Three Steps to Planning Your Wedding Flowers
By: Gigi Mill
When it comes to Floral arrangements and Decoration for weddings there are numerous options available. Floral Decorating options are endless and are limited only by the imagination, even the most outrageous floral decorations can be made to fit practically any budget provided there is time spent to do proper research regarding the many ideas that are available out there.
There are no set rules or limitations for wedding flowers. It is whatever the couple or more precisely the “bride” wants and can afford. Anything goes from renting the silk floral arrangements to do-it-yourself kind of deals for creative and imaginative brides and bridesmaids who are there to help the bride anyway. Planning for wedding flowers can be a lot of fun for bridal party who might come up with innovative ideas that you might not have thought about. It might also be fun to involve the groom in the process if he is an imaginative type otherwise forget about him, the most he will care about is to stick to the budget allocated for this category of your wedding.
Give yourself plenty of time to plan the wedding flowers, at least 6 months prior to the wedding date. Most brides want the flowers to complement the color scheme of and overall theme of the wedding particularly the wedding dress for the bride and the wedding attire for the bridesmaid etc.
Now the question is where to start looking for the perfect floral arrangements for the wedding? For starters check out the different Bridal magazines which are full of pictures of bouquets and wedding flower arrangements, that will give you some ideas to set a theme for your floral decorations.
Secondly and importantly, think about the types of flowers that will be in season at the time of your wedding. Choosing flowers that are readily available is a sure way to keep your wedding costs under control and within budget. Out of season flowers are very expensive to acquire and may not be available in some cases which will pose a hassle and a problem in many ways.
There are many creative ways to have your bouquets and arrangements do a double duty. Involve your bridesmaids and helpers in making arrangements if you are craft oriented to keep the costs down. Another way to keep the costs reasonable is to use more filler (more greenery) to your floral arrangements.
Thirdly once you have planned and figured out the flower arrangements and bouquets, shop around for a good florist who has reasonable prices and can turn your thoughts and ideas into a reality. It is to your advantage to select a florist early on because there is a limit to how much even the best florist can handcraft and when you have the florist selected make sure that you go over the contract with a fine-toothed comb before signing to make sure the number and type of arrangements, including the flowers being used, are clearly specified along with delivery details. Keep clear records of the deposit amount and delineate the payment schedule.
As you can see it is lot of fun and work as well but the key is proper planning and not getting overwhelmed but staying calm and cool.
Gigi Mill writes for http://www.weddingfavorsandgiftideas.com and Wedding Planning Guide Blog.