Reception Floral Arrangements? Do I need them?

I think it depends on your theme. My sis just had candles but there is another bride using lanters and some ivy. Look on pintrest or off beat bridw

I had them in our quote, but ultimately decided I couldn't spend that kind of money. I'm making our table numbers be the primary focus of the centerpieces.

I'm partial to flowers, of course, but I also understand budgetary issues. Why not cut your order in half? Do flowers on half the tables, and candles and rose petals on the others (coordinate your colors, and you should be fine).

Shop around if you have your heart set on flowers. I'm doing a very large floral centerpiece and I was quoted at one place $4800 I shopped around a little bit and was able to get very close to what I want for half the price the first florist quoted. $1300 is a great budget.

A friend of mine thinks spending money on flowers is crazy so she's doing floating votives wiith little accents.

It's all about what you like. If you love flowers and have your heart set on them then go for otherwise you can get a lot of other ideas that don't include flowers.

@Stephanie M- To be honest, I am not a flower person. My fiance has bought me flowers on all sorts of occassions and day 3 they are usually dead because I forget to water them! They are very nice to look at but its just not something I am willing to "splurge" on. Its not an important piece of our wedding so I am going to be picku about what we spend on it.

You can have floating candles in vases or color branches in vases. We went to an Arts & Crafts store which has a lot of different ideas.

Let your creative juices flow! I'm not having any. Just pretty fake candles and table numbers.

Im doing a lot of the candles and we found on oriental trading site this stuff that looks like broken colored glass. When you put candles all around and spread that stuff out in a darker room it looks fantastic. And super cheap too

We made wood windows with window boxes on both sides. They will have wood flowers in the boxes painted our color and LED tea lights in the bottom of the window boxes so the flowers will have a glow. Our favors will be a huge part of the table decorations. Wooden frames with pix of us in them and a note that says, "Please enjoy your frame with your personal photos. Made with thanks and love, C&L."

Another bride on here has made centerpieces with lanterns. There are tons of ideas out there. Real flowers can be so expensive and really are not necessary to have amazing centerpieces.

I'm not doing floral centerpieces. I'm using faux branches in a glass vase (with some diamond ribbon on it), lanterns, and pumpkins. They look gorgeous. I'm spending $500 on flowers because we're just doing bouquets, bouts, and corsages with live flowers. My centerpieces are costing me less than 300 dollars for 12 tables.

I'm not using real flowers for centerpieces. I bought big vases at the craft store (with 50% off coupons) and we're putting sparkly sand in the bottom, some fake flowers and branches, and a candle. Much cheaper than flowers.

I'm not doing floral centerpieces either. To save space I will be putting our favors as the centerpieces with mason jars and candles.

Jump on Pinterest! You will be able to find millions of unique ideas for centerpieces other than flowers. Do you love to read? Stack some of your favorite books in the middle of the table. Set a mason jar filled with baby's breath and you are good to go.

Not doing floral centerpieces at all - the only flowers are going to be in our aisle markers...we aren't even having real bouquets - we are doing birch wood/corn husk flowers.

For our centerpieces we are doing two or three mason jars covered in acrylic vase gems per table and putting in a fake candle so it looks like stained glass.

In the middle of the centerpieces will be the table numbers - higher than the jars but not too high as to block the view and flow of conversation.

All in all it's going to cost me about $250 for 24 centerpieces - using coupons from hobby lobby/joannes/michaels.

Definitely look around for various quotes and if you opt not to do flowers, no one is really going to notice.

These are our centerpieces (minus the tea lights). You don't need flowers! I thought about it at first and now that I have these I'm absolutely in love and wouldn't add flowers at all. If you do decide to go for flowers definitely shop around.

I'm not a flower person, so for centerpieces I am doing lanterns with a candle and seashells inside. It will be super cheap to put together too!

You can do all sorts of non-floral centerpieces.

The budget calculator divides your total budget into percentages for each category. You can spend more or less that the category recommendation -- just adjust another category down or up to compensate so your total budget figure remains the same.

If flowers are not important to you, you can decrease that category and increase another.

What about sticking to florals that are in season at the time of your wedding? I'm doing all tulips, which is perfect for a March wedding. I'm getting 15 centerpieces, and all my bridal party florals for $1000. And that's NY prices.

I'm doing simple bouquets as centerpieces. Getting all of my flowers from the florist section of my favorite grocery store-Wegmans for under $900.