How to Save on Wedding Flowers: Practical Tips for Budget-Conscious Couples
Shopping around for an affordable wedding florist can be discouraging when you are greeted with high minimum spends and proposals that are thousands of dollars more than you expected.
If you’re looking for wedding flowers on a budget you may be desperately asking yourself: How do I save money on flowers for my wedding?
Throwback to when I DIY’d my own wedding flowers
Prioritize the Wedding Flowers That Matter Most
Before thinking about quantities or price points, ask yourself one crucial question:
What pictures of my wedding day are most important to me? What pictures do I want to hang in my home?
Most often the answer to this question is: photos of you and your spouse plus family photos.
Highlighted in these pictures are the personal arrangements: bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages.
Prioritizing personal flowers almost always makes sense, even with a tight budget, and often the memory of the bridal bouquet is cherished and important to a bride for years to come.
However, maybe for you it’s not the personal arrangements; maybe it’s pictures of the ceremony or candid reception photos that you look forward to.
Whatever it is that you decide is important, this will be where you will want to prioritize your wedding floral budget.
Reuse Arrangements to Stretch Your Budget
Reusing arrangements is one of the smartest ways to stretch your wedding floral budget.
If this is something you are interested in be sure to talk to your wedding florist about it from the get-go. Designing flowers with reuse in mind from the start helps everything feel cohesive while getting more mileage out of each arrangement.
Some common ways couples reuse arrangements are:
Bridesmaid bouquets used as reception centerpieces
Ceremony pillar arrangements moved to the front of the sweetheart or head table
Ceremony ground arch separated and moved to reception centerpieces
When choosing to reuse arrangements, make sure you have the logistics for moving the arrangements planned out. If you don’t want to pay a florist to stay on site to do the moving and rearranging, then make sure you have someone selected ahead of time that will be capable of re-arranging everything beautifully.
DIY Wedding Flowers: Where It Makes Sense
One of the easiest ways to save money on wedding flowers is by doing some of the floral work yourself. Creating simple centerpieces yourself can significantly lower your overall costs for wedding flowers.
This approach works especially well for:
Bud vases
Small garden-style vase arrangements
Single-variety bouquets
If you, or someone you know, has flower-arranging experience then doing more of the wedding flowers yourself and with more complex arrangements could be achievable.
That said, learning is essential. Spending time beforehand learning how to care for the flowers, how to make the specific arrangements you are planning on, and how to maximize visual impact with fewer flowers will make a big difference on your wedding day.
Also essential for any DIY effort is being realistic about the amount of time you can devote to it, and how much help you have to make it succeed.
Take some time to plan out a timeline for execution from flower pick-up > to assembly > to installation. Generally, you will pick up or receive bulk flowers a few days before your wedding and it is one of the last things you will prepare before your wedding day.
Finally, find family or friends that are willing and eager to help you with this task, and make it a memorable bonding activity.
Use Non-Floral Decor to Stretch Your Wedding Flower Budget
Large tables with small flower centerpieces can feel a little stark. Balancing out a smaller volume of flowers with other decorations that add color and texture can help to create a cohesive and full atmosphere when planning your wedding flowers on a budget.
Ideas include:
Adding elegant, draping ribbons to small aisle sprays
Using a flowy fabric on the ceremony arch
Using table chargers and colorful cloth napkins (another great DIY option)
Adding candles (not always cheaper, unless you source everything yourself)
Most Important of All: Find the Right Flower Partner
Budget-friendly wedding flowers aren’t about cutting corners. They’re about flexibility, honesty, and working with someone who understands your priorities.
Flowers are not cheap and the expertise that comes from working with a florist is worth the expense, but that does not mean that it has to break the bank.
Shop around for a florist or flower source that gives you the right combination of flexibility and expertise that you need. Ideally, find someone local and someone you feel you can trust.
For example, here at The Flower Patch, we offer a range of options designed to meet couples where they are at, with no minimum spend. We intentionally support couples looking to DIY some, all or none of their wedding flowers. Most importantly, we work to make flexible proposals that show you what is possible with your wedding floral budget.
Overall, when you focus on what truly matters to you and take the time to think creatively and plan strategically, achieving beautiful wedding flowers on a budget is not only possible but can be genuinely enjoyable to create.
If you’re local to Holland, MI and the surrounding areas (i.e. Saugatuck, Douglas, Zeeland, etc.) take a look at our budget-friendly wedding flower options for more information about how we can support you.
For more wedding tips check out these posts: