It is believed that carrying flowers by the bride began in ancient times. Strong smelling herbs and spices were thought to ward off and drive away evil spirits, bad luck and ill health. During Roman times, this tradition was extended, with the bride and groom wearing floral garlands signifying new life and hope for fertility.

Brides of today don’t necessarily carry herbs and spices but they do spend a lot of time arranging for the floral pieces to be worn or carried by the bridal party.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to have beautiful flowers for your wedding. All you need to do is plan carefully, order well in advance and not be too fussy by wanting flowers that are out of season.

• Order bouquets without saying it’s for a wedding and you’ll keep the costs down. You can add the wedding ribbons etc at home (much more cheaply than a florist can)
• Contact a local floral design school and hire them to provide your flowers. I am sure they would love to have a project such as your wedding to work on.
• Using beautifully toned foliage for a lot of your displays, maybe with just a few accent flowers, can be magnificent. These can easily be obtained from trees and bushes of friends and family for little or no cost.
• Tossing the bouquet is a tradition that stems from England. Apparently the women at the wedding used to try to rip pieces of the bride’s dress and flowers in order to obtain some of her good luck. To escape from the crowd the bride would toss her bouquet and run away. Unless your plan is to keep your bouquet on display in your home, don’t bother with a duplicate to toss.
• Instead of tossing your whole bouquet, just pick one flower to throw. We all know what condition the bride’s bouquet is in after a horde of women start clawing at it.
• Common sense tells us that having smaller bouquets will mean having a smaller florist bill.
• Choosing flowers that are in season will keep your costs lower. It can be hideously expensive to buy flowers that are out of season. In many cases, after a few years most brides don’t remember what flowers were in their bouquet.
• Silk flowers save you a lot of money and they’re already preserved. The Bride could have fresh flowers, but there really isn’t any need for everyone else to have them.
• When decorating the church or reception venue consider using silk flowers. Once again, these can be purchased inexpensively at large department stores or via the internet.
• Buy flowers at wholesale prices from the local market for your decoration needs. You’ll need to be up early for this activity so perhaps you could ask a friend to cover this task for you.
• Check with your florist or garden centre to see if you can rent plants to decorate the church or venue. Offer to place business cards on the arrangements and mention the benefits of free marketing.

A bride will always look beautiful on her wedding day. Flowers are only meant to be an enhancement not a focal point.

It certainly pays to remember that when choosing them for your wedding.

©   Carmel McCartin – Budget Bitch

And don’t forget – (The views expressed in this blog are the personal opinions of the author. Don’t rely on them to make financial decisions; you have to make up your own mind. If you don’t like the content – then either stop reading or send me an email)