Your wedding flowers will play an important part in the look of your big day. Whether you choose to just have a bouquet and buttonholes or to decorate your entire venue, your wedding flowers will set the tone and theme for the day.
But since most of us aren’t secretly Alan Titchmarsh, where do you start with choosing your wedding flowers? Do you go fresh or silk? What’s in season? What flower works together? What can you get for your budget?
We asked a range of professional florists for their best tips and advice on how to choose your wedding flowers.
Should I Use A Florist Or Do My Own Wedding Flowers?
The first decision you’ll need to make is whether you are going to use a florist to arrange your wedding flowers or do it yourself. On average, the cost of wedding flowers feom a florist will be 1.200-1.500 $ which might make some brides immediately want to go DIY.
It might not be more cost-effective to do them yourself, however. “Getting and arranging flowers is a lot of work and would leave the bride and bridal party exhausted and stressed out. Although it might initially seem to be cheaper, by the time the bride gets all the supplies needed and puts the work in, it really isn’t cheaper,” explains expert florists.
Putting together your own flowers isn’t an easy task. A florist will have the creativity to turn your ideas into a reality; they’ll source, arrange and deliver your flowers for you; they’ll know what last-minute changes to make if flowers aren’t suddenly available; they’ll know when to put together an arrangement to make sure it looks as fresh as possible. This isn’t something that most brides want to be doing the night before the wedding. It really can be worth paying for the experience, creativity and skill of a florist.
Remember, your wedding photos will be with you for a lifetime; your flower choice can make all the difference to the look of your day.
What’s The Most Important Thing To Consider When Choosing Wedding Flowers?
Your budget, undoubtedly. Work this out first and then meet with a couple of different florists to see what they can offer for what you can afford.
Prioritise flowers that are ‘must haves’ and ‘nice to haves’, e.g. bouquets for your bridal party vs a centrepiece for every table. There’s no point coming to a florist with a Pinterest board of flower arches, centrepieces and ceiling displays, plus flower crowns for all your bridesmaids, if you’ve got a tight budget. As we mentioned, you’re looking at £1,000 as a minimum spend on flowers and that’s likely for just bridal party flowers and some venue décor.
Be upfront from the start. Florist are very creative and skilled – they can design something beautiful within your budget, we promise.
The space in which you choose to have your ceremony and reception is a vital thing to consider when thinking about flower arrangements.
If you have a vast ceremony room, like a castle with high ceilings, then you’ll need large arrangements that won’t get lost in the space. In contrast, registry offices often let you bring in your own decorations but you will only have a short time to set up and take them down, so elaborate floral hangings aren’t going to work. Some arrangements will simply not be possible in your venue, so speak to your venue’s wedding team about what has worked before.
