Serious doubts

So tonight I sat down to look through millions (not really) of pictures of flowers to get an idea of a style I liked as well as flowers that come in dark purple, as well as how to differentiate my bouquet from Chelsea's and Romie's while still keeping continuity between them.

The more I sit here and think about it, the more I wonder if I really should be paying a florist to do this. After all, it's four bouquets (1 large, 2 small, 1 for tossing) and a dozen pin on bouts/corsages. Going very simple with the dozen (single flower with a minor amount of greenery) and all bouquets would only cost me a total of around $250 plus delivery (or sending someone to pick them up the day of) from the florist I'm currently talking to.

I wonder if I could take care of this task myself. I could order a bunch of flowers wholesale and then work with Chelsea and Romie that morning to put them all together.

I really don't have a favorite flower. Nor does Jason. Romie and Chelsea share the same favorite of gardenia, but those suckers are EXPENSIVE. So the flowers themselves will have no significance for me other than they'll match the bridesmaid dresses. Which is why I thought about making my own arrangements - that way they'd be special to me no matter how indifferent I was about the flowers themselves.

My biggest concern is timing. Since flowers don't always hold up so well we would have to make them the morning of the wedding. Between hair, makeup, food, getting dressed and pictures before the ceremony, I don't know if I want to add in the time and the possible stress of arranging flowers.

Opinions? Would I save money doing this or does the florist offer the best deal? Is it worth the extra money to save the stress even if we can do them cheaper ourselves? Is there another option I'm overlooking? Anyone have suggestions for dark purple flowers that will be available in October, and how I should do the bouquets so they're different but the same?

[As a complete afterthought but still related, is it possible to incorporate a fall theme at this point, or is it too late? The centerpieces are fish bowls with floating candles with a purple wreath around them, and that's how they'll stay. Would it be weird to all of a sudden throw in leaves and rust colored flowers if that's the only place I can see incorporating the fall theme? I wish I would have thought about the fall/Halloween thing a little more, since I'm a huge fan of candy corn (any candy in general really.) I've seen some really cute pictures lately of stuff using pumpkins, leaves and acorns, but I just don't know.]