Floristry on a budget

Sounds unlikely that you’ll find a decent florist for that price for everything. You pay more for florists because there is (should be!) a guaranteed high quality and longevity to the flowers, plus you pay the labour costs, glassware hire charges etc. - it takes a lot longer to put flowers together and in place than people realise, and when you are doing it for someone else then you have to take a lot more care because your business reputation depends on their happiness.

If you can afford it, when not get the florist to do just the bouquets/buttonholes and then do the rest yourself? It’s not unusual and can save you plenty of money.

Have you considered doing your own? We are doing our own flowers with the help of a friend who has some experience! We are having a mix of dried and artificial and doing all arrangements including bouquets and button holes ourselves.

I suppose it all comes down to your priorities, and your ideal photos too. If the whole room won't be photographed a lot, maybe just have them at one focal point. At a typical registry office for example, they would just have one arrangement on the signing table that's it.

Bear in mind, you can re-use it for the top table at dinner.

Or make them yourself, why not but might be easier to work with dried flowers so you can do them well in advance.

View quoted message Thanks for your advice, that was my back up plan. I shouldn't have a problem doing the centrepieces myself and they will cost less than £70 if I get crafty with some hessian and a glue gun


I defo would not do the bouquets myself, as I doubt I could do them as great and I would be a hot mess haha

View quoted message I’m a little too nervous to try and do it all myself. But I think I will defo try and do half myself now, I did wonder if £400 for all was being slightly naive 🙈

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I’m super lucky as my mum is a florist with her own shop, so she’s got free rein and is paying just wholesale prices. I do know that it takes a huge effort to get things just right and I wouldn’t dream of trying to do any of it myself, in spite of having grown up helping!

Doing jam jars for tables centres is simple enough though, and quite popular, so you could do them really effectively without too much stress. My mum often provides the flowers for people to do that sort of thing, which means she doesn’t charge a huge fee on top of the wholesale price. Just make sure you leave yourself enough time to get them done!

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Reusing the signing table flowers is a great idea! Thanks for that

Looks like I will have to increase my budget or do some of the rest of it myself. The centrepieces shouldn’t be out of my capabilities

Agree with the moving signing table flowers- also reuse your flowers and bridesmaid flowers on top table in vases or set them in front of your cake! There are also some faux floral options, you can rent silk/faux floral bouquets, there are also some on Etsy 😌

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Reusing the bouquets is also a great idea, we can always take them back out the jars/vases if we want them after the breakfast. I am yet to find faux floral arrangements that I like, but i will keep looking if its the best option

My florist charged £60 for my bouquet and my OHs buttonhole, so yes, I'd say £400 is optimistic for bridesmaids & venue decor as well!!!

I would suggest getting your bouquet done professionally and DIYing the reception flowers - either bulk buy one or two varieties and have single-variety vases (easier than arranging multiple types of flowers in one vase) or if you know people who grow lots of flowers, ask them to donate and go for a mix.

If you don't want to pay for your bridesmaids to have professional bouquets, you could either get them to carry a single stem (e.g. one rose) with a ribbon round it, or a bunch. One of my friends bought bunches of tulips from the supermarket and just wrapped silver paper around the stems for her girls to carry.

View quoted message My Fiancé did actually say “Just go Sainsbury’s!” Hahaha and I have thought more about it, its defo an option if we’re too close to the budget or we end up leaving it too late due to indecision.


I’m emailed a few florist so I’ll meet with them and then decide from then when I see what I’m quoted. Thanks for your advice

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To be honest, I was tempted to go for one of the supermarket bouquets and just take the cellophane wrapping off, but I love flowers, we weren't spending much on anything else, and it was the one time in my life I was going to be able to order a bunch of flowers that were exactly what I wanted, so we went for it. We gave the buttonhole to an elderly neighbour who couldn't come to the wedding and took the bouquet with us to decorate our honeymoon cottage, so we definitely got value for money out of it!

I met with my florist last week and she had some good ideas for reusing flowers and other decorative items. For example we are having vintage style hurricane lanterns down the aisle then she is going to reuse them for the table centrepieces and put a circle of flowers on oasis round them. She also suggested using my bouquet next to the cake. I only have one adult bridesmaid so she suggested wrist corsages for the younger girls on a bracelet with Velcro. For the staircase and balcony she gave me three options- all fresh, half fresh and half fake and all fake. I thought these were good ways to keep costs down!
My sister did her some of her own flowers when she got married by buying white roses from M&S and watching a lot of You Tube videos! Good luck

Have you considered a grower rather than a florist? They are often quite a bit cheaper.

I got four bouquets, three centerpieces and a buttonhole for £300 from my local florist, I gave my florist a budget to work to and she was fine with that.


Does mean I'm not getting many roses though as they are expensive, I'm getting a few seasonal and cheaper flowers instead but I think I prefer what I'm getting as it's more unique and fits the time of year!
Worth an ask.

View quoted message Oh wow thats pretty good!


I have asked the in house florist for the venue and she said it would be closer to £500 for what I wanted 😊 I’m going to have a meeting with her in a couple weeks to have a chat about it all

Thanks for your advice everyone 😊 Re-using is definitely something I will be doing now to help keep costs down x

View quoted message Hi Karisma, I’ve also found Triangle Nursery quite useful as they sell to normal customers at whole sale price. They also sell ready made fresh garlands at £22 for 6ft, which is super cheap. Worth a quick look x

View quoted message Hey Pamela, triangle nursery is where I got the price of £200 if I DIY it. I quite liked there wedding boxes aswell. I didn't see the garlands though, I’ll go and have another look, Thanks x