How to Save Money on Your Wedding Flowers

Are you a Bride to be? Are you anxious for your wedding day to arrive but nervous about how you'll pull stuff together on a short budget? Well look no further because here you'll find the resources you'll need to get you started.

I too, am in the middle of planning a wedding and my budget is very small. Knowing this, I looked for alternative ways to get what I wanted for a better price. I contacted my future sister-in-law who also got married on a tight budget. She told me she had bouquets of roses at her wedding and that she made them herself. She told me where she bought the roses and how she made them and from there, I went on my own journey of finding more information about this idea. Now I will give you the steps that she took and that I am currently taking.

The first thing you'll want to do is get an idea of how much you have to spend. Is it $100? $200? $1000? If you aren't sure yet what your wedding or floral budget will be, then just keep reading, take the information I give you and look around online. Get a rough idea of how much it'll cost to do what you'd like, and then run that price by the person funding the money for your flowers. If you go over what they or you can spend, then just make some adjustments until you get within their price range.

Once you have this in mind, it's time to pick the main flower you'd like to have. Remember that some are available only during certain seasons and some will cost more than others. With that in mind, keep yourself open to the idea of changing your main flower incase it won't be in season when you get married, or if you run into a price issue with them.

You'll also want to look online and in books at pictures of floral arrangements. From bouquets, to centerpieces...and any other arrangements you may find. They don't have to be wedding related flowers either. Some of my best idea's came from looking at flower arrangements in floral shops or on the website of floral shops.

When looking at pictures, look at bouquets that have your flower in it, as well as others. Sometimes you'll find an arrangement that might not have your flower in it, but you may like how it was but together. If that's the case, then you can use that as your example of what you want your bouquet to look like only with your flowers in it instead!

When you find pictures you like, save them in an easy to find folder on the computer so that later you can look back at them. A good name for this folder would be "Wedding flowers" or something similar that will let you know it's for your wedding flowers. I'll refer to this later on in this article when I tell you want to do with this folder.

Now that you have gathered your ideas, it's time to start piecing things together. The next thing you'll need to do as you get closer to your wedding, is look for places that sell flowers in bulk. Check the local market to see if anyone sells flowers in bulk. Not all cities will have vendors, but it's worth a shot. Another good place to search for the flowers you'll want at your wedding is online. Some places I have found and like are:

www.samsclub.com

www.freshroses.com

www.theflowerexchange.com

There are many others, but these are the three I like the best. Something to remember about Sam's Club if you go there, is that you must have a membership in order to purchase items from them. Costco has some bulk flowers as well so you can always look into them if you have a membership there.

There are some terms you'll want to familiarize yourself with, but I must let you know, even these definitions/amounts will change from site to site. One bunch is usually equal to about 10 stems. One stem can vary from 3-6 flowers. These are not exact, and like I said, the amounts will be different on some sites.

Now that you know the terms you'll see on all bulk flower websites, take time looking around at what's available. Some sites offer more types of flowers and greenery than others. Some are priced better. Some will ship faster, others you have to put in your order earlier. Get a feel for each site, and keep a chart of what flowers you are thinking of using, how much they are at each site, how much you get for those prices...anything and everything you can put in a chart then put it in a chart. This is your wedding day and you want the best but you also want to keep within your budget, so make a good chart so you can have something easy to look back to when you make your final decision.

Once you've reached this step, you will need to go back to your wedding flowers folder and open it up. View the pictures you saved and try to pick out the arrangements and bouquets you like the best. I posted mine in a photo album on www.myspace.com so that my family and friends could look at them and tell me what they think. This helped me a lot when it came time to deciding what I wanted to make.

When you've narrowed it down, try to figure out about how many flowers are in that bouquet. Is there more than just one type of flower? Is there greenery in it? Are their things in that bouquet you do not want for your wedding bouquet? Are their things you'd like to add? Make note of each one and write down your ideas.

Once you've figured out what flowers and greenery you need, and how much of them you'll need, you are ready to order! One thing to remember is you'll want to order a little more than what you think you need. This will make up for miscalculations or if some of the flowers are damaged when they get to you or as you put them together.

You are probably thinking, about when you need to order. This depends on the website, what type of flowers you ordered and of course, when your wedding is. Most websites will let you pick what date you need the flowers by. You'll want to receive the flowers about 2-3 days before the wedding because most flowers will take about 2 days to completely bloom.

Before we get to when you put the flowers together, you need to first know about the extra materials you'll need. For this, do a search online for how to guides on making your own flower arrangements and bouquets, or go to the Library for books. Both sources can give you step by step guides of how to put them together and what you'll need. Be sure to include these items into the budget you have for your wedding flowers.

Now for the time you'll put the flowers together. In advance, ask your bridesmaids or other friends, if they'll help you out. The night before the wedding, usually after the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, is when you'll want to put everything together. Make sure you print pictures of all the bouquets and arrangements you will be making and keep those guides of how to put them together handy as well. One neat idea is to have each bridesmaid make her own bouquet. Give them the general idea of what you want them to look like, or just let them pick however they want their bouquet to look like so that they can have their own person touch to it. But don't forget to put a little tag on each bouquet and arrangement so you know who or what it goes to on your wedding day!

The last thing I want to mention to you are some extra money saving tips. If you realize the flower you want is expensive, or your flower bouquet is very big, try down sizing. Is there a flower that looks similar that you could replace it with? Or maybe use less of the expensive flower and more filler flowers, just keep the filler flowers and your "important" flower different colors so that you main one is the one that stands out the most and doesn't get blended with the others.

If the bouquet you want is going to cost too much because of all the stuff in it, try a smaller version of it, or find even cheaper flowers and greenery that you could use. Then have a mix of the cheaper plants and the more costly ones.

Whatever you want to do for your wedding, you can make it happen. Just do the research and be willing to put some work into your wedding the week of your wedding and you can make it happen for a lot less. Good luck with your wedding planning!