07 Apr 9 ways to save money on your wedding flowers

Brides typically spend around £700 on flowers for their wedding.

Follow our money saving tips in order to save money when buying your wedding flowers.

1. Work out priorities

Those extravagant floral centrepieces are going to cost a fortune! Before you get carried away work out your budget and decide where flowers rank in importance for your big day. What’s more important? Beautiful flower displays or an extra food item on the buffet? Decide and then budget accordingly.

2. Be flexible

Listen to your florist, is there an in season flower that will be half the price of the ones you are asking for? Take full advantage of their expertise. Discuss a cheaper filler flower, baby’s breath and foliage are all cheaper alternatives. if you choose a flower with larger heads you will need less of these, peonies and hydrangea’s for example are pretty full and look great with smaller florals and foliage.

3. Reuse flowers

Can your bridesmaids posies double up as centrepieces for your top table? Could your spray for the alter be used as a table arrangement etc… Think gifts too, top table arrangements and your bouquet all make lovely thank you pressies to those people who helped make your day what it was.

Bay Trees are easy to move, give this job to your ushers and can be used as photo props and entrances into reception rooms.

4. Keep it simple

Things can still look great simple, the whole less is more thing works wonders for weddings giving a real elegant approach. Time costs money and is any professionals most expensive asset. Fancy floral arrangements that take your florist hours to complete will inevitably cost more. Flowers that need individually stemming and wiring such as trailing or shower bouquets take a lot longer than a hand tied.

5. Get creative with centrepieces

As a rule brides are generally steering away from using flowers for centrepieces and getting a lot more budget savvy. A singular steam in a few vases is effective as is a flower head floating in water in a fishbowl and who says you need to use flowers? Look at what kind of theme you are going for and get creative, we have seen everything from vases filled with sweets (goes down a treat!) to candles balanced on wine glasses, candelabras and nicely decorated twigs. Pinterest is full of great ideas.

6. Fake it

As a rule these days decent looking fake silk flowers can cost as much as real but foam can be relatively cheap. If you don’t like foams you can always chop and change, using more expensive silks or real for bouquets that may get photographed and admired more and use foams in bulk for centrepieces and general decoration. With a bit of artistic flair both foam and silk can look beautiful and you can always think about buying the supplies and asking a florist to put it together for you.

7. Buy the supplies in yourself

Talk to your florist about this one, they may not be keen as they may want strict quality control on what the flowers look like, the size of them etc… But if you manage to find someone willing this could save you quite a bit by picking up flowers from the market and budget supermarkets and asking a florist to just arrange them. Make sure you pick up enough and work this out carefully, you don’t want to end up with too many! Its worth going to a few markets too and watching the stall holders, you may spot someone with a bit of artistic flair that would be willing to put together a few sprays for you. Have a back up plan in place though if your florist or person of your choosing is ill on the day.

8. Have a go yourself

Youtube is full of really helpful tutorials that break down the steps for anyone to follow. Rope in a few hands to help and have a practice. Don’t put too put pressure on yourself though and allow yourself plenty of time the day before your wedding to get them done. Buying in bulk from a florists or market should secure you a bit of a discount too.

9. Haggle

Ask for a discount especially if you are having everything in one place. Smile and be friendly and compliment their service, no one wants to give a discount to someone who is rude.