Florist Tips to Stretch Your Wedding Flower Budget

Choose arrangements that dramatically highlight the flowers rather than displaying them in a tight cluster for use in both ceremony and reception venues. Less really can be more. Use style rather than volume to decorate your space.

Rent your vases rather than buying them. Many florists rent out their glassware. Also, find out what other rental items they have. Some florists rent out big tropical plants, classy looking artificial topiaries or other items which can add a great deal of style with a minimal expenditure.

Re-use your ceremony flowers at the reception. Paying your florist to do this would probably negate whatever savings you achieve by re-using the flowers. You will need to enlist trusted friends or family members to move and place the flowers if you want to use this money saving tactic. The best way to do this is to create diagrams of the wedding site and reception venue labeling the ceremony arrangements and indicating where they go on the reception diagram. Give these diagrams and instructions to your helpers well before the wedding. Then your helpers will be more comfortable with the task and know exactly they have volunteered to do.

Go easy on the bridesmaids' flowers. Keep their bouquets small and inexpensive. After all, the bride's bouquet should be the most grand and impressive. Consider using a single, perfect bloom of a type you will also be carrying. A single rose, lily, peony, or orchid can be very classy for your attendants to carry.

Consider giving mothers and honored guests flowers to hold rather than corsages. Corsages, being labor intensive, cost more than the same number of blooms made into a little bouquet.

Use flowers that are in season for your wedding. Trust your florist's advice on which flowers are seasonal in your region. Off season blooms are more expensive and unreliable. Sometimes their quality is also poor.

You can extend a small, inexpensive reception table centerpiece to serve for an eight or ten top table by using one or more of the following recommendations. Surrounding the centerpiece with several votive candles in glass cups will make the decoration look bigger. Another method of filling out a table decoration is to sprinkle items on the table that coordinate with the design in some way. For instance; if your centerpiece uses river rock or sea glass pieces in the vase you could sprinkle more of the same around it on the table. The same can be done with flower petals or the heads of inexpensive flowers like daisies. Also, a mirror or piece of fabric which matches the wedding colors can be used under the arrangement to give an impression of greater size.

Use petals rather than whole flowers for cake decorations. Not only is this a money saving tip because petals are cheaper than whole flowers it's something you can do yourself or have an untrained volunteer do for you instead of a paid professional. All you need to do is sprinkle the petals evenly on and around the cake starting on the top and going down the sides for an elegant look at a fraction of the cost of buying a floral cake topper and cake decorations.