Posted by Anak Desa

 Weddings can be very expensive but many brides are finding creative ways to save money without compromising on quality. There’s nothing to stop you from getting the wedding you’ve always wanted. You just have to think a little out of the box and more creatively. Here are some ideas to get your juices flowing.

 1. Choose or find a venue that is already beautiful and lush with flowers and well kept lawns. There are usually parks or gardens with these characteristics.

 2. Plan to use wedding flowers that are readily available and in season. This will save you a lot of money. Although it may seem like a good idea at first, holding a wedding during February is not cheap. In February, flower prices are very high due to Valentine’s Day.

 3. As far as possible, hold your wedding during the festive season i.e. during Christmas or Easter when most Churches are already decorated with beautiful flowers! You just have to find a church with the type of wedding flowers that you like.

 4. If you know someone else who is getting married about the same time that you are, you can save even more money by coordinating flowers and splitting the cost.

 5. Use the internet to shop around for the best deals on flowers and consider buying from www.theflowerexchange.com. You can use a product comparison website to locate suppliers with the cheapest prices without compromising on quality. The Flower Exchange.com guarantee fresh flowers so you don’t have to worry about whether or not the flowers will be fresh when they arrive.

 6. Another money saving idea is to arrange your own flowers such as bouquets of simple roses tied together with a ribbon. If you’re not confident enough to do it, you can find simple guides online on how to arrange flowers for weddings. You can also just ask a friend or a family member to do it for you.

 7. Cheap flowers such as carnations when used in abundance so that the blooms are packed together can be quite striking. Visit some online florist websites and browse their pictures of wholesale flowers in the weddings section for some ideas.

 8. Avoid imported or exotic flowers unless they are cheaper than the ones that are locally available.

 9. Using very large arrangements can be very expensive so it’s a good idea to use as few as possible. You can save even more by limiting the number of people in your wedding so that you don’t have to do many bouquets!

Labels: wedding flowers

Posted by Lisa Nelson of Elegant Event Design October 15, 2009

Ah…one of my most favorite subjects! I just love to decorate with wedding flowers. Fresh flowers make a wedding so romantic. The right blooms in the right amounts can also make your wedding stand out from all the others.

When I plan a wedding, I could go on and on and on with flowers! The right flowers can really enhance a theme. Of course, decorating with flowers alone, can be, and is – a very expensive proposition. I am going to talk about how to use wholesale flowers to your advantage to set off the feeling and theme of your wedding – without breaking the bank.

We cannot talk about flowers without talking about theme because everything must compliment the theme of your wedding. This would include flowers, linen, food, invitations, number of guests – everything. If everything does not complement, your event becomes jumbled and non-cohesive. You also must look at your budget realistically. A black tie wedding with heavy-upgraded linens, 5 course meal, and elaborate flower arrangements for 200 people – is not going to work with a 30K budget – at least not in the DC/Baltimore area. Also, you must realize that you do not have to have a black tie wedding to have something extremely nice and elegant. Any themed wedding can be very nice and elegant – as long as it’s cohesive from beginning to end.

For a more casual fun affair, think about fun arrangements in vibrant colors. Some flowers choices that may work would be  tulips, Baby’s Breath, lily of the valley and a variety of grasses. Think about Gerber Daisies to add some color, and Peonies, Hydrangea, Dahlias to add some girth. Put your blooms in fun containers (a basket for a country affair, a seashell for a beachy theme, a fresh pot for a springy theme) and feel free to play with different shaped containers, tables and the like. For instance, submerge cut fruits and other tropical fruits in glass vase, with some lighter blooms protruding out of the top. Opt for a floral headpiece rather than a formal veil. Keep things light, airy, fresh – but always coordinated throughout.

For a fall affair, I like to use darker flowers, with vegetables, husks, wheat, and hay – to honor the harvest. For winter, try some Manzanita branches, or curly willow, hypericum berries, holly, wreathes with white and blue florals – or maybe red and orange for the holiday. For spring, wild flowers are great for a fresh wedding. Tulips are beautiful fully blown open and make a stunning presentation. Peonies are great. For summer, try something colorful, but more formal – like roses of all varieties. Gardenia is very nice – would work well as a floating bloom – but also offers lots of fragrance. If you are sensitive to smells, then this bloom is not for you.

For a more formal affair, try wholesale roses, ranunculus, all varieties of lilies (calla, etc), orchids, stephanotis and the like- in darker more subdued colors. Hydrangea also looks very nice as its size makes arrangements fuller. For a formal space that could use some height, think about tall or tall and short more formed arrangements (less airy – more roundy-moundy) and incorporate elegant and elaborate candlelight.