Help with floral budget

I have a florist providing my bouquet, two large alter arrangements, some loose stems of greens, plus one dozen stems of each white spray roses and blue delphinium. We skipped bouts and corsages all together and I'm buying flowers for the bm bouquets and centerpieces from the farmer's market for $3.75/dozen. The florist understood needing to save money where we could.

If you're up for some DIY, these bud glasses are a cute shape and only 80 cents each. They're black, but a can of spray paint will fix that! (You may find better deals at thrift shops, I just never have the patience to scout out things like that...)

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/american-metalcraft-bvjgb5-black-ceramic-jug-vase-2-x-3-7-8/124BVJGB5.html

@Surfergirl86, that first pic is beautiful!! I have tons of glass votives that I was going to spray paint so they're frosted or do a mercury glass treatment. That would be perfect! I just have to figure out how much eucalyptus I'll need. I bet my all the aunts, mom and my grandma would be willing to help put them together while I'm getting ready. Our ceremony isn't until 7pm, but we are taking all the family photos beforehand.

I've looked at preserved and artificial eucalyptus, so maybe I'll do some more research. I'd feel so much better spending the money if it's on something I can reuse later for holiday decor or something.

Wow, you ladies are great! Thank you all so much! Great find on those vases, @BookcaseHat! I'm definitely down to do some spray painting. FH used to do some "street art," and I keep joking that his skills are going to finally come in handy. LOL

@Surfergirl86, where do you live? Can I hire you to be my florist, your ideas are beautiful! haha

Haha @aHs i am hiring a florist myself, i am just a very visual person so that's why i kept posting photos lol. also i am on the East Coast otherwise i would attempt to help you.

Since your wedding is in August, you should look into gladiolus flowers. They are very tall stems with multiple blooms and are very hardy that bloom in late summer/early fall. You could lay them on the table like your garland with votive candles scattered around them.

Sorry me again lol

i was wondering if they could do either thinner or smaller multiple garlands that you could alternate garland/ lantern/ garland/ votives. i am not sure if doing more smaller ones would cost you just as much as the long ones.

This picture isn't eucalyptus but it shows the thinner garland with a bud vase

You're awesome! We're getting married in Georgia...on the East Coast. wink wink haha

Just emailed all my girls to see what they think about cutting the corsages and bouts, and assembling flowers the day of if we can't get the coordinator and her staff to do it for us.

Oops ;-) i looked at your profile real quick and thought it was California lol i am in Massachusetts so a little bit too far sorry

Nix the corsages and a few boutonnieres, scale back BM bouquets and possibly scale back on centerpiece size. My florist mentioned that most Mom's and G-Mom's don't love them and its sort of promish. I was thinking of having corsages for the mom's and my mom kind of nixed that herself! HA! You could always have them carry a single bloom so that they are recognized as being part of the family.

@FutureMrsDitlow, thanks for the tip on the gladiolus. I need something short, but imagine I can cut them down to the size I need. I had no idea what flowers would hold up, so that's a huge help!

@SurferGirl86, OMG don't apologize! This ideas are perfect! I'm going to ask the florist if we can make the garland shorter and thinner as you suggested. I don't want the tables to be overwhelmed by decorations and would prefer to have less anyway. Maybe just some sprigs of greens that come out of the sides of the lanterns, votives and bud vases. I may have enough to do 2 lanterns per table, so I don't think the garland even needs to stretch the length of the table.

Yes, a little too far to travel for a complete stranger! LOL

@Jennifer, totally agree! We talked about pinned corsages because I hate the look of the wrist ones. I didn't want to wear one to my own prom! It's not like they need the bouts for people to know they're important. ;-) I'm going to have them walk down the aisle after the rest of the guests are seated and they'll be in the program. That'll probably be enough to recognize them.

Haha, FH was a groomsman in his friend's wedding last year and wouldn't stop complaining (to me, after the fact) about the bouts. "We're not going to prom!" I think this was exacerbated by the fact that we actually DID go to prom with that couple!

Ok last idea lol , its a few smaller garlands in between the lanterns i think that may work for you. but you would have to see what your florist thinks since they would be the ones doing the work.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511299363916970728/

@Surfergirl86, I have that exact same photo pinned!!! We are look centerpiece soulmates!

I found it after she sent me the initial quote for the centerpieces when I knew we had to scale back. I'll have to send it to her as a new idea and see what she says.

I don't know why I'm so worried about offending her, she was so sweet that I don't want to be annoying. She's a preferred vendor at our venue where people do some majorly over-the-top weddings, so I'm probably feeling a little insecure about coming off as a cheapskate, but everyone has their priorities (or so I keep telling myself).

Her quote is very reasonable. Silks won't save you money unless you're willing to go with low level fabric flowers that look like low level fabric flowers. Realistic eucalyptus is very difficult to find in silks (and a lot of the options are plastic). Yes, you might be able to get cheaper bouquets at a grocery store, but you won't have a lot of stem choices available (they will get your colors if not your exact stem preferences). If you're okay with that, it's the only way to get a professionally designed piece at a lower cost. DIY? It's a big job, it's a messy job, and it's a job that needs to be done 24- 48 hours before the wedding -- plus there's delivery and set-up.

My advice is to pay the moneyto the florist who put in the work to give you an excellent quote, get this off of your plate, and walk into your reception seeing a professional and polished result.

Thank you for restating pretty much everything I had already said, @Centerpiece.

@OP I got bud vases and packs of mason jars in various sizes from Target for $75. Depending on what your florist charges per vessel, that could be another cost-cutter for you

@Jessica, thanks! I'm going to ask her about adding some small bud vases with a single bloom and some greens to reduce the garland we'll need. She's letting me use my own lanterns and votives instead of renting, so I'm hoping she'll be okay with me providing the vases as well. This is her living after all, so I don't know how far she'll be willing to cutback. I've heard that a fair amount of the florists' profit comes from rentals, so we'll see.

I'm cutting cost by doing my bridesmaids boquets with my bridesmaids. They're just doing a dozen roses with some greenery ... the Safeway down the street from our venue has a dozen roses for 10 bucks and the greenery for $3-5 ... so each bridesmaid boquet is only going to end up costing about $12 total ... I'm paying 150 to have mine done also ... who would have ever thought flowers would be so expensive !! I definetly did not set aside enough in my planning either, luckily I have alot of family that will help me try to put stuff together.... my venue charges 6$ a person for centerpieces which I think is way high too so for our table centerpieces we will be paying around $350... we live in CA