I'm undecided which way to go. I saw that GSA has a box of 16 mediums for $15, but then you have shipping. Anyone know of anyone cheaper? I have read that some of you charge per flower. What do ou charge and do you buy or make them?

ANo, that's a pretty good deal. I make giant roses, about six inches across and they're about $35 each. The smallest ones are about $7 each. If those are nice enough for you, the ones you mentioned, I'd get them. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Thank you.

what size tiers and what size roses does this look like to you? 12/9/6?

Maybe. Someday. When I have the time to learn how to pipe my own. And how to then transfer them to the cake intact (given that I'd be working in BC, I'm guessing I'd have to freeze them).

So far, though, except for a piped OUTLINE of a rose on a Mother's Day cake in 2012, and edible PHOTOGRAPHS of roses on my mother's 2013 birthday cake (and a "leftover" on my parents' anniversary cake later that year), my roses have come in a little plastic tray, in a little cardboard box labeled "Wilton."

Looks about right, I'd say those are probably the sizes. Ehhh, I guess the roses are probably about 1.5 to 2"?

To my eye, they look at least one size bigger than the Wilton 8-to-a-package ones. Which squares with what "AZCouture" said.

I never knew Wilton made gumpaste roses

AI'm not sure, but I think they're Royal.

Making gumpaste roses is something I think you should WANT to master as a cake decorater -  I know people buy them but that normally happens when peope become so busy its just a financial proposition to get through more cake orders.

Gumpaste flowers last for years - decades even - I always have roses on hand, as well as stocks of leaves and filler flowers - they can be coloured up to match teh colour scheme you need.

I make them in the quieter times to spread the load some.

In my experience the quality of flowers offered for sale is realy poor.   So bad that even a dodgy cake decorater could whack out something of equal quality.
If you are going for CHEAP.... you will get the worst of the worst.

I have made a few and they turned out pretty well. I have plenty of time to practice before the wedding. Thanks for the advice.

HBQUICK---I definitely don't want to use royal. I saw some nice ones on Etsy. If I cannot perfect the craft I will order those.

Red is a really hard color to achieve when mixing gumpaste. Do most people airbrush them?  Applegum?