Another big hurdle cleared: our wedding flowers! We're lucky enough that Devin's aunt has a great deal of floral expertise, so she is providing our flowers as her wedding gift to us. Huzzah!
Even though most people will end up paying some amount of money for floral decor, there are some easy and creative ways to significantly cut those costs. In order of least cost-saving to most cost-saving, we have:
1. Use less flowers! Instead of having entire bouquets made for bridesmaids, have them hold a single flower with one ribbon. For groomsmen boutonnieres, use less expensive "filler" flowers, or even just greenery, instead of roses/cala lillies/etc, and save the expensive stuff for the most important guy- the groom!
2. Consider taking care of some of the flowers yourself. If you have a particularly green thumb, you could even GROW them yourself. The next best thing would be to buy them as-is from a florist or grocery store, and arrange them yourself (at least half the cost of florist-arranged flowers comes from labor). At one wedding I photographed, this was done completely on the fly about an hour before the ceremony! The bride had a bouquet of all yellow roses, and her bridesmaids each carried a single yellow rose with some greenery and a ribbon on it. Only the mothers' corsages and the guys' boutonnieres were done by a florist.
3. Don't use flowers AT ALL. That's right, I said it! My friend Julie over at Fun With the Future Mr. and Mrs. Fitz is having a flower-less wedding by making all her flowers out of fabric (and paper?) and she even wrote a tutorial for the process she is using. This is certainly the most time-consuming option, but the lowest cost, and the possible combination for colors and patterns is pretty much endless. Use paper and you'll probably save even more - just make sure you recycle! ;-)
And in closing, I'd like to remind all current and future brides out there to use WHO you know. I'll be writing more about this, but in addition to Devin's aunt we have 4-5 other friends/family who are using their talents to provide major services for us, and it's literally saving us thousands. If you know someone with a wedding-friendly skill, don't be shy about asking them to use it! Like your wedding party, the people you ask to help out with your big day will be more than happy to lend a hand and make your wedding awesome.
Etiquette tip: don't ask for FREE swag/services, especially if the person is a professional. As a photographer, even if my best friend did this, I'd be put off. Let them offer, and if they don't, ask how much they'll charge. If they do want to be paid, but it's substantially less than their normal fee, no complaining!!!
Once again, thanks for reading. Party on, y'all!
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| My favorite! (from The Knot) |
Even though most people will end up paying some amount of money for floral decor, there are some easy and creative ways to significantly cut those costs. In order of least cost-saving to most cost-saving, we have:
1. Use less flowers! Instead of having entire bouquets made for bridesmaids, have them hold a single flower with one ribbon. For groomsmen boutonnieres, use less expensive "filler" flowers, or even just greenery, instead of roses/cala lillies/etc, and save the expensive stuff for the most important guy- the groom!
2. Consider taking care of some of the flowers yourself. If you have a particularly green thumb, you could even GROW them yourself. The next best thing would be to buy them as-is from a florist or grocery store, and arrange them yourself (at least half the cost of florist-arranged flowers comes from labor). At one wedding I photographed, this was done completely on the fly about an hour before the ceremony! The bride had a bouquet of all yellow roses, and her bridesmaids each carried a single yellow rose with some greenery and a ribbon on it. Only the mothers' corsages and the guys' boutonnieres were done by a florist.
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| Simple and classy. (photo copyright Kathleen Grady) |
3. Don't use flowers AT ALL. That's right, I said it! My friend Julie over at Fun With the Future Mr. and Mrs. Fitz is having a flower-less wedding by making all her flowers out of fabric (and paper?) and she even wrote a tutorial for the process she is using. This is certainly the most time-consuming option, but the lowest cost, and the possible combination for colors and patterns is pretty much endless. Use paper and you'll probably save even more - just make sure you recycle! ;-)
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| Or get SUPER creative with buttons and brooches (from The Knot) |
And in closing, I'd like to remind all current and future brides out there to use WHO you know. I'll be writing more about this, but in addition to Devin's aunt we have 4-5 other friends/family who are using their talents to provide major services for us, and it's literally saving us thousands. If you know someone with a wedding-friendly skill, don't be shy about asking them to use it! Like your wedding party, the people you ask to help out with your big day will be more than happy to lend a hand and make your wedding awesome.
Etiquette tip: don't ask for FREE swag/services, especially if the person is a professional. As a photographer, even if my best friend did this, I'd be put off. Let them offer, and if they don't, ask how much they'll charge. If they do want to be paid, but it's substantially less than their normal fee, no complaining!!!
Once again, thanks for reading. Party on, y'all!
thanks for linking our blog to yours! great post about wedding flower options!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! So many great ideas of saving money on flowers (which are just stupid expensive!). Isn't it great to have family and friends that are willing to help?
ReplyDelete