How to Save Money on Your Flowers

   Being a florist, a common question that I deal with is how can we save money on our flowers. Everybody has a budget of some sort. Some are big and some are little but I haven't met anybody yet that would say "Money is not an issue".

    Flowers are a big part of a normal wedding. The challenge can be figuring out how much money you need to allocate to them. My advice is to sit down early on in your wedding planning and figure out what things are very important to you and what things are necessary. Then you can figure out what things you don't really care that much about and save money in those areas. Hopefully flowers isn't one of those areas but sometimes it is and I understand that. 

So, whether you just have a small budget over all or flowers is an area you don't mind scrimping in, here are some ways to save money on your wedding flowers:

• Talk to your florist about what the different types of flowers cost. They can vary wildly. Sometimes you might like a $1 flower just as much as a $10 flower but you pointed at the $10 flower (not knowing) and so that is what was put in your quote. That will make a huge price difference in the final quote especially if that flower was used in every bouquet and arrangement.
• Have less attendants which equals less people to buy flowers for.
• Bouquets don't have to be huge to be beautiful. You can go very simple with just a single flower if you like but even a petite little nosegay will save you a lot of money over a large bouquet. Even if you (the bride) would like a large bouquet - perhaps you can have small ones for the bridesmaids and the toss bouquet.
• Choose simpler designs which require less labor costs. A hand-tied bouquet is going to take less time than a cascade bouquet. A presentation/arm bouquet will take even less time. An arm bouquet also looks bigger while using less flowers so it is economical that was as well. A pin-on corsage takes less time and less supplies than a wrist corsage.
• If you find a bunch of ribbon to use at your wedding for a wonderful price or if you have fabric from off of your dress or extra lace - check to see if your florist can use that to wrap the flower stems on the bouquets or make bows for corsages or other decorations. If you can supply these items economically then they don't have to charge you for them.

• Use a grouping of jars (which you could collect on your own for free) and have just a single stems of flowers put in each jar for a centerpiece. This is much more economical that a large centerpiece but still has a big impact. You can also spray paint your jars for a different look as you can see the bride did in the picture below.
• Make full use of the flowers that you do get. For instance if you get a toss bouquet, you could first having it sitting in a vase at the guest book table to decorate that area and then use it later for the toss. Also you can use the brides and bridesmaids bouquets to decorate the head table - often not much else is really needed. If you have arrangements at the front of the ceremony those can often be moved to decorate the reception area. Just have someone assigned to quickly do the moving.

• Using just greenery for decorations can be very pretty and also help you to save money. 
• Keep things simple. Simplicity is generally cheaper and can also be very beautiful.
• Most of all - communicate with your florist that you would like to keep the price down. They can try to work with you and point out ways that you can save money.
  
  If you are on a tight budget I hope this helps a little. Leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.