Splurge and Save: Ceremony
How many iterations of this question did I type out in 2018-2019 while planning my wedding? Too many. Let’s take a moment to break down flowers, pricing, and where to put your budget to work the hardest for you.
The Ceremony
There’s a lot you can do in your ceremony to make it special, but be sure to do something. These will be your primary wedding photos, so you want the magic of your wedding florals to be incorporated. You’ll notice a common theme here: spend money on things you will notice, and save on things you won’t see or remember or have photographs of.
Splurge: The Arch
If your ceremony and reception space can be one and the same (indoor weddings I’m looking at you) then I recommend splurging on one killer arch. I’m very into the broken arch, where two disconnected pillars of flowers gently curve towards one another. You have a beautiful backdrop for you ceremony, and all your reception dinner photos are you and your new spouse framed out by pillars of foliage and flowers. Why the broken shape? Generally you sit a lot closer for dinner than you stand during your vows. To keep everything to scale, we space the two sides further apart for ceremony, closer for reception.
Save: The Welcome sign.
Call me selfish, but you’ll never see the flowers, so don’t spend several hundred dollars on it. A great alternative is a welcome sign that fits the overall theme of your wedding and/or stationary, but needs no additional adornment. Watercolor floral imagery via Etsy or an ornate brass frame are two favorites of mine. I’m always happy to help you make design choices, even if they aren’t floral related, so feel free to ask!
Splurge: The Bouquets
I don’t get a lot of pushback on this one, but this is the place to splurge. Send your florist inspiration images of style/color and if you have any flowers that are really meaningful to you. Your bouquet in particular will be in close to every picture you have. Sometimes this is the place where we use a particular flower in exactly one place and nowhere else in the wedding, like blush lilac or white orchids just for the bride.
Save*: Aisle Markers
No one has ever been to a wedding and commented on the aisle markers, and to be honest, you’ll be looking at the person you are about to marry as you pass by them. However I’ve put this with a * because if you want to mark something like a bar, I can easily design that in a vessel that can be moved. Now, your aisle is marked with a statement floral arrangement that is swiftly moved to the bar before your DJ even has time to turn on the microphones for speeches. The best part? There’s no additional cost beyond your planned bar arrangements. Pictures of this coming soon!
