Wednesday, June 6, 2012

DIY Weddings on a Budget - Tips on scoring florals on the Cheap!

Pin It
OH Baby!  Did you know the average wedding in the US costs about $27,000 with 50% of that going towards the reception?  Of course the sky is the limit for some brides while others either choose or need to budget tightly to achieve the wedding of their dreams.  According to The Knot,  the average bride spends about 8% of their budget purchasing wedding florals-  that's a whopping $2160 give or take a few buckaroos.

So can a bride have a beautiful wedding complete with florals that stun on the cheap?

DIY Wedding on a Budget

This girl says YES!

Over the next few days, I'd like to share a few simple ideas I think anyone can put into action to achieve some gorgeous wedding florals and a cake... all for under $500!

You read write... under $500!

The month of May was quite busy here at the Sminkey Household as I whipped up one bridal bouquet, 7 bridesmaids bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, 12 centerpieces, 2 simple pew bows, mother's corsage, a swarovski studded wedding veil, and a 3 tiered wedding cake! 



For this particular wedding, the color scheme was a very true, deep purple color... but my bride wanted red roses in her bouquet.   We chose to do all of the wedding flowers in silk... don't turn your nose up, silks have come a long way baby! 


Silk flowers can be very expensive as you probably already know!  So you may be wondering how and why I would choose to go the faux route right?  Fresh flowers are lovely but can be quite expensive as well especially if you want flowers that may be out of seasonal in your area or not commonly carried by your local florist... plus you must work under a quick time frame to ensure fresh bouquets on the day of the wedding.

With a few tricks up your sleeve and some clever shopping you can score some beautiful and very lifelike silks to use for your wedding! 

Tips for scoring florals on the Cheap!
{advantages of silks over real}

Shop around!
Don't limit yourself to purchasing all of your flowers in one trip at one store.  Shop around.  For this wedding, I acquired silks at many stores that I knew would work together- Joanne's, Michael's, Walmart, even Pier One and Big Lots.  Shopping around was my greatest source for finding wonderful pieces at deep discounts and clearance pricing to streeetch the budget even further. 

These realistic gorgeous rosebuds were my all time fav find!  You could almost smell the rose scent!
The best part was, they were regularly $2.99, marked down to 50 cents each... then the store was running a buy 1 get one at 50% off special...
I bought them out at just37 cent each!

Use those Coupons
Gather up all the coupons you can find for those big chain craft stores!  Again, not buying everything all in one day at one store allows you to make multiple trips {yes, even in the same day} to use those 40% and 50% off coupons to purchase some stunning flowers that may not be on sale that week.  The realistic rose bushes I found were quite pricey and not on sale... but using my 40% off coupon certainly made them more affordable!

Don't Limit yourself to single stem florals
Your single stem flowers in the wedding section of the store are usually the most life like, but don't limit yourself to using just those... at an average cost of $6 each that can really eat up your budget!
I was able to find great big bushes of white hydrangea at my local Big Lots... same quality as those single stem hydrangeas.  By utilizing the bush version, I was able to cut them apart and spread them further at about a sixth of the cost!  I'll show you later how to stretch the use of a single stem hydrangea as well.  The stems on bush flowers are much thinner than the single stem flowers but we will discuss 'fixing' that dilema too!


Don't be all Matchy Matchy!
Just as in home decor, don't be all matchy matchy with your wedding florals... choose the same flower in different yet coordinating shades or choose different flowers in the same colors... mix and match for some variety!  It helps the budget too!

Join me Friday for some simple tricks on stretching your chosen flowers even further and we will start assembling some centerpieces!  Follow T&B on GFC, linky follow, G+, facebook or pintrest!  I follow back so just leave me a quick note to let me know!

***

Tip toe thru Tuesday linky is up and running each and every Tuesday here on T&B... stop by and show off what you've worked on this week!

10 comments:

Crafts a la Mode said...

That was a great article about how to save on wedding florals. It's hard to believe that so much is spent on a wedding. My grandmother used to say that in her day honeymoon was spent at a relatives house!! That was before the credit card era. ha ha
Take care, following, Linda

Gina said...

You did a beautiful job on these flowers, Kimberly. The color combinations are so pretty!

Kylie Rose said...

These are AWESOME tips! I want to definitely DIY my bouquet, because they can cost HUNDREDS! Thanks for sharing the tips.
-Kylie
absolutelyarkansas.blogspot.com

Little Sister said...

I'm very excited to see your other posts on wedding planning. My niece is getting married and I'm starting to help her pull all sorts of ideas together! Visiting from Happy Hour Projects.
~Amy

Andie Jaye said...

$27,000??? i spent $1000 on mine. seriously. some really great tips here for people planning a wedding on a budget :)

Jill @Two Yellow Birds Decor said...

Those are some great tips. I seriously can't believe the average wedding costs $27,000. That is crazy! Thanks so much for sharing this as well at Thursday's Temptation.
Jill

Sharon @ Elizabeth & Co. said...

Great tips! Weddings can be outrageously expensive!

Unknown said...

Crazy that some people will pay that much for a wedding! Great tips for keeping the cost under control! Thanks for sharing with us at Link It UP Thursday.

Jory said...

It would be advantageous to choose a local florist or flower shop if you have a tight budget. There would be no added fees since their show is located nearby. They would most likely delivery their products on time since there would be less travel involved. And the best thing to it is that you can visit the shop and see for yourself what products they are selling. You can also evaluate what kind of service and care they offer once you visit their shop, and see how it is managed.

Jory Prison

Jory said...

It would be advantageous to choose a local florist or flower shop if you have a tight budget. There would be no added fees since their show is located nearby. They would most likely delivery their products on time since there would be less travel involved. And the best thing to it is that you can visit the shop and see for yourself what products they are selling. You can also evaluate what kind of service and care they offer once you visit their shop, and see how it is managed.

Jory Prison

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...