Save Money - Flowers

Posted on: June 21, 2008

Flowers can take up a surprisingly big part of your wedding budget.  There are the flowers for each of the wedding party members – bouquets for the bride, bridesmaids, flower girl, boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen, ring bearer and fathers, corsages for the mothers.  There are also the floral decorations for the reception and for the church.  Our suggestion would be to get quotes from a few florists to get a bench mark.  Once you know what they charge, you might even want to check out some grocery stores that have a flower section to see if their prices are any better.  Some stores have packages that include all of the above and the prices are more reasonable than a florist. Try Superstore or Costco and get a dependable, creative friend or family member to help you with arranging them for the centerpieces and church decoration. 

For example, a simple yet classic arrangement of roses, hydrangea and hypericum berries can do double duty on your wedding day.  At Costco, 2 dozen roses will cost $19.99, hydrangea are in season at the end of summer and early fall and can be ordered from Superstore for about $5 a stem at that time and Hypericum berries and Salal leaves can also be ordered for minimal cost.  Gather the flowers together nicely and tie at the stem like a bouquet with matching ribbon (the organza type works best).These arrangements can be placed in small buckets which can be hung at the end of each row of seats, lining the aisle, at the ceremony. When the ceremony is done, the arrangements can be removed from the buckets and put into clear vases filled with small coloured stones and - voila - instant centrepieces.  Another option would be to have the arrangements in their vases already and line the aisle at the ceremony with the vases, placing them at the base of every other row of seats.  After the ceremony, they can easily be transported to the reception to be used as centerpieces.  This really utilizes the “recycle” principle of saving money.

Centrepiece of roses, hydrangea, hypericum and salal leaves