Welcome week two (2) of our seven-week series on Weddings on a budget! This Saturday series is written by Rebecca Grant owner of New Creations Wedding Design & Coordination, one of Seattle’s Premiere Wedding Coordinators. She’s filled with a wealth of information and she’s a good friend of mine – so I know you’re in good hands.
If you’re joining us late, don’t miss our first week when we discussed Wedding Invitations on a Budget
This week we will be covering everything you might want to consider when planning for wedding flowers!
Flowers are one of the most integral parts of your wedding day’s overall look and theme. Not only are flowers heavy hitters in the look of your wedding, but they can often bring a heavy hit to your wallet. According to Florist Tiffany Saul from offbeatbride.com, wedding florists work generally work on a 3x markup. Over 75% of florists use a 5x markup on wedding flowers.
I will let you in on some tips and tricks as to how to save money on often, one of the most expensive aspects of your wedding day.
Set a Budget
If you are trying to plan a wedding on a budget, be sure you know how much money you have allocated for floral, and stick to it! Make your florist work within your budget. Don’t hesitate to ask if they have a minimum they work with before you go in for an in-person interview. Especially if you are planning a summer wedding, a lot of florists have minimums. If you are looking at a florist online and they do beautiful work, but their average budget they work with is over $5,000, more than likely this is not your florist. When you find about three (3) florists who you have called and who fit the budget you’ve set aside for flowers, the next step is to set up an in-person appointment. At the appointment, ask to see their portfolios of actual weddings they’ve done, not a FTD floral book – this is not their work, and don’t be fooled that it is. Each florist will have their own unique style and suggestions they can bring to the table. You want to be sure that their style will represent you and the look of your wedding.
Think Local and In-Season
Once you’ve found a florist who you get along well with, you’ve seen their work, and fits within your budget, the next steps are to discuss your floral design with them. One of the biggest cost saving tips is to use as many locally grown flowers as possible. Ask your florist which blooms will be in season during your wedding month. If it’s a December wedding, you may be limited to using a mixture of berries and greens, which keeps it simple and beautiful! On the other hand, during your summer wedding, using locally grown hydrangeas, or garden roses might be the way to go.
Think Big
Larger blooms (heads) will often get you more bang for your buck. Think about it, using tiny flowers, berries, and such is going to take a lot more stems to get a high visual impact. Larger headed flowers such as hydrangea’s, lilly’s, rhodies, sunflowers and peonies are going to give you that striking look of ‘a lot’ of flowers with using significantly less stems – therefore cutting down on your cost. Also, think about using a good amount of filler. This can often be found locally as well by using ferns, hydrangea leaves, and the like.
Get to know your Farmers’ Market
In Seattle we are blessed in the spring and summer months to have some amazing farmers’ markets, not to mention Pike Place year round (although selection does vary). Often, if you are able to form a relationship with your local flower distributer through these markets, you can let them know you are getting married and would like them to provide your flowers. This will ensure not only getting a great deal on your flowers, but that they will order enough of them to cover your wedding in addition to their normal market business. Going the market route does not allow you much control over your color palette either, so if you are committed to having coral as your only flower color, this option may not be for you.
Do be aware however, that you will need to designate someone to go pick up your flowers for you, often on the same day as your wedding (as most farmers markets and weddings are on Saturdays). This does not leave you much room for error. This person should also be in charge of the vases and setting up your lose flowers for you. Don’t rely on your planner to do this for you – as they are not a florist and will be focused on many other aspects of your wedding. Markets are great options for the bride who likes that garden feel, and who doesn’t stress over the details.
Use the Big Box Wholesale and Ask a Friend
Did you know Costco and Sam’s Club actually offer wedding florals? They do, and they’re a great deal! I personally have just used Costco’s service, so I’ll speak just to that. When looking on Costco.com, you can click over to their wedding section. Here you’ll find multiple packages that often include bulk stems (for your centerpieces), a bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets and all boutonniere’s. The standard package didn’t happen to work for my bride who had 4 bridesmaids and groomsmen. She was able to call Costco and ask them if they would be willing to modify a few things to make the package fit her needs, and they did at no additional charge!
Costco contracts out the items that need assembly such as the bouquet and the boutonnieres. The rest are just shipped to you a few days prior to the wedding date. In my experience using them, when the bridal bouquet was delivered on wedding day, it was awful. I mean the white petals had brown all around the tops of them, and the size was very small. We were able to make a quick call to Costco’s emergency hotline, and ended up having the florist remake and deliver the new bouquet on time, and it looked MUCH better!
Because the centerpiece stems come in bulk, obviously you need to have someone arrange them. Ask a friend (who is not part of the wedding party) if they would be willing to help you arrange your wedding centerpieces. What we ended up doing for my bride was using river rocks and roses in a small, simple square vase.
This option is definitely for the bride who wants to keep it simple. The box box stores don’t offer a lot of variety, you’re pretty much limited to roses, lilies or hydrangea’s, but you definitely get a great deal! Most of Costco’s wedding flower packages run about $400-$800. Great price!
TIP: You can also find clear glass vases at a great rate on their website too!
Find a Newbie
Ask around. More than likely someone in your family or circle of friends knows somebody who knows somebody who likes doing flowers, or just starting a new floral design business. This can be to your advantage big time! Not only will this person more than likely have a business license – which allows them access to wholesale houses – but their labor cost will be significantly less. When anyone is new in the industry, your just trying to get your portfolio built to have something to show future brides. That’s when you can swoop in and often negotiate pricing much more easily than with an established florist. You will probably have to be much more specific in what you’re looking for as well, as they may not quite yet be ready to ‘take your vision and run with it.’
Fake vs. Real
This is a hard one of me to take on as I’ll admit, I am not a fan of fake flowers. However, at times, they are an effective way to cut cost, and also allow you to pre-assemble your arrangements way before your wedding date. If you have an eye for design, and the skills and patience to do your own arrangements, this may be a great option for you. Be sure you have decided beforehand who you’d like to give the arrangements to when you’re done, otherwise you’re going to end up with a lot of fake flowers at your house. 🙂 Be sure to use your coupons that many craft stores offer.
Do NOT DIY!!
Okay, this is one of the very few areas where I will put my foot down and tell you you are not allowed to do your own wedding flowers! Did you hear me? You are not allowed!! 🙂 I know I’m probably coming across harsh, but as someone who has been in the biz for over 10 years now, I know that you will have plenty of things to worry about on your wedding day other then your wedding flowers. Hand it off to someone you trust (again, not in the wedding party). You will not have time to get ready, take photos, eat, be putting together your arrangements, delivering them, and set them up on your wedding day.
You are a bride, allow yourself to be a bride. This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, so delegate and enjoy it. Let yourself take it all in and be able to have the time to process the emotion that will come on the day your life is going to change.
Let Flowers be a Gift
One of my favorite parts of being a wedding planner is that generally I get to take home some leftover flowers. It always freshens up my home, smells amazing and reminds me of that couple well after the wedding. Why not offer that same feeling to your guests? Some great ways to decide who takes home your centerpieces are to pre-designate one person at each table who will be taking them home. Maybe as a thank you to your parents, or as a ‘in-memory’ to your Grandma who just lost her husband. Another way is to play a game during your reception. There are many centerpiece giveaway games that you can find online.
Again, I’d love for you to let me know your money saving tips on how you cut costs on your wedding flowers or if you have any questions that I did not address here, please feel free to message me on my Facebook page.
Check back next week for part one on venues!
How did you save on flowers for your wedding? Do you have questions or suggestions about flowers? You can leave a comment on this post or contact Rebecca through her New Creations Wedding Design & Coordination Facebook page and I definitely recommend following her Wedding Pinterest boards – they are amazing!
About Rebecca
Rebecca Grant is owner of New Creations Wedding Design & Coordination. She has been in the wedding business over eight years now, beginning her career in Honolulu, Hawaii, then moving back home to Seattle and launching her business Seattle Wedding Planning business in November 2009. She’s now one of Seattle’s premiere wedding planners. Because of her experience in Hawaii, her specialty is working with Asia-Pacific Brides; specifically, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian and Samoan weddings, however, she also does work a good portion of the time with traditional Western couples. Rebecca would love to help you with your wedding!
Learn more about Rebecca and what she has to offer at New Creations Website! And seriously, check out her Pinterest boards – amazing ideas!
If you’re joining us late, don’t miss our first week when we discussed Wedding Invitations on a Budget
As you are planning your wedding, don’t forget to sign up for your registry! Most stores offer registries and many have online options, making gift giving easier for out of town guests.
These are a few of our favorites:
Amazon Wedding Registry. With an Amazon Wedding Registry you get:
– 10% off most products on Amazon for a savings up to $100
– The World’s largest selection of items – register for all the items you both want.
– Plus keep track of what you want from anywhere. Add items from other websites to your Wedding Registry with the universal button.
Target Wedding Registry. Some of the great perks of a Target Wedding Registry:
– One year after your event date to return or exchange items from your Registry
– Easy to share with friends and family
– 15% coupon for items remaining on your registry.
Shelley says
Keep in mind why so many full service wedding providers have closed their small businesses. They can’t compete with the shareholders money that is invested in Costco. Look at how many small businesses Costco has caused to close their doors. So when there are no jobs, look in the mirror and ask how many times you used Costco instead of the bakery, florist, travel agent, etc. When you see all of the empty store fronts in your community, the same businesses who use to donate to the Scouts, PTA, youth sports etc. don’t wonder what happened< as you may have helped them close their doors or move to another community. You will not find Costco donating to the local organizations. That is not allowed! Those donations to the local nonprofits come from your local small business, who also may have their own kids involved in these organizations.
Beth Johnson says
My sister’s wedding was in Seattle on a Saturday last summer. She has a business license for Washington state in a completely non floral field, but was able to use it to purchase flowers at the Friday morning wholesale market. She then had some friends do the arrangements, and was able to have fabulous flowers for a fraction of the cost of even Costco. We also used hydrangeas from my yard to boost them even further. They also had a flowered arch, built by her partner, and draped with sheer panels, to stand under for their vows. The arch was later taken apart and incorporated in to their home remodel.
Rebecca Grant says
That’s a great success story Beth! Perfect example of using the resources you have to stretch your budget in a category that can add up fast! Plus, to repurpose the arch after the wedding is wonderful! Appreciate you weighing in and sharing a real example of how you are able to save money on florals! Be sure to hop over to my Facebook page and become a fan of New Creations to keep up on my latest weddings! http://www.Facebook.com/newcreationsweddings