Ideas For Cheap Wedding Flowers

These tips for cheap wedding flowers are essential as it’s easy for your wedding flower budget to spiral out of control. Flowers are beautiful and make any reception look stunning. But with your table centrepieces, pedestals, bouquets and buttonholes it can get really expensive.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to reduce your wedding flower costs. So here are just some of my favourite tricks for cheap wedding flowers:

Get a relative to help out

Having a relative help out with your wedding flowers is a great way to them involved. It’s also a great way to save money!

Ask around and see if anyone is a dab-hand at flower arranging. They can then help you create any arrangements you need for the reception or tables.

If you're feeling brave, or have a relative who is good with flowers, you could try making your own buttonholes and bridal bouquet. Simple arrangements are easier than you think. Check out these 'how to' videos for making your own buttonholes and a hand tied bridal bouquet.

Use the flowers from the ceremony at the reception

Often it’s not necessary to double up on flowers at both the ceremony and reception. They’re often the same type of floral arrangement and so once the ceremony is over, the flowers can then be used at the reception. At around £75 - £150 for a pedestal arrangement, you could save yourself a significant amount.

Bear in mind that it may not be possible to remove flowers from the ceremony venue, although some may let you take them temporarily, as long as you return them – this is especially true of churches.

Check if the venue supplies flowers

Some venues insist that you use their florists for the wedding flowers at the venue. If this is the case, be careful as you’re likely to get charged through the roof. Try and stick to simpler arrangements or even balloons as this will keep your costs to a minimum.

Check if the church supplies flowers

Many churches have specific rules when it comes to flowers in the church. They may insist that the wedding flowers are done through the church committee, whereby the church flower arrangers will provide the arrangements for a small fee. This is actually one the best ways to get cheap wedding flowers.

If a church is popular for marriages, the same flowers may then be used for all ceremonies that particular weekend. This is often a good thing, as you will usually pay a low set charge and get cheap wedding flowers, however it means you may not get control over the type of flowers on the day.

If this is the case, speak to the celebrant or flower committee and ask if you can specify flowers for that weekend. If you can get hold of the other couples getting married, you could agree to have the same types of wedding flowers. You could then approach the flower arrangers to request your preference.

Bear in mind that with this scenario, you won’t be able to use the church flowers at your reception as other couples will need them.

Another point to note is that at certain times of the year, it is traditional not have flowers in the church – check with your celebrant.

Use a hand-tied bridal bouquet

The bridal bouquet can be one of the most expensive flower items you buy. They come in all shapes and sizes, but the general rule is that the more complicated you go, the more expensive the bouquet will be.

I found that you can significantly lower the costs for this item by getting a hand tied arrangement. It generally halved the quote! Hand tied bouquets are not hard to create, and so you could even have a go at making your own. Check out this instructional video on how to make a hand tied arrangement.

Use corsages for the bridesmaids, rather than small bouquets

A corsage is a small arrangement that sits on the wrist. They’re often made up of one, two or three main flowers and some greenery. They’re then secured to the wrist using ribbon or tie. Because they use less flowers, they’re much cheaper than bouquets.

An added benefit is that they allow the bridesmaids to have both their hands free during the day so they can hold your bouquet, bag or drink.

Choose simple button holes

You can easily triple or quadruple the price of your buttonholes by choosing different flowers or multiple flower buttonholes. Go for simple, one flower buttonholes and you’ll keep your costs to a minimum. You can even try making your own with this 'how to video for a buttonhole'

For cheap wedding flowers use single stems instead of bouquets or arrangements

The cost of arrangements or bouquets is usually dependant on the cost of the flowers used and the complexity of the arrangement. You can cut your costs dramatically by going for single flower arrangements.

The best cheap wedding flowers are simple and elegant. Single flower arrangements make a great bridal bouquet or table centrepiece. Flowers such as lilies or exotic flowers make stunning single bouquets, and large flowers such as peonies or camellias work great as single flower centrepieces.

Hire any accessories you may need instead of buying them

Before you rush out to buy vases for your table decorations, have you considered hiring them?

Most florists hire any equipment you need to create fabulous floral arrangements. You can usually hire a variety of different styles and shaped vases, pedestals and containers for all your flower arranging needs.

Buy flowers that are in season

By choosing flowers that are grown in the UK and are in season, you will ensure that you get the freshest, cheapest, best quality flowers. Check with your florist which flowers are in season to use on your big day.

Supermarket flowers make cheap wedding flowers

If you really want to cut the costs of your wedding flowers, one way to do this is to buy supermarket flowers. Choosing this route is probably the cheapest option, but there are serious drawbacks. First is the quality of the flowers – you never know what you may get. There is also the worry of them not having your particular choice of flower in stock and if they do, will they last all day? It’s a high-risk cost-cutting strategy, but highly cost effective. The choice is yours.

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