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reena

Ideal_Rock
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What are you spending/what did you spend on flowers for your wedding?

Sorry to be so blunt, but I need to get some ballpark idea of budget. I know it will totally vary based on size of wedding party, type of flowers, etc . . . but I''m curious to see what others are paying.

Thanks in advance!
 

Morticia

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Hey Reena, I saw a post very similar to your question on The Knot. Most people were spending between $1,500 to 3K on flowers.

Having flowers that aren't in season, the month of your wedding, will raise the costs. I know that.

I want peonies so bad but they are only in season May and June here so it probably won't happen.
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jellybean

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I really should be making dinner instead of reminising about my wedding almost 6 year ago
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...anyway...

Our wedding was in the summer of 1999 and we spent about $2,000 on flowers. That included both the attendants, the church and the reception. I spent the majority on the attendants' flowers. My bouquet was stephanotis, white and peach roses with a slight amount of greenery. My bridesmaids' were ivory and peach roses and small lilac wax flowers, also with a small amount of statice. I should find a pic to scan b/c they were awesome! Needless to say I was really into roses. Oh, and I had 9 bridesmaids and groomsmen, and two flower girls (that had baskets of roses).
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For the reception I saved $$ by ordering a standard "sunshine bouquet" from my local grocery store's floral department. I think if you were to buy the bouquet in the store it was like $7.99 but since I ordered in bulk the bouquets came down to about $5 each. And they weren't chintzy either - people thought we spent a lot more than we did on our reception flowers.

One of my girlfriends did her whole wedding with silk flowers and spent total around $400. It personally wasn't my cup of tea (and I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, just that I didn't want to do it) b/c they looked like silk. She had a big wedding too but decided to put the $$ toward her honeymoon. That's what worked for her. Oh, she also had her cousin make all the bouquets.

Make sure when you're looking at flowers you know what's in season. For example, roses are cheaper in the summer, but if you have a Valentine's Day wedding, the price skyrockets; if your wedding is at Christmas and want exotic tropical flowers, it too will cost more. There are websites that can tell you what's good for what season.

ETA - I was posting at the same time as Morticia -- great minds think alike!
 

curlygirl

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Oh Reena, you are so lucky to be out of NYC although I''m sure the SD prices aren''t that far off! I''m just beginning the florist research and it pretty much sucks. My reception venue requires you to use one of their 8 house florists and they are just insane. Fortunately the bridal party consists of just me and my sister (MOH) and my FI and his best man. And the church needs minimal decor--maybe 2 arrangements on the altar and I''m not doing anything on the pews. OK, so ballpark for a nice small arrangement is $150 per table! And I think I may need some kind of arrangements for the stations during the cocktail hour which will be bigger so those may be around $250-300. Also, my wedding is in February so the prices are a little lower but the choices are also fewer. It''s such a major expense for something that is going to die--it just kills me!
 

MelissaSue

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I just got home from meeting with the florist!! I'm so excited. My wedding is basically going to be all roses. pinks and whites..
Ballpark estimate is going to be $1000 plus tax. Its probably going to increase a little bit..as I think I want to add a little more, and there are some things I may get from not the florist (petals, mirrors).. but I'm pretty happy with what I'm getting for the price

includes-

my bouquet

BM bouquets (4)

Flowergirl baskets with petals (2)

corsages for moms and grandmas (4)

Church decorations- 6 pew flowers, two altar arrangements, one unity candle "long and low" arrangement - we are hoping that the pew flowers will double as cake table flowers and the unity candly arrangement can be our sweetheart table arrangement. We are also planning on using the other arrangements at the reception as well..

Thirteen centerpieces (5 roses each with vases and ribbons)

I don't want to do boutoneires.. I think they are goofy..

ETA: Also includes aisle runner and two stand rentals for the altar arrangements.
 

gingerBcookie

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I was just going to post the same question! I ''ve only met with one florist so fa and the price she quoted me blew me away ~$4000 for my bouquet, 4 bms, flower girl, 17 corsages/boutenierre, 18 centerpieces, arch for ceremony.
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ouch.

I called my recently wedded friends and they both spent less than $1500 and their flowers wer very nice and I didn''t feel like they were "flower stingy" weddings.

I''m gonna look around some more.
 

LollyBear

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Right now my bill is at $1522 to be exact. I know it will go up after my final meeting with the florist (I have some additions to make), but I won''t allow it to exceed $2000.
 

Mara

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Locally here in CA it probably would have been about $2000 for flowers and that would just be basics...aka roses or tulips with greenery...pretty but nothing super special and no tropicals etc.

In Hawaii, I started out with a budget of $800 for flowers and ended up closing out at $1200 but we got EVERYTHING we wanted and more...not just all the bridal party flowers, but we also got fresh orchid leis for all the bridal party, I got about 120 orchid stems split down 6 vases as the 'centerpieces' on the tables, we got hundreds upon hundreds of loose orchids for putting in their rooms when they arrived and also my 'walkway' down the 'aisle' (grass) was all orchids and plumeria...a carpet of them. Corsages for the mom's and grandmas etc.

Here locally I was going to do roses or tulips or a mix with lots of greenery....but in Hawaii I knew we HAD to do orchids, doing anything else just seemed out of place.

So we were VERY pleased, esp as 99.9% of the flowers were orchids which on the mainland here are super expensive and 'tropical'...but in Hawaii they were pretty cheap!

Oh and an awesome perk is that our bouquet was featured in the Wedding Channel magazine this spring/summer...!
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reena

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wow -- thanks everyone! the lady who is helping us with our wedding told us to budget an absolutely absurd amount of money for flowers, and i just wanted to make sure i wasn''t completely off base in telling her no way!
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i am meeting with a florist for the first time tonight, so we''ll see how it goes . . . our wedding is outside in a fairly lush garden area, so i''m hoping we can keep it rather minimal -- i don''t want to overdo the florals.
 

youngster

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Hi Reena,
I went to a wedding/reception a couple of weeks ago held in a lush outdoor garden setting. The bride and her attendants bouquets were quite nice. But, they had no formal floral arrangements on the tables, but did candles and rose petals. (It was a 5 pm wedding.) There were floral arrangments on the buffet and on the cake. They used several inches of rose petals to line both sides of the aisle, which looked great on the green green lawn. But, honestly, the outstanding setting with so much being in bloom required the use of no other flowers. It really would have been over-kill I think. So, depending on what''s blooming when you are being married, you might not have to spend too much. Also, even though I know that the bride''s bouquet wasn''t picked from that garden that day, it looked like it was. The flowers she carried fit in well in that setting and what was blooming, which was a nice touch I thought.
 

teebee

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I was about to ask the same question, too.

I''m planning on contacting a couple of florists in the next week or so and was wanting to have a ballpark in mind... I''m really hoping to keep it under $1500. One thing that will hopefully keep our budget down is that we won''t be doing any floral decorations in the chapel (it''s a glass chapel in the woods, I just don''t think any sort of decoration can enhance its beauty).

However, I''ve really got my heart set on using some orchids (although not exclusively, but I''m stuck on a fresh citrusy green color theme right now) and that can get very expensive, very quickly ~ so centerpieces will probably be very simple. Like, maybe glass cylinder containers filled with water & 1 orchid stem along with votives and glass beads? Or even hurricane vases filled with limes then votives, glass beads, and a few scattered orchid blooms? I dunno... I guess my priorities are the bouquets & bouts over the centerpieces. I''ve also found out that the hotel where we are having the reception provides some additional greenery on the food tables which is helpful (and a pleasant surprise). Oh, and we are having 3 bridesmaids, 3 groomsmen, 4 sets of parents, 1 set of grandparents, and probably around 80 guests...

I guess since I haven''t actually spoken to a florist, I could be totally off on my budget but if it is much higher than $1500, I will have to rethink my ''vision''.
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ame

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My total flower price was 650. That included my bouquet, a replica to toss, 15 gallons of rosepetals (blue pacific) for the reception tables and cake, 2 mothers corsages, 3 groom bouteniers (I picked a short living bloom), 4 bridesmaid bouquets, 2 father bouts, 4 groomsman bouts, a grandpa bout, and 3 grandmother corsages.
 

elepri

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It really depends on many factors, particularly, how big the wedding is. Those centerpieces really add up. A friend of mine just spent about $20k on flowers, which i thought was absurd, especially consdering that they were mostly dead and our bouquets fell apart while we were still taking pictures before the ceremony. For my wedding, we spent almost $4k (including taxes and the 15% service charge) on our relatively small (80 ppl) wedding but we did have a lot of flowers and they were gorgeous.
 

teebee

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
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Found it ~ here is a pic of what I was trying to describe: orchid stem submerged in water in glass cylinder, from InStyle Weddings. Oh, and I rethought what I said about my priority being bouquets & bouts ~ scratch the bouts being a priority, as long as they are in the right color family then that is really all that matters to me.

InStyleCenterpieces.jpg
 

moremoremore

Ideal_Rock
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Those are SO pretty!

Well, if I recall...so I'm probably off....there was a 4 a 5 and maybe another 5 and a maybe a few 0 or maybe a 7 but I'm not telling in what order LOL.... I actually don't remember exactly......but this is NY money people LMAO. OK, I was out of my mind but I just love flowers! Love them. And we had the money...so whatever. Was for 120 people and three bmaids and 3 gmen....two mothers..The ceremony flowers for the most part were the table centerpieces...Best part of the night was watching them go in the garbage HAHAHAHHA....I'm practical..but not on my wedding day. I had the rest of my life to be practical!
 

Mara

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Those InStyle centerpieces are fab, but I would imagine that the flowers would start to brown after a few hours of being submerged in water...so they'd probably have to be assembled right before the reception and taken out immediately...hmm.

I absolutely ADORE flowers moreso than most because I garden, but I can't justify paying for them to pretty up a place, aka some of thsoe indoor reception halls we looked at were SOOO bleak...and I knew we'd spend a fortune to make the indoor room look beautiful. That is why we chose outdoors from the start...even before we took the wedding to Hawaii, because outdoors is more naturally beautiful and usually doesn't need too much help. I also didn't want to overdo it in Hawaii, there were plumeria trees around the property and lots of green loveliness. Too many other springish colors like I would have done locally would have just been too glaring in Hawaii. The simplicity of the white orchids against the green grass and the backdrop of the ocean was just wonderful.
 

Blue824

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Date: 7/12/2005 7:21:27 PM
Author: elepri

A friend of mine just spent about $20k on flowers,
Holy Cr&p!!!! $20k on flowers!? Dear lord, do you have pictures of the center pieces? I thought my friend was spending a lot at $6500, which is the most I''ve heard of in my circle of friends/family so far. My mom used to work with a florist, she''s always said it depends how elaborate things are, tall/short, in season/out of season, the one my mom worked with would charge certain transportation fees depending on the location, what you need to rent or if you buy containers. Lots of variables. Good luck with the flowers.
 

moremoremore

Ideal_Rock
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Sweet mother of god! That's celebrity crazy LOL! What kind of flowers did she have? Just lots of them? LOL. I had roses and hydrangeas and sweet peas which are may fav!! I wanted peonies but they were out of season and like mad expensive...


Why Ms. Reena- let me guess, you said you'd cut back on the flowers in exchange for xy and Z and now you want the works!!!??? LOL
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And what kind of look are you going for????
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I love flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

elepri

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Date: 7/12/2005 9:40:50 PM
Author: Blue824

Date: 7/12/2005 7:21:27 PM
Author: elepri

A friend of mine just spent about $20k on flowers,
Holy Cr&p!!!! $20k on flowers!? Dear lord, do you have pictures of the center pieces? I thought my friend was spending a lot at $6500, which is the most I''ve heard of in my circle of friends/family so far. My mom used to work with a florist, she''s always said it depends how elaborate things are, tall/short, in season/out of season, the one my mom worked with would charge certain transportation fees depending on the location, what you need to rent or if you buy containers. Lots of variables. Good luck with the flowers.
I know! She was, unfortunately, stuck with the required florist selected by the place where she got married. And it''s not like the flowers were really great. Don''t have any centerpieces pictures but i do have one of our bouquets that i''m trying to attach here. Not sure what those flowers are called but they were not particularly fresh.

k flowers ps.jpg
 

heart prongs

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
374
A bit late here...

We spent $1K...

My bouquet - white stephanotis and roses with light blue crystals
5 Bridesmaids/4 FGs - Hand tied white gerber daisies
2 Mother''s bouquets
5 Groomsmen - White pearled stephanotis Boutennires (sp?)
2 Ceremony arrangements
2 ivy, candles and hydrangea mantles

We saved by not doing floral centerpieces ... our venue was on the ocean and we filled hurricane vases with a pillar candle, natural colored sand, sea glass, and sea life. Looked even better than what we considered doing for floral centerpieces, people still display them in their homes, and I was so proud for not only taking on a DIY project, but also for saving a few bucks (which I''m sure we spent elsewhere!). Cost $10 each!

The wedding industry really gets you -- my suggestion is to choose areas to splurge -- mine were dress, dj, site fee, tiara. We saved, however, on floral budget, no need for a limo since I was married at same place as reception, got nice looking, yet less exp. invites; we also had to bring our own alcohol -- literally saved a good $5K in that department.

let me know is you have other ?s

klr
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teebee

Brilliant_Rock
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Date: 7/12/2005 8:56:01 PM
Author: Mara
Those InStyle centerpieces are fab, but I would imagine that the flowers would start to brown after a few hours of being submerged in water...so they'd probably have to be assembled right before the reception and taken out immediately...hmm.

I absolutely ADORE flowers moreso than most because I garden, but I can't justify paying for them to pretty up a place, aka some of thsoe indoor reception halls we looked at were SOOO bleak...and I knew we'd spend a fortune to make the indoor room look beautiful. That is why we chose outdoors from the start...even before we took the wedding to Hawaii, because outdoors is more naturally beautiful and usually doesn't need too much help. I also didn't want to overdo it in Hawaii, there were plumeria trees around the property and lots of green loveliness. Too many other springish colors like I would have done locally would have just been too glaring in Hawaii. The simplicity of the white orchids against the green grass and the backdrop of the ocean was just wonderful.
That is a great point Mara ~ I hadn't considered how long (or rather, not long) they would last and stay fresh looking under water. My fiance has kind of adopted the little old lady that owns a flower shop (she doesn't do weddings) next door to his dental office as a surrogate granny and she loves orchids so maybe I will have her do some 'consulting' work for me and help me with some of those logistics before I talk to potential florists.

We just can't justify the cost of a lot of flowers... I don't garden but I am a flower freak... but, we couldn't really do a destination wedding like I had originally wanted, and an outdoor affair is risky in this area in late May so I really wanted to find locations that were beautiful in and of themselves so that we could keep it simple and not spend so much on the flowers. The chapel is virtually all glass (over 6,000 sq. ft.) and the reception room, while fairly simple, also has a lot of huge windows which look out over the hotel grounds and the Ozark Mountains. Lemme see if I've got some pics (ha, of course I do!!!).
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ETA: Mara, I absolutely looooooooooooved the look of the white orchids and green grass. It just looked so lush, elegant, and peaceful. That has been in the back in my mind since I started planning... and I think one of the biggest reasons I keep coming back to the green cymbidiums and an ivory dress...
 

teebee

Brilliant_Rock
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812
Okay, here is the outside of our chapel.

Thorncrown Outside.jpg
 

teebee

Brilliant_Rock
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And this is the inside... I just don''t think it needs anything else... I mean, I could add floral arrangements, but I don''t think it''s necessary and I don''t know that flowers would enhance the space that much.

Thorncrown Inside.jpg
 

teebee

Brilliant_Rock
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812
And the reception room. Like I said, it''s fairly simple but it''s got these great huge windows that look out over the greenery outside so I think I can go somewhat minimalistic on the centerpieces and it will still look lovely...

Anyhow, this doesn''t really help Reena out with a ballpark figure... Sorry!! But, I think finding beautiful locations, whether it''s in Hawaii or in the middle of Arkansas, is a good way to help trim the flower budget. I''m still choking on $20k.
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I don''t even know what to say about that!!!

Reception Crescent Conservatory.jpg
 

moremoremore

Ideal_Rock
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That is lovely! I wouldn't go too crazy with flowers either. That's already beautiful!
 

reena

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teebee -- that''s beautiful!

MMM -- lol, you know me well. i''m always willing to compromise until i actually start looking. anyway, my WP told me to budget $8k which i think is absurd, i basically just refuse. lol! hopefully i''ll be able to stay substantially below that.

the look i am going for is something similar to a wedding that''s in the most recent martha stewart weddings -- it''s very old world romantic looking. colors are a dusty rose, celadon, pale blue and pale gold palette with pale toile accents, and the flowers would be things that look like they were just picked from a garden. centerpieces will be mostly single-flower arrangements in white milk glass contaniers (bowls, pitchers, vases) of varying shapes and heights -- most likely each of the tables will have a different single-flower arrangement in a different color -- blue hygrangea on some, green and cream hydrangea on others, and a mix of dusty pink roses and pink carnations together on others. we''re also going to float gardenias in the pool. for my bouquet i am thinking mostly white stephanoitis with a few dusty pink roses, surrounded by deep green stephanoitis leaves.

i am excited! :)
 

Morticia

Brilliant_Rock
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Teebee,

WOW! I love where you''re getting married and having your reception. Just beautiful. Where is that?
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It makes me want to have a DW just so I can get married there!
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As for flowers - I don''t know what to do. I LOOOOOOOOOOVE flowers. So much. My married girlfriends are telling me to skimp on the flowers, in order to save money, but I really don''t want to. Of course, I like the expensive ones. Hydrangeas, peonies, etc.

Love this centerpiece.

CenterpieceILove.jpg
 

treysar

Brilliant_Rock
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I am declaring myself frugal fannie. My fiance and I are basically paying for the wedding ourselves, do we have mangaged to beat all odds and have a relatively inexpensive wedding for my locale, which is Westchester county in Ny.

For flowers I am paying $700, done by stew leonards - this includes my bouquet (3 doz roses and other flowers too), 4 bm bouquets - (2 doz roses ea), flower girl pomander, 5 bouts and a toss bouqet.

as for centerpieces, we''re doing non-flower - ie, candles in a hurricane lamp - all bought at Chrostmas tree shops, with mirrors and votives - for 20 tables this was only $300.

We also found a place to feed 200 peole for well under $100/pp - this is a modern day miracle where i live!! It is not a fancy hotel however, - we are having a clambake at a public lake!! So that low price includes everything from dogs and burgers to lobster and swordfish steak!
 

JCJD

Brilliant_Rock
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Our flowers were done by FIL''s florist friend, so she gave us a great deal. For:

Bridal bouquet
4 BM bouquets, all hand-tied.
4 mother corsages
1 Personal assistant corsage
Groom''s bout (with flowers)
10 GM, dad, and usher bouts, all fake berries with greenery, no flowers.

it was $200 plus tax. We''re in Nebraska, and I wasn''t picky about the flowers, just the colors she used, so she was able to get the cheapest flowers possible, and the silk berries weren''t too expensive either.
 

gingerBcookie

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teebee! your locale is beautiful!!!! The church is beyond description and the reception -- its like the perfect clean palette!!! I could go nuts in there (I love flowers!) Have you decided on a color/theme?



My place has a Spanishy feel, so I'm going for tons of black magic and deep deep crimson red roses, tons of candlelight, and blackish dark copperish wrought iron touches (tall centerpiecesdue to the high ceilings) -- i'm looking for an old world, romantic feel, with a Spanish lean
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. I think it'll look nice with the warm colors of my reception place. I love the mono-flower and monochromatic look, very simple and classic.

My bouquet is going to be all deep crimson roses/black magic, loosely hadtied -- similar to monica's bouquet when she married chandler. I'm going to wear my hair in a low looped chignon and pin the same roses on one side behind my ear. THe bms will have cream/white bouquets of roses, peonies (maybe), ranunculus, variegated sedum, and possibly with chocolate cosmos. The groom will have a matching deep red rose bout, the gms will have double ranunculus bouts (as seen in a recent Martha Stewart).

I could go on and on about what I want! I haven't totally decided on what I want for the ceremony yet. We'll be in a luch garden are with tons of greenery and flowers, so I don't want to much going on, but I know I want my aisle lined thickly with rose petals (red vs white/cream?) Do ya'll think I'll need something framing us up front? Or should I not and save money?

duomo.jpg
 
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