How To Get the Most Out of Your Wedding Floral Budget Without Sacrificing Luxury: Tips from a Professional Florist
Congratulations! If you are reading this blog, odds are that you have started the process of planning your dream day. While it is no secret that weddings can come with a heavy price tag, there are lots of ways you can stretch your budget and get the most out of every dollar. That's what I am here to help you with! My name is Cassandra, and I've been designing florals for weddings and events for over a decade. I've worked with over 600 couples, and the same remains true for all of them... they want to stay on budget and get the most out of every dollar they are spending. Here are my top 5 tips to get the most out of your floral budget while keeping your vision and wallet intact.
1. Hire a professional!
It’s a common thought and plan for couples who are trying to save money to DIY their wedding floral, or at least some of it. You’ll see advice to buy bulk floral from large retailers or to go pick your own flowers. While it sounds like a good idea to save money, there are multiple reasons I suggest hiring a professional florist in order to get the most out of your floral budget.
1) The quality of flowers from a professional florist will well exceed what you get from the grocery store or other large retailers! Floral professionals know what flower varieties to buy and from which farms (domestically and internationally). Quality over quantity is ALWAYS the way to go!
2) Florists know how to professionally process and store your wedding flowers. From the moment your flowers arrive in the hands of your florist, they are cleaned, prepped, hydrated and stored at the correct temperature to ensure they are perfect on your wedding day. If you choose to order your own flowers and design them yourself, you will be missing out on the experience your florist brings to the table in terms of care and handling (and also design!). There is also a high probability that you do not have the correct means or space to keep your flowers properly cooled until wedding day This can cause them to wilt prematurely. While you may be saving money short-term when purchasing the flowers, I have seen it time and time again where couples are left scrambling the day before their wedding to replace dead flowers due to lack of proper care and cooling when they were trying to DIY their flowers. At the end of the day, they ended up spending more than if they would have ordered their items directly from a professional florist.
3) Florists will take care of it all! Sometimes getting the most out of every dollar applies to more than just physical items, such as time back on your wedding day. The last thing you, your bridal party and family will want to be doing on wedding day is setting up all of your DIY flowers. When you hire a florist, they deliver and set-up all of your floral for you, leaving you to enjoy all of the wedding day events without the added stress of decorating your venue. You will never get this time back, so to say this service is priceless is an understatement. Hire a florist! You will not regret it!
Overall goal: Quality blooms throughout your entire wedding while enjoying a stress-free wedding day!
2. Repurpose, Repurpose, REPURPOSE!
This is something I recommend to every single couple that books me... use as many floral arrangements as we can twice during your event. For example, you're dreaming of walking down the aisle that feels like you're walking through a garden meadow. You get the quote, and you quickly realize how expensive it is to have 50+ feet of floral on each side of the aisle. How can you achieve this look without blowing your entire floral budget on your aisle? REUSE AND REPURPOSE! Repurpose all of your aisle floral as your centerpieces. Talk with your florist and let them know this is your intentions. I personally offer the service of moving all of the ceremony floral to the reception during cocktail hour. My team swoops in, gathers the floral, transfers them to your reception space, refreshes them and places them as centerpieces. While there is a cost to this service, it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than ordering double the floral for two different areas. Worried about guests noticing that you are repurposing? I can assure you that guests will not be paying attention for they are busy mingling and having one of your signature cocktails! They will have no idea when they walk into the reception space that they've already seem all of those floral arrangements already. Plus let's always be mindful about waste, repurposing is always best for not only your wallet but also the environment.
A few more ways to repurpose floral throughout your wedding:
1) Repurpose your archway floral on your head table, welcome table, dessert bar etc.
2) Use your bridesmaids' bouquets as centerpieces! Here's an extra trick, have your florist remove the ribbon wrap on the handle so it doesn't look like a bridesmaid bouquet, but an entirely new arrangement. Be sure to discuss with your florist about choosing hardy floral varieties for your bridesmaids' bouquets so they hold up well throughout the day and still look great by the time the reception starts. Advise your bridesmaids to keep their bouquets in water as much as possible when they are not using them in photos or during the ceremony. Also, be sure to remind your bridesmaids not to lay down their bouquet directly on their blooms so they still look great later on in the day! You’ll want to do all of these things to avoid bruise or wilted flowers. If you don’t think these perimeters will be necessary to meet for whatever reason, it would be best not to reuse your bridesmaids’ bouquets as centerpieces. Remember, we’re striving for beautiful, quality flowers throughout your entire day!
3) Use your aisle floral to wrap around your sweetheart table, on your head table or even behind!
Bridesmaid bouquet repurposed as a centerpiece at reception.
Kristina Lorraine Photography | Geneva National Resort
In the photos above, you can see how dramatic and upscale the ceremony floral was. Note how we repurposed the ceremony floral behind, on top and in front of their king's table. We also repurposed some of the ceremony floral on their welcome table and dessert table.
3. Signature Floral Arrangements and Installations
Alright, so your heart is set on a big-ticket item such as a lush floral chandelier. Instead of scaling back all items on your wish list to accommodate them all at a mediocre scale, go all-out on one signature piece and simplify the rest! Allocate a large chunk of your budget towards an impressive signature piece, such as a large chandelier, that will transform the space and be the center of attention (besides you of course!).
Example plan: Go extremely simple on your centerpiece designs to allocate more money towards your chandelier (or better yet, repurpose something from the ceremony as centerpieces!) Having one amazing signature piece has way more impact than dozens of mediocre arrangements.
This couple opted for a lush chandelier filled with hydrangea and greenery. To compliment this design, yet keep budget in check, we opted for glass Monet Candlesticks with white floating candle and loose greenery accents at the base of the candlesticks. The guest's attention was then focused to the center of the reception space, where the couple splurged on their chandelier installation.
4. "Budget Friendly" designs are not always budget friendly. Ask the professionals for advice!
Certain floral varieties, like baby's-breath and greenery, may not always be as affordable as commonly believed due to the amount of product needed to create designs. Premium hydrangeas, for instance, offer more mass per stem compared to budget-friendly alternatives. I recommended to seek advice from your florist to get the best value for your money when choosing flowers, as they can guide you on the most cost-effective varieties to achieve your desired look within your budget.
5. Don't spend money because you think you have to!
There are certain wedding traditions, such as boutonnieres and wrist corsages, that couples tend to order not because they want them, but because they feel like they HAVE to have them. While there are some moms and grandmas that I am sure will insist on having a wrist corsage, there are many that do not like them. Talk about it with your family members and fiancé and if they aren't a must for anyone, this could be the first thing to shave off your flower order. Same goes for boutonnieres! Boutonnieres run on average $25-$40 from a florist. Those can add up fast by time you cover your entire wedding party and family members. If you like the look of them but need to cut costs somewhere, order one for just the groom so he stands out.
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