in the market

So I'm all about imperfectly perfect. As far as flowers go, I very much enjoy having fresh ones in the house, but more of the wild/just-picked/thrown-in-a-vase variety then professionally-styled/florist stuff. I definitely want flowers, but like stated previously, farmer's market style. only one type of flower per container. Maybe wrapped in paper. piece of cake. I plan to have one type of flower in my bouquet. At the moment I'm set on gladiolas lining the aisle for the ceremony. And to supplement the flowers, lots of potted herbs and lots of lavender. I'm thinking lavender bouquets for the ladies, it would look so pretty with their gray/silver/charcoal dresses.

Now the issue becomes where to get the flowers, at a price that isn't double what my dress cost. (because I may wear my dress once, but at least I'll be able to look at it forever. Those flowers will be dead by the time I get back from my honeymoon). First suggestion is farmer's market. Look at these fun photos of a bride and her ladies picking out flowers the morning of her wedding:

 (photos by ben blood)

Unfortunately, due to inclement weather (i.e. the occurrance of actual seasons) in Northern California, farmer's markets do not exist in February.

Fiance and I drove around this tiny little stripmall for about half an hour trying to find this wholesale flower shop down the street from my parent's house. I used to go there to get flowers for school dances. The nicest lady ever worked there and instead of charging me tons of money to make corsages/bouts, she would only charge me for the flowers, throw the floral supplies in for free and give me tips on how to construct them. There is still a sign for the shop, but we checked just about every warehouse and storefront and couldn't find it. odd. I'll have to do more research on wholesale flowers in the area. And find florists that will just sell me the darn flowers instead of insisting on doing it themselves.

I've done some online searching as well. I've narrowed down my favorite flowers to what will be available during the winter season, which is supposed to make things cheaper.

I suppose I might be a flower snob, because costco's bulk flowers site doesn't have any of the flowers that I want.

blooms by the box had the best price by far on gardenias (which I did not realize were so expensive!). almost $20 cheaper than anywhere else I looked. But they didn't have anything else I was looking for.

wedding flowers of america had almost everything I wanted at pretty decent prices, including extras like rosemary bunches and olive branches. Just watch out for the talking lady that pops up in the lower left corner.
Fifty flowers had everything. but they aren't kidding when they say wholesale. Their flowers only come in ginormous amounts, we're talking minimums of 100 stems per flower. Their prices would be perfect, if I could order less. But if I ordered the minimum of all the flowers I wanted, I'd be spending $1400 just on flowers. I don't even want to calculate the shipping cost for nearly 1000 flowers.
whole blossoms once again had all the flowers I wanted, but all in super duper bulk as well. Too much monies people.

I need to find a local shop, or be less picky or something.
We already have several excellent sources for lavender/herbs. In fact I might be able to pick the lavender out of my parent's yard since they've planted a bunch recently. Can't beat free!