIVE. It sucks. If you’re considering DIYing your florals and want to know more about Flower Moxie, you’ve come to the right place. After doing a lot of research and a lot of worrying, I decided to use Flower Moxie to DIY all the florals for my June 2024 wedding! It’s all fresh in my mind (especially now that all my photos have come back) and I’ve got some thoughts. I'll take you through every little detail of my Flower Moxie experience with pictures and screenshots to back it all up. I'm a real person with a very real budget, so take solace in knowing this is not sponsored or incentivized in any way. Let's get into it!
(Side note: If you just want a quick pro/con list rather than all the nitty gritty details, scroll to the bottom😊)
What is Flower Moxie?
A quick rundown, in case you’re new: Flower Moxie offers bulk flowers, custom floral design, and DIY tutorials. You can order flowers in pre-designed packages or color palettes, free-style it by simply buying in bulk, or purchase a custom floral design package to get assistance from a Flower Moxie floral designer. Their whole thing is that they’ll walk you through every step of the process of DIYing your florals. Visit their site if you’d like to know more than my basic rundown.
My Flower Moxie Package
Since I had no idea how to choose and arrange flowers, I opted to purchase a custom design package. Flower Moxie offers three tiers of custom design. I chose “The Full Monty”, their highest and most elaborate tier, which cost me $95. The price has since increased to $135. As soon as my purchase went through, Flower Moxie started trying to sell me their "DIY Flower Academy" course. Apparently that's where all the real, nitty-gritty info is? I did not buy it and immediately felt a bit soured on the process thus far. It felt slimy to sell me something and THEN reveal half it is behind another paywall. Oh well.
Anyway, here’s a full breakdown of what I was promised with The Full Monty service (taken directly from their site) vs. what I got:
Promised: Video Consultation with Professional Designer - You will have a 60 minute video call with a professional florist to go over all the specifics like desired budget, flower types, and design recipes. We’ll talk through your vision and ideas to help you get the most out of your money. You and your designer will ogle over your Pinterest board together, going over all the best bits!
What I Got: First of all, my consultation was a a phone call rather than a video call. I was more than fine with that. We went over the budget, what I knew I needed (like how many bouquets), and scrolled through the Flower Moxie site to pick out flowers that I liked. My designer specifically asked to see my Pinterest board, so make sure you’ve got all your inspo in one spot (Pinterest board or not). She also requested images of the venue. Click here to see the pinterest inspo I showed her.
I’m not a floral designer, so I was hoping the florist would give me her professional opinion on what would look good in the space. I didn’t know what was normal, what would fit in my budget, etc. I didn’t get much help there. She asked what I wanted and seemed a bit surprised when I wasn’t entirely sure.
Promised: Customized Cart - Your designer will build a custom cart to make checkout a breeze.
What I Got: I got the customized cart, as promised. My only gripe was that the cart couldn’t be edited at all. I couldn’t add or remove floral supplies as needed, so I ended up just putting everything into the cart myself. It was a bit of a hassle but not that big a deal.
Promised: Customized Floral Recipes and Vision Board - You will receive a vision board, a breakdown of your floral design, and floral recipes specific to your event.
What I Got: A big packet with inspo pics, a list of everything I was supposed to make, and lists of the flowers that went into each item (the "recipes"). There were no specific instructions on how to assemble the things according to the particulars of my venue or design, though there were links to video tutorials available on the Flower Moxie YouTube. I'd imagine purchasing the additional DIY Flower Academy would have given me more tutorials.
This may be obvious to some, but there was also no way to visualize what each arrangement was going to look like. All I had was a list of flowers. I'm one of those people who can't really picture things in their heads, so I ended up screenshotting photos from the Flower Moxie website, cropping them, and digitally arranging them to get an idea of the colors and textures together (see below). This led me to request a few adjustments, which my floral designer happily obliged.
Promised: A (Very) Detailed Timeline - Your designer will provide a detailed timeline for the week of your wedding. This includes exactly when to build what, tailored to your specific build.
What I Got: A pretty simple timeline. It was the same as the info I’d found elsewhere on their site and in their tutorials. That’s not a problem, it was nice to have it emailed to me! I guess I'm not sure what I expected. This worked out fine, though it wasn't entirely tailored to the timeline I'd discussed with the floral designer. We did all the flowers in one day (whew!). See part of my timeline below.
Promised: Venue Deep Dive - We’ll look at your venue, discuss the space, your vision, and talk through ideas to help you get the most for your money.
What I Got: We briefly looked at the venue, but like I mentioned above, didn’t really talk through ideas.
Promised: Transportation Strategy - Your designer will create a specific transportation timeline and game plan for your floral transportation- everything from the pick up to the venue and tear down.
What I Got: The strategy in question was asking “what’s your plan for transporting the flowers?” and me saying “my bridal party and I will drive them up”. The flowers were delivered to my door so there was no pick-up necessary. She asked my plan for taking everything down, and I said we had to do it the night of the wedding. That was that.
Promised: Second Video Call for Follow-Up Game Plan the Month of Your Wedding - You will have a second video call with a professional designer the month of your event. You’ll go over final details including your timeline, your helpers, your supplies, and all the last-minute details. We’ll make sure you’re well prepared and haven’t forgotten anything since your initial meeting!
What I Got: This call was a video call with a different designer. My original designer was off on maternity leave (how exciting!). We chatted a bit about how to assemble my specific pieces, and she gave me some helpful insights on how she would go about arranging the bouquets and bud vases. She suggested some new supplies that weren’t previously mentioned (everything had already been ordered at this point). We also went over who was helping me, what day the arrangements were getting put together, and how to manage the flowers in the heat. I didn’t have a ton of questions, but this chat was still pretty helpful!
As a side note, I had a lot on my plate at this point. I hadn't spent a ton of time going through the tutorials and instructions sent to me. Looking back, I wish I'd taken the time to do so. There were a handful of contradictions in my custom design packet vs. the tutorials and info provided by Flower Moxie that I would have liked to ask about. This may be another instance of "you should have purchased the DIY Flower Academy!!" but I was refusing to do so upon principle. I'm stubborn.
Promised: Revision Requests - You get two free revision requests.
What I Got: I used one revision request and was happy with the changes. I did get the chance to make some small tweaks after receiving a draft of my floral design, which was great! It let me save the full revisions for larger changes (like adding bouquets).
Drafts, Budgets, and Reconsidering Paying for a Wedding
After the initial chat with my floral designer, she sent over a draft of her design plan. It was a few hundred dollars over my requested budget. We adjusted some things and got back down to a number that didn't make me sweat. Kind of.
Our final total was $1349.13, which didn't include supplies. I'm very fortunate that my aunt does some flower design as a hobby and provided all the floral arranging supplies for us. They would have cost an additional $100 or so.
So without tax, we spent $1250 on flowers. Here's everything that got us:
- 4 bridesmaid bouquets
- 10 boutonnieres
- 6 corsages
- bridal bouquet
- 2 arch arrangements
- 72 bud vases (though we only did 50ish and just filled them more)
Flower Substitutions
A few days before my flowers were due to arrive, I received an email about substitutions. Flower Moxie is very clear throughout the entire process that flower substitutions are just a part of floral design- sometimes the flowers you wanted just don’t thrive that year, sometimes they’re in too high of demand. My order had three substitutions (pictured below).
I wasn’t thrilled with the replacement flowers they chose, for a few reasons:
- Peach Ranunculus replaced with Peach Spray Roses: The peach ranunculus were supposed to be one of the star flowers- they’re big and beautiful! The replacement spray roses were pretty but also very small. They served more as a filler flower than a centerpiece.
- Blue Tweedia replaced with more Blue Delphinium: The blue delphinium worked out okay! I was nervous since we already had it and were just adding even more to replace an entirely different flower. But the florist said we’d have an easier time this way since blue tweedia can excrete a sticky sap that makes working with it difficult. I’m not sure why that wasn’t mentioned before, but the delphiniums were beautiful and we had extra to use at the ceremony site. Delphiniums, however, certainly didn't work as a filler like tweedia would have.
- Blush Mini Carnations replaced with Pink Dianthus: The dianthus and mini carnations looked nothing alike. We ended up not even using the dianthus in bouquets/bouts since they didn’t fit the color palette.
Delivery and Unpacking
All of my flowers except two bunches of roses arrived on time. Everything was packaged really well and held up despite the incredible heat. There was a ton of packaging to get out of the way, so make sure you have trash bags and room for giant piles of cardboard. I purchased an embarrassing number of .98 cent trash bins from Walmart to rehydrate everything in and the late roses arrived the next day.
Taking Inventory
This is where things got really confusing.
There is no one place to find all the info about your flowers, recipes, and substitutions. The only list of what I was supposed to be receiving was the emailed receipt from my order. My recipes were in the packet I received, and the substitutions were in a separate email. Flipping between them all was a nightmare. Wondering out loud where the pink mini carnations are just to remember that they're actually supposed to be dianthus now, which also isn't reflected in the recipes or inventory list, had us going insane. I'd HIGHLY suggest putting all your info into one spot before your flowers arrive.
In addition, you only have 24 hours to make a claim to Flower Moxie if anything is missing or damaged. Unpacking everything, cutting the stems, getting them into buckets, and counting each bloom took a long time! Add in the fact that I wasn't always sure which flower was which, PLUS the substitutions, and it was a big ol' mess.
I did manage to file a claim that one bunch of lisianthus was moldy, we were missing a cremone stem (not a big deal but you pay per stem, gosh darn it), and the peach stock flowers were missing entirely. All of these things were refunded to me.
Upon assembling everything we realized that we were missing a bunch of mini carnations, but it was too late to file a claim.
Putting it all Together
Putting everything together was fun! I had a dedicated team of family members and bridesmaids with an eye for design. We got everything done in just a few hours. Despite the missing bunches, there were plenty of flowers to go around. Pro tip: print out the floral recipes!! I had to quickly hand-write everything so we weren't all passing around and squinting at my phone.
A Few Downsides
incorrect materials
We did quickly realize that we wouldn't be able to create the freeform style bouquets I'd wanted with the materials we had. This was something else the floral designer never mentioned or guided me on. I would have happily bought egg bouquet holders if I'd known I needed them!
The arch arrangements also weren't quite what I was expecting, but that's on me for not pushing my floral designer to be more specific. I had a feeling that we weren't quite aligned on those, but I had a lot of things going on and didn't have the energy to go ask if the materials she'd listed would really get the look I wanted.
questionable Color scheme
Another downside was that a number of the flowers weren't quite the color they were supposed to be. Now believe me, I KNOW that flowers are living things and that variety is to be expected, and my arrangements still turned out beautiful. But I wish the florist had talked with me about it. If the color scheme I was going for was tricky to achieve, I would have liked to know that! I also learned later that there are methods for color correcting flowers, if need be. That would have been helpful to have in my back pocket.
For example, Peach Garden Roses were supposed to be the "luxury flower" starring in my bridal bouquet. Each flower cost $3.60. See below for a comparison of the promised flower vs. what we received. Left are the Peach Garden Roses on the Flower Moxie website. Right, circled in red, is how they looked in my bouquet. These were one of the most expensive flowers I purchased, so to say I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement.
But the flower arrangements were gorgeous anyway, of course. We transported everything in vases and trash bins. Those went into cardboard boxes padded with towels and newspaper. Despite the 90+ degree weather, everything survived just fine with plenty of water and the AC on. Do not underestimate how much flat space you will need to transport everything.
Our Flower Moxie DIY Wedding Floral Results
Finally, all that hard work and stress paid off. Here's how everything turned out!
Bridal Bouquet
Beautiful, heavy, and very appealing to every insect in the vicinity. Keep that in mind if you're having an outdoor ceremony! Tolerating the bugs was worth it just to see photos of my bridesmaids attempting to coax a moth out of the mesh of my dress😊
Bridesmaid Bouquets
After the ceremony, we popped the bouquets into vases and used them to decorate the reception. I highly recommend this! Not only did it look nice, but it helped preserve the flowers for longer. They got water and just weren't just getting smushed in a pile somewhere.
Boutonnieres
The groom's boutonniere had a sprig of white delphinium to differentiate it from the others.
Corsages
We didn't get any close-ups of the corsages, but you can see them in comparison to the bouts below. They were a little fuller and featured a bit of ribbon to match the bouquets. They were supposed to feature a peach ranunculus, but those got substituted for the peach spray rose you can see instead.
Arch Arrangements
The arch arrangements ended up being too heavy to attach to the rickety ol' arch, so my quick-thinking aunt propped them up and used some extra baby's breath to decorate the top. I think it looked great! Attaching them to the corners definitely wouldn't have given the "floral arch on a budget" look I was going for in my discussions with the floral designer.
Bud vases
The bud vases were my favorite part! Each one was unique. Here are a few examples:
Bonus
We had some extra delphinium, so we used these (affiliate link) floral tubes to stick them in the ground around the start of the aisle. We somehow didn't get any good pictures of this, but you can see them (albeit out of focus) in the photo below.
Final Thoughts
I'm overall happy with the Flower Moxie experience. I was able to get a lot more for my budget, even if it wasn't always quite what I was asking for (I try not to get sad about the colors being so off). The process also felt a bit unpolished or unorganized at times, but customer service had my back when I reached out.
Quick Recap
PROS:
- Easy to chat with florists, they’re good about answering questions and making adjustments
- Lots of flowers to choose from
- Cheaper than getting the flowers done professionally
- A floral designer will help you put things together or you can purchase a pre-made package
- The flowers were packaged well
- Arranging was fun and not overly difficult
CONS:
- No visualization of the arrangements they’re designing for you
- There aren’t actually that many tutorials and they don’t necessarily match up with what your florist tells you to do
- They try to sell you additional tutorials
- Substitutions happen and you need deal
- You only have 24 hours to file complaints
- My shopping list of supplies didn’t have everything the florist told me I’d need
- The colors on my most expensive flowers were off and messed with my color scheme
Questions about DIY Florals or Flower Moxie?
Making the decision to DIY your wedding florals can seem huge and really scary. I understand, I did it too! Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about the process, about Flower Moxie, or anything else you can think of. I'm here to help however I can😊
So, what do you think? Would you give Flower Moxie a try? Have you already? Let me know!
If you want more bridal content, check out The Best Bridal Nails for Summer Weddings.
As always, thank you so much for being here. I'll see you soon!
xoxo,
Lindsay
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