How to Save Money on your Wedding Flowers
Flowers are an integral part of any wedding, but also one of the most costly! Having fresh flower arrangements for each of your tables, tall decorative arrangements, altar flowers and bouquets can all add up, so it pays to firstly decide on what you need and how to keep your costs down.
Wedding flowers come in many different forms; here is a typical floral shopping list for a wedding:
• Brides bouquet
• Bridesmaids bouquets
• Flower girls posy and floral head band
• Button holes
• Corsages
• Table centers
• Altar arrangements
• Ceremony arrangements
• Reception arrangements
• Cake flowers
• Flowers for the cars
• Extra arrangements for guestbook and cake tables
It may not look that extensive, but when you begin to add in figures like ‘x 6’ for the bridesmaids bouquets and ‘x 4’ for the ceremony arrangements you will soon see how the costs can mount up. But there are some sneaky ways in which you can cut your flower bill but still have all these elements.
• Have the ceremony arrangements brought up to the reception venue. Check with your ceremony venue that they are happy for you to do this – some request that they flowers stay as part of your ceremony booking.
• If you are having a lot of bridesmaids use their bouquets as table centers, simply place them nice glass vases when you arrive.
• If you are not having enough bridesmaids to do this then use their bouquets to decorate your cake and guest book tables instead.
• You may not need flower arrangements for hired cars, often hire companies will provide them as part of the package. If not included make your own with silk flowers, your guests will only ever glimpse them through the rear window so no-one but you will know!
• Use your bouquet as an arrangement on the top table. Many brides do this and it works particularly well with shower bouquets. You can purchase special clamp stands which attach to the front of the table and into which you can simply slot your bouquet when you arrive.
• Negotiate free buttonholes, corsages and cake flowers with your florist in return for booking all the other arrangements with her.
• Save money on flowers by using them sparingly in arrangements and filling in with less expensive greenery.
• Choose in season flowers and varieties which are locally grown. These are often far cheaper than out of season or exotic blooms which have to be flown in specially.
• Keep the more expensive flowers for your bouquets and buttonholes and use cheaper alternatives for your table centers and other arrangements.
• Find out if another wedding will be taking place at the same venue on the same day. Then ask if you could share the cost of the flowers. As long as you both agree on the arrangements it can give you a significant saving.
Wedding Flowers
