Flowers weren’t hugely important to me, I wanted something pretty, but DIY feasible, and I I think they turned out super cute.
I got the idea when Andrew got me some flowers and the carnations as usual lasted forever. Then I saw some Pinterest photos of very full bunches of carnations and was sold, white carnations in bulk were my DIY solution.
I chose carnations because

1. They are cheap so I was able to order a lot of them
2. Very hearty flower, I knew they would look good no matter what.
3. Easy to arrange in small vases, I was confident I could arrange them well without stressing out, which is true, I think with a more complicated arrangement I would have gotten frustrated and ran out of time.

I’ve been hording glass jelly and pickle jars for a while, so I decided to use those as my vases, that way I didn’t have to buy anything, guest could take them home at the end of the night, and we could toss the rest.
I had a few larger florist vases I already owned so I sprinkled those in as well to break it up.
To jazz up the jars I decorated them with ribbon and grouped them in threes on the tables.
I bought a couple of the vintage blue jars to sprinkle in with the white as well.
DIY Flower Time Line
Month and a Half Before the Wedding
Find best value online and order for delivery 3 days before the wedding.

I used Global Rose since they had the best deal on what I was looking for, shop around prices vary a lot but make sure you find some legit reviews before you place your order. With regular water changes our carnations looked great for a little over 3 weeks!
Start getting labels off the jars. ( Boiling water and acetone worked well, if the jar was really tough I bailed on it).
Make signs to inform guests to take flowers home.

3 Days Before the Wedding
Wednesday, were flowers delivered (Note they aren’t kidding about the signature required, I had to go to arrange pickup at FedEx Office in order to get my flowers that day after they left a missed delivery note, yeah that was stressful!)
After I got the flowers, per the many YouTube videos I cut the stems on a angle, mixed the flower food, and stuck them in buckets with the cellophane in place. Make sure you have a collection of buckets available, they need room to poof back up.
Note: Make cutting the stems a billion times easier with a chefs knife and an old cutting board. (All the green might not come off)
Looking pretty compact! These shipped direct from Columbia South America.

2 Days Before the Wedding
Wait 24 hours and they’ll magically poof back up. I only had 5 of 400 carnations be wilted or broken. Add more water to buckets, they’ve drunk up a lot.
Day Before the Wedding
This would be the best day to arrange the flowers, but I didn’t have time since we had our open house. I did at least get the vases laid out.
Morning of the Wedding
Arrange the flowers with minimal water to make the transport easier, they only need enough water for the day.
Arrange your vases in the flower boxes for transport, you might want to line the box with painters plastic. I pregrouped the trios of vases for the tables to make set up easier.

 
Budget Break Down
400 Bulk White Carnations: $159.60 after coupons + Free Shipping
Vases & Jars : FREE collected + $5 worth of blue ones from the Target Dollar Spot
Ribbon: Already purchased for another project.
Reception Flower Total: $164.60 and there were flowers EVERYWHERE.