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Flower Tips 
Planning Your Wedding Flowers
If you’re planning a wedding soon, you’ve probably perused the style magazines for flower ideas. Flowers enhance any setting and provide a key ingredient for romance.
While wedding flowers can be expensive, they don’t have to break your bank account. Typically a bride will spend between $1,500 and $3,500 on flowers for a medium size wedding (between 100 and 200 guests). Most of the flower budget is spent on table arrangements, compared to the bridal party and ceremony flowers. Here are five tips to make flowers work for your budget:
- Choose flowers that are in season. Flowers that are bought in their natural growing season are always less expensive and plentiful. While common flowers such as roses, lilies and hydrangea are available year round, certain flowers are only available in their growing season. If your heart is set on lily of the valley, make sure your wedding is in May or if you want peonies, plan for a June event. While flowers can be purchased out of their growing season, the cost is usually much higher and the quality is unpredictable.
- Buy your own containers. Sometimes you can find good deals or close out sales on the internet or discount stores. If your wedding is a ways off, you have the time to research, and you have 20 or more tables to dress, it pays to look for bulk deals.
- Simplify the centerpieces. A decent looking centerpiece will cost at least $50 per table, and this is on the low end for a wedding. Most centerpieces run between $75 to $150, and much more if they are elevated or enhanced in some way. If your budget is limited, you can still create an elegant centerpiece without spending a small fortune. For a day wedding, beautiful cymbidium orchids floating in a low glass bowl provide color and understated elegance. Votives or floating candles further enhance the look.
- Try to get the reception venue to provide some of the ambiance. Usually the venue will provide votives or hurricane candles. You might also ask that they provide twinkle lights on any trees or potted plants at entry points or outdoors. Some venues provide these items at no additional charge and they can really enhance the event.
- Go natural. Natural is definitely in this year and your wedding can benefit from some creative uses of nature. Just look outside and see what Mother Nature can provide. For a fall wedding, weave grapevine and bittersweet into a wreath, set a hurricane candle in the middle, tuck in a few colorful leaves, and you’ve got a centerpiece. For a winter venue, take some branches from the woods, spray paint them silver or gold metallic, place in an antique urn and you’ve got an instant holiday theme. For spring, force some bulbs or branches, such as dogwood and place in glass containers and voilà – you’ve brought nature inside.
I just finished a small wedding (30 guests) for a young couple getting married in a beautiful home they just bought together. The bride is a fan of French country. We ordered black and white toile table cloths and black wooden chairs. Antique pink hydrangeas and pink finesse garden roses gathered in a round grapevine baskets adored each table. We used the toile fabric on the bar and tied a few wine bottles in it. Around the house we used old tin watering cans the couple had in the garden. These were filled with white hydrangea, larkspur, lisianthus and roses. We potted plants in a French bread basket and placed it on the mantle. The finishing touch – chalkboards with little love notes on them, scattered around the house at points guests would stop. It was simple, elegant and very romantic.
Send Jan Peterson an email with your question:
Past Articles
A New England Wedding
Planning Your Wedding Flowers
Personalize Your Wedding
Five Easy Steps to Beautiful Orchids
The Cabin Fever Cure
Buying The Perfect Valentine’s Day Roses
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