Weddings: Staying within your floral budget

Planning a wedding requires a great deal of management and organizational skills. To stay within your budget you need to start by allocating where you want to spend money. The Knot, and other websites, have suggestions about getting started on drawing up a budget. Brides usually allocate about 8 to 10% of their overall budget to flowers. Obviously, this number may be higher or lower depending on what is most important to you. Regardless, of what your final decision is for your budget, you want to stay within or below it (even better)! Here are some tips for lowering your costs when it comes to flowers for your wedding.

1. Be flexible. Flower prices fluctuate. Depending on when you are getting married, certain flowers may be in season. It is best to use flowers that are in season, because they are likely to be a better deal. Also, you may have your heart set on peonies for your bouquet, but they are expensive flowers. Think about using cabbage roses or ranunculus instead. There are tons of flowers out there, so if you are flexible, you should be able to find some beautiful varieties and stay within your budget.

2. Reduce, minimize and re-use. If you have a smaller wedding party, you will have fewer bouquets and boutonnières. Also, with a smaller the guest list you will need fewer centerpieces. If your wedding party and guest list are fairly set, think about other ways to minimize your flower needs. Sometimes less is more when it comes to centerpieces and reception decor. Think about doing just one type of flower or using lots of candles with fewer flowers or just petals. Lastly, re-use your wedding party bouquets to decorate the cake table and other parts of the reception place. If time allows, re-use your ceremony arrangements and other decor pieces for reception decoration.

One more thing, if you are getting married around Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, these are the two busiest times of the year for florists. Prices usually rise due to the very high demand (supply and demand economics) and to pay for extra help needed to fulfill all the orders. So, if you can, try to stay away from these two holidays.

I hope these tips help! As always, your florist should be able to work with you and provide you with some suggestions on where to save money. Happy planning!