With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, the pressure is on to pick a gift for your sweetheart. The perfect gift is the one that costs little but shows a lot of thought, and a universally successful choice that checks both of these boxes is the gift of flowers. From big bouquets to simple single stems, follow our tips to put together the perfect bunch of flowers to say “be mine” without having to shell out for expensive arrangements from a florist.

When picking out the flowers for your bouquet, there are several factors to consider. First, think of the shape of the flowers themselves. It is best to choose at least three types of stems: one green, leafy plant, one small flower and one big, focal flower. Good choices for greenery are ferns, hostas and eucalyptus. Small flowers include baby’s breath, wax flowers and delphinium. Large flowers include gerbera daisies, roses, lilies and carnations.

The easiest way to select the flowers you use is to start with the biggest ones and work your way down from that focal point. You don’t have to limit yourself to just three types of plants. As long as you keep the big flower as the center of attention, adding in other types of small flowers or different shades of green can add to your bouquet.

For Valentine’s Day, pink, red and white is a popular combination, but combining yellow with blue or purple with pinks can also be a winning choice. Incorporating your recipient’s favorite colors into the bouquet can help personalize your gift and show how much you care.

The flower section at Wegmans offers a wide and rotating selection of choices, but most grocery stores and floral shops can serve as good alternatives. Make sure to purchase the flowers as close to the day you will be giving them as possible, and when you bring your flowers home from the store, put them in water as soon as you can.

Once you are ready to start arranging your bouquet, the first step is to choose the vase you will be using. Whether you go short or tall, you will have to cut the stems to match the height. Cutting the stems at an angle, and above a leaf node (the bump where the leaf is), will ensure that they last a long time. If there are leaves on the stems that will be underwater in the vase, remove them to ensure they don’t make the water murky as they decay. Stir sugar or packaged plant food, which may come with the flowers, into warm water and then add the flowers.

Put the biggest flowers into the vase first, followed by the smaller flowers and then the greens. If they do not fill the vase and are flopping around, you can put a rubber band loosely around the bunch to keep them together. If you don’t want to give the flowers to your valentine in a vase, put a rubber band around them more tightly and wrap the bouquet in tissue paper with a ribbon for store-like presentation and easy transport.

When giving the flowers to your friend or significant other, be creative. Pair them with heart-shaped chocolates or a homemade dessert from the Pipe Dream recipe archives and prepare to feel the love.