Wedding Flowers

Ways to Save Money on Flowers at Your Wedding
From Nina Callaway, Your Guide to Weddings

While the average price of weddings in the United States has risen to more than $20,000 (and $40,000 in large cities such as New York), brides are finding creative ways to spend that money more wisely, and discovering cheap wedding ideas that help them save money. Here are some cheap wedding ideas for the flowers -- ways to have a beautiful visual impact without spending a fortune.

Use only in season and readily available flowers. Be honest with your florist about your budget, and have them recommend the most inexpensive flowers.

Give your florist a general style and color scheme, and any “banned” flowers that you hate, but generally allow them flexibility so they can use what is in season and cheapest. There are some times when peonies cost a fortune, and other times when they are so cheap you can fill your hall with them.

Make sure this flexibility will be reflected in your final price tag.

Hold your wedding during the Christmas season or immediately after Easter when a church will already be decorated.

Avoid holding your wedding in February when flower prices are at an annual high due to Valentine's Day.

Large arrangements on an altar will only be seen from far away. Use inexpensive flowers such as carnations, or large filling flowers such as snowball mums.

Some people think they can save money by moving the ceremony flowers to the reception. However, keep in mind that many churches and houses of worship require you to leave any flowers. Florists also hate to do this because large arrangements are hard to transport, and can become easily bruised or damaged in transit. (It's probably also least partially because it does cut down their bill.) You also will need to coordinate it so that the reception will not be held up by waiting for the ceremony flowers to arrive.

Find a venue such as a park or garden that is already lush and beautiful.

Talk to your venues and see if any other brides have booked for the same day. If the two of you can coordinate flowers and split the cost, you’ll save a lot of money.

Carnations are one of the cheapest flowers out there. A lot of people, myself included, really dislike them. But when they are used in abundance so that the blooms are packed together, they can be quite striking. Consider a low square table centerpiece of 20 carnation blooms with all of their stems and greenery removed.

Talk to party rental suppliers about renting large potted plants such as tropical palms or ficus. They visually fill a lot of space, and will help frame your ceremony site or warm up your reception. Best of all, renting a potted plant is far cheaper than buying large flower arrangements. Also, you may consider purchasing these large plants and using them in your home afterwards to get more use out of them.

More and more brides these days are arranging their own flowers such as bouquets of simple roses tied with a ribbon. Four or five pillar candles on top of rose petals make an easy and cheap centerpiece. You can also easily create a centerpiece using wide shallow bowls filled with water and several floating gerber daisy blooms. If making boutonnieres and corsages intimidates you, these are generally inexpensive to order from a florist.