Flowers, flowers, flowers! If you are anything like me you want that overflowing luxurious look of flowers everywhere. Thankfully there are definitely ways to give you that look without spending a fortune!
Here’s how we transformed our wedding into a fairytale french garden without breaking the bank.
First and foremost – choose flowers that are in season and can be sourced locally.
Because our wedding was in September I had to forgo my favourite flower – peonies. I hated that I couldn’t include them but it would have cost a fortune to have the florist bring them in.
So we went with the following:
garden roses (a less expensive version of the typical rose but to me has a more natural, and lovely look)
Ranunculas
Lysianthus
Spray Roses
Freesia (our florist happened to be from a family who has a freesia farm so this was a very low cost yet gorgeous option!)
Lavender
Lambs Ear (for texture)
Dusty Miller
Bridal Bouquet
– Order posies (smaller bouquets) for all of your bridesmaids. This cut at least a couple hundred dollars from the end quote and they were still lovely and gorgeous!
– Don’t dictate the type of flower petal you want for the aisle. I was fine with anything that was white. It didn’t HAVE to be roses. Actually the effect of many different types and shapes of petals was absolutely stunning.
– Go with simple single blooms for the aisle decor
– Reuse flowers from the ceremony for the reception and from the reception for the morning after brunch.
– Go with a local florist – this is a given for all of your suppliers/vendors. Not only are you cutting down on the carbon footprint of your wedding, but it cuts down on your costs too! I had many suggestions from friends for florists in Toronto, but then you have to pay for a huge travel fee (usually a few hundred dollars). So I decided to use only local suppliers for the entire wedding – it helped that most of them were already part of the wedluxe gliteratti!
We chose Pauline VanderKuip of ‘My Bouquet’ located in Niagara on the Lake. We met with many local florists, but Pauline seemed to understand our vision the best. Take your time during these meetings. Ask the florists as many questions as you can think of and choose them only if you are sure that they understand you and the look you want.
Stay tuned for “The Flowers – Part 2” to see how I utilized these cost saving tricks to create my dream of a french garden at the ceremony and the reception.
