When working with a professional florist, you
might have already heard all the advise about saving money by
buying your flowers in season. In reality the season of
flowers is only a small part of the picture. Besides, not all
brides dream of tulips in spring and dahlias in the summer.
I often see this happen where brides try to stretch their
dollars by buying more items and skimping on quality rather than cutting out items
altogether. In other words,
brides often want it all when it comes to flowers, but in
reality they can only afford so much. Since many brides
must compromise with a budget, it is important to make quality
not quantity your focus when planning your flowers.
In order to figure out what your budget is,
figure out your overall budget, and estimate that at least 10%
of that budget will be allocated to flowers. If you are
a bride who absolutely loves flowers, than 15-25% of your
budget might be a better number to work with. Just
remember that if flowers are important, you will probably have
to cut your food or photography budget to allow for the larger
allocation to flowers. Also figure out if you need
an extra 5-10% of your overall allocated for general
decorating such as candles or rentals such as linens, tenting,
lighting,
chairs or chair covers.
Once you have figured out your budget, do
some initial legwork on the phone before meeting with a
florist. You don't want to waste time on florists that
do not typically work within your budget. When you
first call around, ask them first what the average wedding at
their shop costs, if this sounds high ask them if they have a
minimum. If the florist's average wedding is lower than
your budget, you might question whether the florist has
adequate experience to service your size of event.
There are a couple of costs that you may
not have considered when estimating the cost of flowers:
delivery and rentals. You need to ask your florist
about their delivery capabilities and what in-house props and
rentals they could provide. Often a florist who has to
hire extra staff or rent extra delivery vehicles for your
event may need to charge more for delivery. Ask ahead of
time how they price their delivery -is it a flat fee or percentage?
Also ask if there are any contingencies for your location
(some companies charge more if there are elevators or
difficult access.) If a florist supplies their own props such
as centerpiece containers, linen rentals, aisle runners,
urns, and chair covers, they may be able rent them out for you
less than it would cost you at a separate rental company.
Ask the florist what types of items they might be able to
provide and how this is factored into you overall costs.
Although price is important, often the
brides make the mistake of hiring a florist based strictly on
price rather than picking a florist that you feel like
you can trust and communicate with. Being able to talk
with your florist is invaluable. It is important to your
style and budget that you are able to communicate to your
florist that you are striving for quality and not
quantity and ask them how they can help you achieve
this within a strict budget. Ask your florist to make
suggestions where your style may be compromised for price.
A florist that communicates well with you will be able to
offer solutions and be understanding to your needs, resulting
in increased value.
Once you find a florist whose style you
admire and will be willing to work within your budget than you
should pay them a deposit and work with them on a more
detailed quote.
When making detailed plans with your
florist, have your florist calculate the total with a
breakdown of unit costs. The
reason for asking for unit costs is so that you can actively
participate in adjusting your flower needs to fit your budget.
If you let the florist know that your budget is more limited
than the quote, a good florist will offer suggestions on
cutting out items. However, you may run into the problem
where the florist starts suggesting extra fillers and
greenery in place of the flowers that you want. If your
florist starts suggesting substitutes, this indicates that you
might be stretching your budget. Think of cutting out single
arrangements rather than taking flowers out of all the
arrangements. For example, you will be happier if
you have nice bridal and attendants bouquets and no pew
arrangement rather than mediocre bouquets plus mediocre pew
floral arrangements.
When cutting out items, there are only a
few sacred necessities. The most important pieces for a wedding and
reception are the brides bouquets, the
bridesmaid's bouquets and the centerpieces. After that,
all the other items are arbitrary. Bouquets are
featured in the majority of you wedding photographs, so
skimping on these is not the best idea.
For a wedding and reception of 75 guests or
more, typically 50% or more of the flower budget goes to the reception.
Allocate a large portion of this amount to the reception
centerpieces. One you have the perfect centerpieces and
you have room left to work then go onto other items such as
decorating the entry way, the buffet table and putting fresh
flowers on the cake. The reception centerpieces
make up the bulk of a flower budget, for a good reason; a
nicely set table will make a room look much better than any
huge arrangement stuffed in the corner, and guests will be
spending a large portion of the time seated with these pieces.
If you find yourself without the money for nice bouquets
spilling with flowers, here are some alternative ideas for
centerpieces:
-
Have your florist make fresh
floating potpourri centerpieces. Mix a variety of
colorful flowers in a large shallow bowl. While you
get lots of color on the table, you need far fewer flowers
than any bouquet. This idea is also easy to do
yourself. The cost of this should of a simple
floating centerpiece averages around $25-35
-
Use bowls of fruit as a
centerpiece. Fruit is often much less expensive than
flowers, but can look just as colorful. A popular
choice for weddings is whole lemons or pears. You
can also make relatively inexpensive topiaries out of cut
limes or other citrus fruit. Again, the average
price of the fruit is around $20 plus the rental of the
compote or bowl. Fruit topiaries that require more
labor may range from $40+
-
Eliminate the cost or rental of
centerpiece vases or containers. Instead of silver
or glass have your florist arrange in cheap plastic vases,
hide the vase by putting into pretty handmade paper euro
bags or boxes covered with pretty paper, fabric, or
ribbon.
-
If you are giving favors, make the
favors your centerpieces. Stack nicely decorated
favor boxes on cake stands in the center of the table.
-
Use large pillar candles surrounded
by small bud vases of single stems of flowers.
Here are the extra items that you can go
without:
-
Instead of pew arrangements, opt
for simple bows
-
Instead of large arrangements at
the front of the church, simply lay rose petals down the
aisle and plenty of candles on the alter for simple
church.
-
Boutonnières and corsages.
instead of giving a boutonnière or corsage to every
single relative that will come to the wedding, keep it
simple. By custom the groom, mothers,
fathers ,and groom's attendants would be the
necessities. Any persons past this are
arbitrary such as: grandparents, ushers, guestbook
attendants, readers, singers/musicians, and immediate
family who are not in the wedding.
-
Guestbook arrangements or large
entryway pieces, although nice, are not in your budget
if they take away
from nice centerpieces or wedding bouquets.
There is also a myth about saving
money that all arrangements from the ceremony are transferable
to the reception. Sometimes this is the case for the
large pieces. Oftentimes however, your florist will
charge an extra fee to redeliver the flowers from the ceremony
to the reception location. This may be worth the fee, as
you don't want to leave the task up to friends and relatives.
You also want to make sure that whatever leaves the ceremony
needs little or no setup at the reception. Remember that
the flowers will be arriving at the reception at the same time
as the guests, so this might make for an awkward delivery and
setup. Again a qualified florist can help you make these
decisions.
There are some arrangements that
should not be counted on for use at the reception:
-
Church-style candelabras are often unfitting for a reception
location. Often there is not many places to put
them in a room except up against a wall. In this
case, keep it simple and forget bringing over the
extra clutter. Another thing to consider is that
even though your ceremony lets you light candles in an
open flame, this may not be true of the reception
location.
-
Large arches are not always practical to move to a
reception, with a few exceptions.
-
Many flowers that have been out
in the summer sun for more than forty minutes during a
ceremony should not be transferred to a reception, as
they can often have a wilted appearance from sun
exposure.
-
Small pew clips often do not
typically have a good use at a reception. I have
found that in some special instances they can be used
on the backs of chairs or on banisters. But
often if they do not fit perfectly into the setting,
than it is best not to use them. Opt for buckets of
flowers that hang from the pews or wreaths.
-
Bridesmaids bouquets should not
become major decorations. For example, I do not
recommend piling hand-tied bouquets in front of the cake (this
can sometimes overtake the cake) The bridesmaids
bouquets are keepsakes for the maids and should be
kept in the maid's possession. Instead,
put a vase in front of each maid's place setting
at the reception, so that they can keep hand-tied
bouquets fresh to take home later. If you
have a long head table the vases at each of the
bridesmaids place setting will act as decor at the head
table.
-
Rose petals (this one is a
no-brainer)
Remember to always ask your florist if there are extra
delivery fees when transfer pieces from the ceremony to the
reception. Also ask if he/she can logistically set up
the pieces while the guests are arriving at the reception
hall. Here are some items that might
be worth the transfer:
-
Large urns of flowers make
great buffet pieces. Be sure that the caterer
has pre-set some room for this arrangement, so that
when it arrives it can easily be set down.
(remember your guests will be arriving at the same
time and you don't want them to see staff and a
florist fussing at the buffet)
-
If you have a social hour in
a separate room from the reception hall, you might
be able to move very large installations to your
reception. For example, large arches from the
ceremony can be placed around the cake table to
frame it. Oftentimes arches are decorated on
site at the ceremony and cannot be moved without
compromising the arrangement. Remember
that they should have the setup done before
the guests are allowed to enter the reception hall.
-
Large pillar candles can be
moved and placed on a long head table or mantle.
These are easy to set up and re-light. Often
votives are not worth moving as they are often not
very long lasting.
-
Wreaths can be brought from
the doors of the church and laid down on a table and
candles can be laid inside the center. (One
case where it might be easy to use pew arrangements
for centerpieces. Hang round wreaths on the
pews that can be easily transferred to onto tables
at the reception. If you do this, make sure
that there is a cocktail or mingling hour before
guests in a social area separate from the dining
tables where the centerpieces are to be set up.)
If you find
that you are still stretching your budget even after following
these tips, you might want to consider doing your flowers
yourself with friends and family.
KAK
