Flowers, florals, and decor oh my!

Real flowers are expensive! Can you choose a less expensive type of flower to use?

It very well could be an accurate/average price, depending on your location and what all you are getting. We will be having 40 people at our wedding, and our florals are over $2,000 (which includes my bouquet, MOH bouquet, and 4 centerpieces).

We had 65 people including 4 in the bridal party (2 bridesmaids, 2 groomsmen) and we spent less than $500.
But florals weren’t Important to me. We did nonfloral centerpieces, I made the bridal party flowers with grocery store flowers. We also used grocery store flowers to decorate the staircase.
From the florist we got my bouquet (and I should have made it. I don’t feel the quality was worth what we spent), my husband boutonnière, and flowers for our parents (again horrible quality I could have made better) Florals is probably my biggest regret. But I wasn’t looking to spend a lot, waited until the last minute to book, and went with a cheaper florist. I didn’t want to spent extra time with DIY, but I should have. The quote i got for everything plus 5 centerpieces from a better quality florist was $800-$900 I don’t remember exact amount.

Real flowers can get expensive. Especially depending on what you asked for. Can you do some fake and some real?

This was one of the biggest surprises for me, too - flowers are expensive! But so are the talented artists who design the arrangements and set everything up (which personally I have no interest in doing). Our wedding is about the same size as yours (about 75 people), and our estimate is almost exactly in line with yours (just under $4K).

Yup flowers are expensive. we're doing our own floral decor with artificial flowers. They have great quality ones these days. we have way better use for that money lol

We have centerpieces but flowers aren’t in them. We are using fake flowers for my bridesmaids, my bouquet toss & to decorate certain parts of the gazebo where the ceremony will be at. We have. $400 budget for flowers & I want to use that for my bouquet, boutonnières, the cake & 2 wrist corsages. Hopefully we won’t go over too much.

Real flowers can get expensive but the reason it is is 1) weddings are jacked up in price because vendors know many won't question it 2)they are often out of season and 3) the labor/time involved. 2 and 3 are reasonable but 1 is not.
Take a look at Thumbtack.com and be specific when getting a quote of what you need and what your budget is. If they can't/won't work with that, move to the next one.

More than the size of the guest list (except as it impacts the number of centerpieces needed), some of the big drivers of floral costs are: location/market; types of flowers/what's available & in season. We live in a high cost So Cal area, but even here, daughter found comparison shopping to have huge benefits. She wanted roses, hydrangea, & greenery bouquets, arrangements, etc. -- all are relatively inexpensive and were readily available. She wanted them to look pretty and classic, but nothing extravagant. She aggressively comparison shopped and found a woman who only does weddings/events (not a full-service florist) who both did wonderful work and was a delight to work with who charged her more than $1000 less than her next lowest bid. (I'm pretty sure she found her either on WW or The Knot by specifically looking at vendors who mentioned being lower cost/budget friendly/etc.) She had a pretty big order, including: her bouquet; 5 BMs; 2 FGs; 13 boutonnieres; 2 corsages; a pretty large 3-piece altar arrangement (repurposed for the Sweetheart table at the reception); 13 low reception centerpieces; 4 smaller centerpieces for the cocktail hour; flowers for the cake; rose petals for both sides of a 50' aisle; and probably a few other things. Including delivery, tax, & set up, she paid $1700 (the next lowest bid was ~$2800). So my advice is to keep looking for other options and see if you can't find someone who can work with your budget. I have a niece on the east coast who got her wedding flowers through a higher end grocery (Wegman's); I don't know the specific costs, but she thought they were a steal compared with the quotes she got from florists and they were gorgeous. Explore every option! (Also, Costco has mail order wedding floral packages....) Good luck!

I like the previous poster’s idea of using both fake and real if you are at all open to fake. We use Something Borrowed Blooms (rent and return) for our recent micro wedding and it was so nice. We used their centerpieces, floral runners, bouts and bouquets. It saved us a fortune. Good luck!

I’m doing fiftyflowers.com. I can’t recommend it enough to you! It’s all real flowers at wholesale cost. With the amount that you want you could easily get all of your floral for probably around 500. They give you “and get the look ideas “ where they tell you which flowers to get a certain look. And they also do already arranged bouquets and centerpieces if you want that as well. I live in a state where floral is super expensive. One florist that I spoke to charges a minimum of 8 grand. I personally cannot do fake floral, and I knew I wanted a lot of floral, so I went on the site and I pre-ordered a few things. That was my deciding factor and then I put my order. It’s seriously the best site I’ve ever seen.

View Quoted Comment I've only heard good things sbout this site. The prices are super cheap even on exotics.

View Quoted Comment Dude yes! The only issues that I’ve seen are when people order super delicate flowers and there is an issue with shipping or they don’t follow the proper care instructions, which aren’t that hard to follow. Because of this we opted to do mostly roses and other more sturdier floral mixed in with a few delicates that hold up better throughout shipping just in case there’s a delay or something. We preordered some just to see what we are getting ourselves into and they looked great.

You should get at least 3 (but no more than 5) quotes from vendors, giving them the same specifications, to get a good idea what the price range is. Never go with the cheapest or the most expensive. Pick the price in the middle and you can feel secure in the price.

We are doing silk flowers due to the much more manageable cost and they will last forever! There are a lot of options for fake flowers. They have silks, wood arrangements, all kinds of different ones. Plus, if you don't want to keep all your arrangements you can sell them after the wedding since they will last forever!

All of this has been an eye opening experience!

Ways you may cut costs:

1. Delivery and set up fees

2. Referral discount (example, if I hire a certain wedding planner I get a discount at a particular florist)

2. Order seasonal items from a local farm

I have been quoted **** for flowers. I live in Columbus, OH and am getting married in rural Ohio. Delivery and setup fees to another location is very pricey. If I don't spend enough at a venue, they don't offer the delivery service. I am not sure what I am going to do.

As a flower and vegetable gardener myself, I will be making sure my flowers are locally sourced. However, I am not sure about anything else.

Hmm, that's tricky! I don't think $3500 is necessarily out of the questions but it's definitely more than I paid for personally. We had about 110-120 guests and spent close to that. I'm so sure not an expert on getting that down to $700 to $1000, but here are a couple of ideas.

1. repurpose bridesmaids bouquets for centerpieces. We did this and it ended up looking really pretty! that for sure saved us some

2. Have fewer tables so there are fewer tables that "need" centerpieces. If you're having a buffet not necessarily every guest needs a place to sit. Guests can eat around high boys etc. and they might be eating at different times (this is not bad etiquette - this is advice from my wedding planner)

3. I know that the bigger the arrangement/bouquet the greater the cost, so opting for something smaller could help.

4. Anything architectural like hanging florals and arches can add up

5. Talk to your florist about your expectations and price. Ask them what's possible and what they could recommend to cut costs.