Maximising Your Wedding Flower Budget

Here are 5 Basic Tips to get the most from your Wedding Flower Budget 

1. Choose designs that can be moved from the Ceremony and used again at the Wedding Breakfast.

• Aisle flowers in bottles can become part of the table centre designs later in the day.
• Long & low Altar / Ceremony table designs can become the Top Table design
• Plinths & Urn designs from the front of the church become large ‘statement’ pieces back at the Wedding breakfast

2. If your budget is limited don’t be too rigid with your flower choice. A good florist can often recommend other flower varieties that look similar but cost less

3. Try and be Seasonal with your flower choices. A florist can give advice on this. Many flowers can be obtained out of season but they will be flown in from other parts of the world and the cost of them will escalate accordingly.

4. Choose your florist very carefully and establish the level of service they provide. We are one of only a few Specialist Wedding Florists in the South West who stay on site for the ‘changeover’, to move things from the ceremony to the breakfast. Most florists leave before the ceremony starts leaving you or your guests to move everything. Believe us when we say ’That is not something you want to ask guests to do…especially if the Church is in a different location to the venue’!! We offer it as part of our service so you and your guests can get on with enjoying the day. It’s important as all the savings in Point 1 above, go out of the window if no-one has a car big enough to transport two 5ft Urn arrangements…You need a van to do it.

5. If your budget is limited ‘Prioritise’ where you really need flowers. Don’t spread the wedding flower budget thinly across all parts of the day. It’s always better to focus the budget on one ‘wow’ moment and this is usually best on the table designs. We will help you sort those priorities below.

Choosing Priorities in Your Wedding Flower Budget

This is really for weddings with a flower budget of under £1,000…once above this figure you can usually cover most options well. We are often asked “How do I choose the order of priority?” Well here is our recommended order

• Your Bouquet & the Groom’s Buttonhole
• The Table Centrepieces
• Bridesmaid’s bouquets & other Buttonholes
• ‘Statement’ floral pieces (crate stacks, Urns & Plinths, Garlands etc)
• Flowers for the Church / Ceremony room
• Hair flowers (Floral Crowns etc)
• Thank-you bouquets

Basically, don’t cut back on your bouquet as it will be in all the wedding photographs and it’s the main accessory to your dress. If cut backs are necessary, get the florist to use less expensive ingredients in the Bridesmaid bouquets.

Churches are vast spaces and small designs ‘disappear’ into the background. If you have the budget, then go for big statement pieces like plinths & urns. If not, keep it really simple with a few flowers down the aisle and concentrate the wedding flower budget back on those table centres.

Hair flowers & floral crowns for the Bride & Bridesmaids are lovely but not at the expense of losing the ‘wow’ on the table centres

Conclusions

If you have the budget, then ‘Go to Town’ with beautiful floral arrangements across the day. If your wedding flower budget is limited then prioritise your bouquet and the table centres. That way your guests will get that one big ‘wow’ as they enter the Dining Hall and that will be their lasting memory of the flowers at your wedding.

Footnote

Most flowers come to the UK from the Dutch auctions and Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day have a considerable impact on flower prices for up to a week before. A good florist will warn you of this.

So here are dates when flower prices may rise and note that Mother’s Day is different across Europe but as the Dutch Auctions supply all of Europe it still has some impact on UK prices:

Valentines Day : 14^th February (standard across Europe) Avoid Reds!!

Mother’s Day UK : Sun 31st March 2019

Mother’s Day Spain : Sun 5^th May 2019

Mother’s Day Germany & Holland : Sun 12^th May 2019

Mother’s Day France : Sun 26^th May 2019