How to get the most out of your wedding flowers

Within this past year we have all felt the harsh setbacks of the struggling economy. No matter who you are and where you are from we are all trying to find ways to cut costs, reuse what we have and all around save money. The Wild Orchid takes pride in making its wedding services available to all types of clients (from weddings, weekly accounts, special events and so on) and all types of budgets.

 These days weddings can cost more than expected but there are many ways for you to have an incredible wedding on a fixed budget. When meeting with your wedding florist/floral designer don’t be shy on asking what could be done to make the cost more efficient.
 I would like to share with you ideas I share with my clients. Since flowers only last for so long I try and encourage brides to use/reuse the wedding flowers as much as possible during the event. Here are a few tips and ideas you should consider when making your wedding flower plans.
- Ask your designer if the have vases or containers they rent out.

- Try meeting with a few small/home based designers rather than flower shops downtown (they tend to be more expensive.

-Visit the dollar store or craft store and search for sales on vases or containers.

- Use large full flowers to create arrangements.

- If you like a more modern clean cut look check out some submerged or floating flowers in
glass vases for centerpieces.

- Place empty bouquet vases along the head table or other tables during the reception to put the bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets in to double as centerpieces (plus you don’t want to carry your bouquet around all day so put it where it can be enjoyed.)

- Use the chair flowers from the ceremony on the buffet table, cocktail tables, cake table, bathrooms, and head table and so on.

- Bring the ceremony arrangements into the reception area.

- Rather than corsages or a hair wreath try doing hair flowers.

- I encourage you to have guests take flowers home with them (not the rented vases) or please donate the flowers to local rest homes. I always donate to local rest homes and it brings big smiles to people faces.

A few things that I do not recommend to clients or things you should think about:
- Don’t put flowers where they will not be seen or noticed, why spend the money on something people will not see.

- If you are getting married in the summer think about flowers that will hold up in the heat, the last thing you want is wilting drooping flowers.
- Silk or fake flowers tend to be more expensive than fresh flowers.
- I really do not recommend doing the flowers yourself or having family or friends do them. This is supposed to be your day and you all should enjoy it and not have to deal with the stress of extra work (speaking from plenty experience.)
- Not everything you see in magazines or online are practical, by this I mean a bouquet of poppies will last minutes before the flowers begin to wilt.
I hope this bit of advice helps you when planning your big day and good luck! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me, I would love to hear from you.

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