Mariah Reading and David Mainero decided to grow their own wedding flowers after learning that a single bridal bouquet would cost $400. The couple planted a 30-by-50-foot garden in Reading’s parents’ backyard in Hampden, Maine, in May 2026, hoping to avoid spending thousands of dollars on flowers for their September wedding.According to The PEOPLE, the garden had five long rows of blooms, including dahlias and amaranth, which they planned to use for bouquets, boutonnieres, and other arrangements. The project cost about $1,000 and required months of care, research, and patience. By their wedding on September 26, the flowers had become an important part of the celebration, giving the couple a personal way to prepare for their marriage.
How a couple saved thousands by growing their own wedding flowers
Reading began exploring options for a wildflower-style bridal bouquet and was quoted $400 for the bouquet alone. As the couple was also saving to buy a house in the area, she estimated that wedding flowers could cost between $3,000 and $5,000, leading them to grow their own instead.Reading and Mainero created a garden in her parents’ backyard. The project cost about $1,000, including a rented rototiller, loam soil, seafood compost, locally ordered seeds and chicken wire to keep deer and other animals away.Reading began planting in mid-May, several months before their September 26 wedding. The couple wanted flowers that suited their colourful, relaxed celebration without spending thousands on professionally arranged blooms.
How the couple chose their wedding flowers and learned to grow them
Reading wanted the flowers to reflect the transition between summer and autumn. Her chosen colours included vermilion, bright red, orange, lilac, soft purple, green and chartreuse. Amaranth provided long, dangling shapes, while dahlias added deep maroon, plum and magenta tones.The wedding theme was vibrant, whimsical and fun, and the garden was planned around that vision. However, Reading had never grown a full-scale flower garden before. Although her parents had grown plants when she was growing up, cultivating flowers on this scale was completely new to her.She sought advice from a gardening friend, researched how to grow the plants, and learned to accept that not everything would go according to plan. Some flowers failed to grow as expected, while the white gladiolas bloomed and finished before the wedding.
How homegrown flowers and creative exchanges shaped their wedding
Reading and Mainero spent the summer tending the flowers, learning about gardening and adjusting to the changing seasons and weather. Reading said, “I just think growing your own flowers is so rewarding on multiple levels, and I think a lot of people kind of were picking up on the metaphor of tending to your relationship and adding water and providing for it and giving it sunlight.”The garden also allowed the couple to make other parts of their wedding personal. Reading’s college friend hand-sewed her wedding dress, and Reading made a landscape painting in return. Her sister-in-law prepared a buttercream amaretto cake with strawberry rhubarb filling and decorated it with flowers from the garden, according to The PEOPLE.Reading also exchanged painting lessons for two full days of photography. Friends and family helped with other details, while the couple reused and sourced items rather than buying everything new. Their wedding arch was built from wooden boat components found through Facebook Marketplace.
Why growing their own flowers made the wedding more personal
On the morning of their wedding, Reading went into the garden to pick her own bouquet, while Mainero selected his boutonniere. Reading described the moment as especially meaningful and one she expected to remember forever.The couple’s approximately 40 guests also experienced the garden, with some picking flowers during the celebration. After the ceremony, Reading and Mainero took a canoe ride, returning to an activity connected to their first date. They had met while working as park rangers at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, and their first date had been a canoe trip.Reading said the garden helped the couple build a closer connection with the flowers used in their wedding. She also acknowledged that having the time and flexibility to care for the plants was a privilege, as she worked as a freelance artist that summer.
