How to Save Money on Wedding Flowers
If you go to a florist, and you are a bride on a budget… you’ll probably find yourself floored by the price, but all is not lost. You can still afford nice flowers for the wedding. Here are the 3 basic purchasing options that I encountered during my search:
Local Florist
I visited several florists with the same information. I am getting married on a budget, what can you do that is simple and inexpensive? The minimum quote I got was $1000, and that was for very inexpensive flowers (think carnations). I have to say though, with a professional florist, you can expect a beautiful flower set-up at you wedding, and they should base relatively labor free.
Web-based florist
Proflowers has been a favorite mine for long time. I generally order for someone living in another state, I can count on them being in perfect shape. I have ordered from them probably fifty times. They guarantee 100% satisfaction, so the one time when the bouquet was slightly damaged by a careless mail carrier, they were promptly replaced. Proflowers has excellent packaging, which is probably the main reason why everything arrives so reliably. The downside to Proflowers, is that there is a little bit of labor involved. Just like a bouquet you might get from the store, you still need to cut the ends and place the flowers in the vase. Depending on the vase configuration, you may need to do a bit of rearranging. I want to also mention that there are many other flower dealers online, I just personally started using Proflowers 10 years ago and have been satisfied with the service and price.
The Grocery Store
You see bouquets there all the time, did it ever occur to you that they also put flowers together for events? Because the employees are part of the Grocery store, their labor and overhead is generally quite a bit cheaper than the flower shop. Many grocery stores will also deliver and set up for a reasonable fee. I found a grocer (Econo Foods) who had gorgeous flowers and a full time flower person very near the church and reception location. I decided to use the grocery store, so I wouldn’t have to worry about labor. It also was easier for my mother to see a tangible example (why the 20 boquets I have sent her over the years from Proflowers wasn’t enough I do not know).
The wedding will be held summer of 2012. As soon as I have photos from the wedding. Flower pictures, will be added to this article.