Planning Your Wedding on a Shoestring Budget - Decorative Flowers For The Ceremony

As far as flowers and plants as decorations are concerned, this can be a great enhancement to your ceremony.  Many churches already have floral adornments on their altars.  If you get married around the time of a church celebration, you may be able to buy a few flowers and take advantage of those that are already there.

For example, around Easter, lilies are the flower of choice in most churches.  Many people will buy Easter lilies in remembrance of their loved ones.  Offer to buy a couple of Easter lilies to add to the existing ones, and you have a beautiful decoration on the altar.

The same applies around Christmas.  Poinsettias are the flower of choice at this time of year.  Offer up a few poinsettia plants to add to those already there and you’ll have some beautiful altar decorations.

Large arrangements on an altar will only be seen from far away. Use inexpensive flowers such as carnations, or large filling flowers such as snowball mums.

If you are getting married in a church, almost all have some type of floral/tree decorations that they have all the time.  All you need to do in this situation is to add a few personal touches and you’ll have a beautiful backdrop for your ceremony. 

If you are getting married outside, take advantage of nature.  Cultivate what Mother Nature has to offer. 

Talk to your venues and see if any other brides have booked for the same day. If the two of you can coordinate flowers and split the cost, you’ll save a lot of money.  I would imagine both of you wouldn’t turn your nose up at saving a ton of money on church decorations and flowers!

Some party rental places will rent large potted plants such as tropical palms or fichus. They visually fill a lot of space, and will help frame your ceremony site or warm up your reception. Best of all, renting a potted plant is far cheaper than buying large flower arrangements. Also, you may consider purchasing these large plants and using them in your home afterwards to get more use out of them.

Don’t be afraid to call some friends who already own an artificial fichus tree to see if you can borrow them for your big day.  Most will be more than happy to offer up their trees and you can use them to decorate the reception hall.  More on that later!

Don’t try to move your ceremony flowers to the reception hall.  Many churches require you leave them anyway, but moving large arrangements can be tedious and simply not worth the time or effort.  The last thing you want is to have your reception held up waiting for flowers!

Decorating the place where you will take your vows is just as important as how you decorate your reception.  Let’s look at how to make your ceremony picture perfect!

Our next article will be about decorating the Sanctuary.

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Planning Your Wedding on a Shoestring Budget - Making Your Own Flowers

There are plenty of wholesale stores who will sell silk flowers at a greatly discounted price.  Working with silk flowers is easy and can be done by almost anyone.  You can put together all the bouquets, boutonnières, and corsages no professional training. 

Some basic equipment you’ll need is floral wire, floral tape, wire cutters, flowers, greenery, and decorative accents like baby’s breath or smaller flowers.  These instructions are mainly for silk flowers, but can be used with real flowers as well.  Silk flowers can be manipulated much easier than real ones, so keep that in mind!

Tips for creating your own flowers are abundant.  A beautifully simple idea for a gorgeous bridal bouquet is to take several white roses, bunch them together into a bouquet, wrap the bottom with floral tape tightly, and wrap satin ribbon around the stems.  Attach long pieces of satin ribbon to flow down as you hold the bouquet and it’ll be stunning!

You can use this technique with either silk or fresh flowers, and it doesn’t have to be all roses.  For a unique look, try out different flowers in your wedding colors.  You can also buy plastic nosegay holders at many discount stores and craft stores that make preparing bouquets super easy!

Don’t worry if you can see the tape or wire.  You can always disguise it with ribbon or filler.

For your bridesmaids, you can have them carry the traditional nosegay.  Assemble it in the same way outlined above for the bridal bouquet.  A very elegant look is to have each attendant carry a single flower or a few flowers put together with greenery and ribbon that they carry cradled in their arms.  These are super easy to put together.  Just take a few flowers, greenery, and accents, gather the stems together, wrap with floral tape and add ribbon.

For the boutonnières, simple is best, especially since they will be worn by the men in your wedding party.  Most guys don’t want garish flowers adorning their bodies – it’s just a guy thing! 

To put together a boutonniere, take a single flower; add a few green leaves, and maybe a sprig of baby’s breath.  Wrap the stem in floral tape tightly and voila!  Your boutonnière!  You can, if you wish, add a little bit of ribbon, but don’t go too overboard – remember the “guy thing”!

More on making your own flowers in our next article.

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