10 Ways to Maximize Your Floral Budget

Photo Credit: Charlotte Jenks Lewis Photography on Grey Likes Weddings via Lover.ly

1. Use in-season or locally grown flowers. They're a much better value than the flown-in, hothouse varieties.

2. Holidays can affect prices. Around Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, general demand for flowers increases, as do their costs. On the other hand, if your wedding is held on a holiday, the church or reception site may already be festively decorated with flowers and lights and you'll need less adornment.

3. Add greenery — such as ivory or ferns — to a bouquet or the chuppah. Greenery looks lush, and you'll find it's less expensive than flowers.

4. Choose larger blooms for your bouquets, like orchids and calla lilies. You'll need fewer of them.
 
5. Add ribbon or tulle to an arrangement — this sweet, romantic detail will make the arrangement look larger and helps keep your expenditures down.

6. Rent trees to decorate the ceremony and reception sites; they look especially romantic when the branches are woven with masses of tiny white lights.

7. Fill in empty table spots with votives or small potted plants that can also be used as wedding favors.

8. Split the cost of decorating a ceremony site with another couple getting married in your church/synagogue on the same day.

9. Let your ceremony bouquets do double-duty. Most florists can creatively repurpose them into centerpieces on reception tables.

10. Elaborate arrangements mean more of your money is going for the florist's labor than for the flowers themselves.