Wedding Flowers

Wedding flowers may be as simple or elaborate as your wedding budget allows. If you really want to go for a more economical wedding, you might consider limiting the number of flowers that you use in the bouquets, the ceremony decorations and even at the tables as centerpieces. (Here are some pictures of wedding bouquets of all different types for you to check out. It might help you select the types you want for your wedding.)

Let's face it, flowers are expensive and you may want to spend your wedding budget on things like wedding invitations, food, the wedding dress, or gifts for your wedding attendants. However, you can still incorporate flowers into your wedding design and save money.

I was at a simple wedding a couple of weeks ago where the bride and groom decided that the church was not in need of additional decoration (except for a runner down the aisle). All the bride carried was a small wedding bouquet of six red roses and her attendants carried six white roses each. It was simple, elegant, and not overdone.

One of the things I really liked about the wedding bouquets was that they were manageable and graceful. I mean I've seen some wedding bouquets that are so large that they overwhelm the bride and you could hardly see her wedding dress. These wedding bouquets are as awkward as they are ostentatious and they actually detract from the wedding design rather than enhance it.

The key to using flowers at your ceremony is not to over-decorate. Tasteful, small, well-placed arrangements impress without cluttering or overwhelming the view.

At the wedding reception, instead of having huge centerpieces on each table you can incorporate a number of trends that still use flowers in the wedding design, but aren't as costly. Depending on how many tables and how formal you are going to be, consider small terra cotta pots (or even decorated pots) of flowering plants. Fill small bowls with fruits for color and style. Place a wedding sticker on the terra cotta pot or the bowl with your names, wedding date, and a welcome message to your guests. Surround a candle with a small wreath of flowers in your wedding colors. There are many alternatives to using expensive full centerpieces of only flowers - and they look really nice, too!

If you have your heart set on having flowers, limit your costs by buying in bulk and creating your own flower arrangements. Costco offers a wide variety of flower arrangements and types so that all you have to do is supply the vases and determine where the flowers are going to go. You can get quite a lot for less than $800. In this day and age, that is quite a steal. There are also online vendors who will allow you to purchase the flowers in bulk; then all you have to do is make up the bouquets and centerpieces yourself. Here is one that specializes in wedding flowers, and you can even buy a DIY wedding flower arranging video to help you create your own wedding flower bouquets and arrangements.

Flowers are important to a wedding but if your wedding budget prohibits you from getting a lot of them, improvise and you can still incorporate some into your wedding day!