The Importance of Flower Arrangements for your Wedding: Five Tips on How to Choose Flower Arrangements and Bouquets for your Special Day (And Save Some Money!)

When we plan for our weddings, there are many different needs to account for. One commonly overlooked aspect of wedding planning? Selecting, budgeting, and planning flower arrangements. Although many people aren’t always aware of the details and price ranges of arrangements, boutonnieres, and bouquets, they are a great opportunity to express yourself, while also greatly boosting the aesthetics of your overall day.

Flowers are something that deserve much more recognition in wedding planning, given the dramatic effect they can have on a wedding as a whole. With the right amount of planning, aesthetic knowledge, and a bit of research, flowers can be a highlight of your wedding day, and greatly improve your wedding venue! This aside, sometimes flowers can make or break some great wedding pictures -- especially when it comes to the bride’s bouquet. 

Some other uses of wedding florals? Flowers are a powerful accentuator in photos, a pivotal part of table arrangements, and they have the ability to subtly change the whole mood of a reception. They are an effective method of turning a public venue into a location that feels and matches you and your partner’s own story. So, how do you select beautiful (and suitable!) flowers within your budget? 

With the right amount of floral knowledge, you can easily find good ways to save your money and select fantastic, seasonal arrangements that will compliment your entire day. This article will help give you some knowledge and resources about how to do so -- so stay tuned! 

1.) Consider the weather and season

The season in which your wedding will take place is one of the most important aspects of flower selection. In general, a good florist will guide you in the right direction in terms of your personal preferences for your wedding flowers -- and season is one of their biggest concerns. For example, if you are hard-set on having hydrangeas at a hot summer wedding, you’ll likely find a bride with a wilting bouquet within two hours! 

Thus, choosing flowers seasonally is very critical, so be sure to consider the climate of your wedding. Like the hydrangeas wilting on a hot summer day, winter flowers like amaryllis, sweet pea, or camellias will not last long in a summer wedding. They will wilt for photos, and furthermore, there’s a pretty high chance they won’t match their surroundings -- especially if your wedding is outdoors. Seasonal flowers naturally match their outdoor surroundings -- and going against nature might mean that your arrangements could appear out of place. 

Selecting seasonal flowers depends on your wedding climate, your surroundings (venue), and flower resilience. In other words, make sure your flowers are tough enough to be carried as a bouquet all day, or to sit as a centerpiece for hours. 

To choose a suitable flower that will stay strong, match your background & setting, and accentuate your wedding, in-season is the way to go! No matter how much you might like those peonies, they might not be the best choice for an autumn wedding. It may be that chrysanthemums are much more suitable for the season and your day. 

Also, if this isn’t convincing enough to curb your potential desire for out-of-season florals, it is also true that in-season flowers are much cheaper than ones that are not currently blooming. So, save yourself some money, work with the aesthetics of your season, and opt for a safe choice that won’t wilt at your reception! For a guide on seasonal wedding flowers, you can see this link below for “Wedding Flower Availability and Colors by Season”. 

For lists of seasonal flowers, see here

2.) Buy the dress first

This point may seem fairly logical, but it is a classic mistake that many florists and photographers have noted! It’s obvious that the selection of the bride’s dress will have a great effect on the other aesthetic aspects of a wedding. In a lot of ways, a dress dictates the color palette of a reception -- ideally complimenting or matching with the colors of a location. 

Florals are powerful, and can accentuate a dress and transform an entire venue. However, if a bride is to carry a bouquet that does not match her dress, this is something that will definitely stand out in photos. If the bouquet doesn’t match the bride, it also will typically follow that the florals of the wedding will not match with much at all.

As stated, florals have great aesthetic power -- but they do not do all of this work alone. By working with your environment and color palettes, you can unlock the massive potential of wedding florals. This should be done in careful accordance with the dress of the bride (especially the bouquet), and even better, with some consideration of the attire of the groom, groomsmen, and bridesmaids. So, make sure to follow this point: it may be obvious, but it is a mistake best avoided. 

3.) Plan thoroughly, and plan within your budget

One of the most important things when considering your florals is to already know your floral budget. According to brides.com, the average cost of florals in a whole wedding budget is around 10%. However, this is something totally flexible! If you follow the other steps of this guide (saving money on in-season flowers, or becoming familiar with your options), you will better understand your style and preferences, and thus, your budget. Through this sort of personal research, you will naturally find ways for you to either reduce your floral budget or to save money on your wedding as a whole. Definitely note, though, that a florist should be accommodating to all budgets! However, to make this budget, you must also have a plan of what you like. 

If you are having trouble determining what types of arrangements and flowers are “your style,” you are not alone. For general knowledge, there are three types of “arrangements” that are important: the bouquet, the boutonniere (lapel flowers), and the centerpiece. Bouquets come in different-named styles and varieties, as do boutonnieres. Centerpieces, as well, come with diverse types. By narrowing down your season, matching your dresses and suits to bouquets and boutonnieres, and taking into account your wedding color palette (see #4), you are far beyond halfway of a great plan for your wedding florals. 

As we said, these aspects (clothing, color palette, and venue) are basically what will constitute your floral style at your reception. In other words, once you know what everyone will wear and what your location and colors will be like, a real florist will have little trouble steering you in the right direction! For help with your planning, and to give you some good references, here are some examples of bouquet, boutonniere, and centerpiece styles.

For boutonnieres, see here

For bouquets, see here

For wedding centerpieces, see here

4.) Consider your wedding color palette

In selecting your attire, venue, and wedding season, you are well on your way to deciding your wedding color palette. A color palette for your wedding ensures that in-person and in photographs, there is an aesthetically cohesive appearance that is attractive to the eye. Once you’ve selected a color palette, you have an amazing setup to browse cohesive arrangements with your florist. If you can pick your flowers based on a color palette you’ve already established, you now have a beautiful and complimentary selection of colors, flowers, and clothing present. Your wedding will be immediately eye-catching, and produce conscious and subconscious sentiments of beauty for those who are to witness it. 

Selecting a wedding color palette involves many different things at work -- but the best way to decide your color palette is through your own research and considerations. If you’re lost on how to begin this, the color wheel itself is a great place to begin. By selecting colors from a color wheel, you can see what colors are complementary and match with your color of choice. Knowing your dress or your wedding’s attire is also a good starting point. If you are still uninspired, there are also many websites with color palettes for artists, and they are available online for anyone to view. Gathering inspiration and seeing other artist-made color palettes is very helpful if you do not know what exactly it is that you want.

If you are selecting a color palette through research, try to ensure that it matches seasonally and physically with your wedding venue. This will make sure that everything matches and compliments on the day of your wedding. Whether you choose your wedding’s palette before your own dress (or vice versa), your flowers will be able to accentuate all possible colors, so long as they are cohesive. 

If you are having trouble deciding on color palettes, this website is a free and open platform for color inspiration, and has thousands of hand-picked color selections for anything from art to a wedding palette. 

For wedding color palette inspiration, see here

5.) Find Trustworthy Professionals

Up to now, you hopefully understand what work you will have to do in order to decide on your wedding florals. In fact, if you follow this list, you’ve probably gone above and beyond, and will be very prepared to select flower arrangements with a professional florist. Any florist would appreciate this much forethought! However, if the florists themselves aren’t helpful, then all this work will have gone to waste. If you make sure you pick a reliable and trustworthy florist, then you can avoid classic mistakes, such as gaps in bouquets, unprofessional arrangements, or any other occupational hazards that come with entrusting creative freedom to somebody who is not suitable for your wedding. To find a trustworthy professional florist, there are three good rules of thumb. 

First of all, you should consider the florist’s specialty. Granted your plans for florals, you will want to select a florist that specializes in something similar to what you want. Some florists specialize in only weddings, while others have different events and locations that they work best within. Finding a florist that specializes in weddings is very important, and one that specializes in types of arrangements you like is a definite plus. If you’re selecting a florist, look through their website to see their work, and you can get a feel for their style to make a better choice.

Secondly, experience is critical in selecting a florist. You want to verify that the florist you are selecting is well-versed in styles of arrangements, care for flowers, and can adjust to suit your wedding needs. Again, one of the best ways to do this is to check their website or to talk with them - this way, you can find out what work they’ve done in the past, and how well they do it.

Lastly, customer service is a very important aspect of selecting a florist. When you select a florist, you will have many talks with them about your choices and your styles, as well as your budget. Having a rude, impersonal, or uncaring florist can have far-reaching consequences for your wallet and your wedding plans. To figure out if a florist has good customer service, public reviews are a great place to start. Another good way to determine a florist with good customer service and a trustworthy business is to go somewhere local. Selecting someone that you know personally (or is maybe a friend of a friend) can go a long way -- it is always great to have people who care for you and your wedding close by. 

For some resources on how to select a trustworthy and professional florist, check out this article

TM Weddings wishes all of our readers good luck with any and all wedding planning, and we hope you can find some great, affordable, and professional arrangements that suit your wedding! Happy hunting!