Keeping costs down with flowers

mrsdelkins · September 2014

Hi all,
Does anyone have any good ideas for keeping costs down for bouquets? Thanks!

pinkshorts27 · September 2014

Use in season flowers, smaller bouquets, comparison shop

Or you can DIY and buy flowers from the supermarket or Costco.

Nymeru · September 2014

You can also buy the flowers in bulk and do the arrangements/bouquets yourself. One of my friends used fiftyflowers.com and it seemed pretty affordable. We spent her "bachelorette" putting together flowers for the wedding the next day.

schellzinator · September 2014

Depending on when your wedding is - try to use decor that is seasonal. Also use a local florist that doesn't necessarily specialize in weddings. You are taking a chance with this, but if you do your research (yelp, etc.) - I think you will be ok.

We had a fall wedding and I had a $200 budget for flowers/decor/etc (bulk of my expenses were going to food & alcohol) - which I met!

First - I searched for a florist that didn't advertise for weddings on their website and called and had a chat. She gave me a quote that was well under budget for my bouquet, my BMs' bouquets, a flower wand, 2 corsages and two boutonnieres. (First picture of bouquets)
After that, I went to the local pumpkin patch and picked up 20 pumpkins (local farmer gave me a discount because I was buying so many). We polished them up with vaseline and they looked fantastic!. (Third picture of vaseline pumpkin and garland mentioned below)
Lastly, I went to Michael's in late September and purchased some fall garland for a deep discount of 80% off (yes, they are already bringing out Christmas stuff at that point).
Ask your vendor if they have any "seasonal" decor that will already be up - this could also cut your costs and complement what your idea is. (Middle picture - that was the sites decor - but it fit in very nicely).

All in all, I ended up with fantastic decor that I absolutely LOVED!

JaxInBlue · September 2014

Agree with PPs. Choose a seasonal flower you can purchase in bulk locally or choose a single type of flower for all of your arrangements. We used globalrose.com for our flowers. You could also choose to carry a single stem of something rather than a whole bouquet. My sister had her bridal party only carry single lilies and her bouquet was maybe a half-dozen lilies. It looked elegant but was not super expensive.

photokitty · September 2014

I used my local chain grocery store, Kroger. I wasn't too picky about the type of flowers, just the colors. They did a great job. I got baby's breathe for 20 tables, 2 10 inch bridal bouquets with roses and other flowers and 2 boutonnieres for less than one bridal bouquet I was quoted at all the florists I called. My sister got her gerbera daisy bouquet for less than $20.

Here's my baby's breath centerpieces

With vase, flag and jewels they were less than $3 per table.

thisismynickname2 · September 2014

Fake.

My mom's gone hog-wild at Michael's. She loves doing it. My logic is that after the ceremony, not a one of us will still be carrying flowers, so who cares? I don't care.

Our venue package came with small real flowers. Score one for package deals. If it didn't come with flowers I wouldn't have included flowers in whatever we created for centerpieces anyway.

When the venue's "recommended" florist had a $150 bridal bouquet on the website, I knew it would all be a no-go. Our money is going towards food and booze and I couldn't care less if people think fake flowers are tacky.

mrsdelkins · September 2014

Thank you, everyone! Your answers have been so helpful! I truly appreciate it

LDay2014 · September 2014

@thisismynickname - FMIL was so worried about 'fake' flowers. I don't get it. She would have been fine if we'd done a cash bar, but lost her shit at the idea of fake flowers? LOL, neither cash bar nor fake flowers are happening (i love smells too much...mmmm) but seriously? Priorities...

southernbelle0915 · September 2014

Local and in season.

In my sister's wedding we all carried single flowers - it was pretty/simple and kept her costs down a lot. The only guy who wore a bout was the groom because all the other guys weren't wearing jackets.

KickAssMOH · September 2014

I'm not sure how "down" you need to keep your costs. For me, I did aim to spend less than my friends had spent on flowers. I set a budget, and told my florist I'd like to be as cheap as possible with the flowers and would take whatever was in season. I showed her many photos of color schemes I liked and, while we listed out the specific flower types I did not want to see at all, we also left it open for her to pick the flower types she DID use based on what was a good deal that week. In the end, my flexibility was what kept up $600 under the budget i started with.

kmh1585 · September 2014

It sounds like you've got a lot of great suggestions here but just my own two cents I was in a wedding where the bride ordered her flowers from Costco in bulk. She went "simple" in that she kept the flowers to one color (white) and they were roses and baby's breath. It also came with some nice waxy greenery that added some bulk and color to the floral arrangements. There were two bridal bouquets (two brides, so one each) and they each had three bridesmaids for a total of 6 bridesmaids bouquets that were a bit smaller.

We all got together the night before the wedding and through pretty minimal trial and error we got the bouquets done in a few hours. We even had some left over to make corsages for the moms/grandmothers and boutonnieres for the fathers/grandfathers. I found it soothing actually for us all to be together and just hanging out, listen to music, and relax the night before. I think it took away some of the pre-wedding nerves

Now the cost - total with supplies - she spent about $400 on flowers and they were really classic and lovely looking. I've included a picture below of one of the bridesmaid bouquets and how they turned out.

I hope it helps and good luck!

SP29 · September 2014

We didn't have centerpieces, only bouquets and boutonnieres.

Stick with local, in season flowers. It was tricker for us, as we got married in the winter- not seasonal for much.

Be flexible with the type of flower. We had colours we were going for (dark and light purple- which works well with flowers), and weren't so picky on the actual flowers. We used a lot of carnations vs. roses, which are cheaper.

I kept the bouquets smaller- I didn't get swayed by the pictures of cascading bridal bouquets :P.

The boutonnieres were very simple, and carnations.

One of my friends got her flowers in bulk from Costco.

My cousin bought her flowers in bulk from a greenhouse and then a family member assembled the bouquets.

If you're really not picky you can pick up bouquets from the grocery store the day before.

Amonite · September 2014

I'm doing small bouquets/nosegays to make personalized tussy mussies for me and the bridesmaids. These will probably be fake flowers, in pretty cone holders, so I am guessing I can make all four tussie-mussies for less than $40 total. The centerpieces don't use flowers, and if I need other flowers for a big arrangement I may get some at Costco. The flower girl will be handing out roses or little posies, rather than scattering petals, so I will get fresh flowers for that. The groomsmen don't have boutonnieres (as they don't have jackets), only the groom will need one (so I am splurging on a sola wood flower bullet boutonniere on Etsy, it will still be less than $20). For corsages, I am doing metal flower brooches (also from Etsy), each personalized in meaning for the wearer. Some I will turn into wristlets by pinning them to a band with some ribbon or greenery. For 8 corsages it was $30 total, though it will be a few dollars for the supplies for the wristlets.

dramamonkey · September 2014

My friend bought dozens (DOZENS) of daisies from Sam's Club. You can special order and pick them up.

It took about 30 minutes, but with about 4 of us working on them, were able to assemble 10 centerpieces and four bouquets, at little cost.

Jessa617 · September 2014

I had silk flowers for my bridesmaids and the grooms bouts. I had a brooch/fabric bouquet myself. The centerpieces were non-flower centerpieces. The ceremony was the same place as the reception. The only real flowers I had were single roses for the mothers.

Basically, if you use other decorations in place of flowers, that will save on flowers... but you'll be spending more on other decorations.

Definitely go with in-season flowers if they have to be real, make smaller bouquets, and get flowers from a local grocery chain or Costco.

SP29 · September 2014

Jessa617 said:

Basically, if you use other decorations in place of flowers, that will save on flowers... but you'll be spending more on other decorations.

*Stuck in the box*
But you can get vases and tea lights from the dollar store much cheaper than flowers!

Keeping costs down with flowers

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