I have cross posted this on the Flower Board, hoping for some suggestions from someone!
My daughter is getting married in August. We have already met with our local florist, whose shop is merely blocks from the ceremony venue. My daughter chose the flowers for all the bouquets, corsages, and bouts. She chose not to order altar flowers...mainly because our church sanctuary is new, and she felt the wedding party's bouquets were all the decoration needed. She also has non-floral centerpieces planned for the reception....and we have already purchased them.
Now for the "problem." She recently won $250 in free wedding flowers from a florist 25 miles from here. The prize comes with no real requirements....just that it be used for fresh flowers.
We are torn about how to use this free flower money. Her total cost from the local florist will be $500, and we have paid a $50 deposit. We live in a small town, and we frequently do business at this shop. I would prefer not to take away the business we have basically promised them...but on the other hand, I am all for saving money on the wedding in any way we can.
My suggestion to my daughter is that we order altar arrangements, which we could really use either on the altar, at the entryway of the church, or at the entryway of the reception hall (a separate location). That way we will be using the "prize" to add something extra that we had not planned on or budgeted for in the original plans. I should also add that this florist charges a $50 delivery fee to our town. I feel kind of wasteful using $50 of the prize money to pay for delivery, but I don't want to ask someone to spend part of their morning picking up flowers for us, either.
Any suggestions?