A friend of ours who used to work for a florist volunteered to do our wedding flowers, which was incredibly nice of her, and it’s going to save us a lot of money. She usually gets the roses from Costco (which is a good idea for anyone who needs a lot of inexpensive but high-quality flowers), but we want a specific variety of rose that Costco doesn’t carry. The bridesmaids’ dresses are dark red, and Costco only carries one shade of red, and Costco’s shade would clash horribly with the dresses. So Ashleigh and I went to Chelsea Flower Market one day with a swatch of fabric, and we decided that we wanted Black Magic roses.

I’ve been put in charge of finding wholesale Black Magic roses for the wedding. The best way to get roses is direct from the farm, it seems, because then they’re fresher (they last at least two weeks) yet cheaper. I’m pretty sure I’m going with Margareta Export Flowers (flowersandfreshness.com), because they have the best deal I’ve seen on Ecuadorian roses. NuSabana has a good deal too, but they’re Colombian, and Colombian roses tend to be smaller than Ecuadorian roses. Also worth a mention, if anyone out there is shopping for bulk flowers, is 2G Roses (FreshRoses.com), which is a grower in California. In the end it’s possible I’ll order from them instead, even though they’re more expensive, just because I won’t have to worry about the weather in Miami (where South American roses enter the U.S.) or about customs. Oh, and there’s also RoseSource.com; they sell Ecuadorian roses, and they have great customer service, but they’re a little more expensive.

If we didn’t care about the exact color, I’d consider Sam’s Club instead. They have the absolute lowest price for roses online, and they’re farm-fresh from Ecuador to your door, unlike Costco’s roses which are shipped to Costco first.