Frugal Wedding Flowers

Back to my list of frugal wedding how to save money. Next to the dress and the place and the food what is the next huge expense? Flowers.. My modest budget of $350 was going to be enough for the bouqets and boutonnieres and that was using the mot inexpensive flower a daisy and red rose as the other flower.. that's it. Nothing for in the church or on the tables. I was sticker shocked.. especially since that was the quote from County Market!!

If our wedding had been this year I could have provided all the flowers growing them myself. But last year we were not as far along garden wise. So what to do? Not decorate the hall and church or figure something out.

That's when I started my internet hunt. There had to be some way to save money on flowers. And I figured it out. Bulk Flowers.. I bought 350 Roses for $200.00 :) I did research and realized I needed a dozen Rose's per bouquet and 24 Rose's for my own Bouquet. Then we needed Rose's for the reception and for the church.

I ordered from www.abacoflowers.com    





They were so wonderful, even when my debit card company didn't want to release the money. They worked so hard and the shipment arrived and the flowers were wonderful.  Just a tip here you need about 4  5 Gal buckets to put the flowers in so they can get water and either a refrigerator or a very cool room otherwise order for delivery the day ahead not 2 days ahead.

I bought ribbon, floral wire, floral tape, pins,burlap, those green spike water holders, beads that expand in water and enough green/blue old fashioned canning jars to fill the tables. Total I spent $250 on  Flower arragements :)

In the church we made burlap bags that said FEED on them and placed 3 Rose's in Green waer holders inside the bag ( I could not have gotten this done with out my cousin, her friend and my aunts!)

It was so pretty seeing these lining the pews as I walked down the isle.. simple, fun, inexpensive and pretty :)

The bouquets my maid of honor and yes oddly enough best man made the night before :) We did not trim the ends until right before the ceremony. They were transported there in our old canning jars with the water beads in them to keep them hydrated. 

Check out how to do them on You Tube! There are tons of videos there.  I do suggest a trial run with Rose's like from walmart to make sure you know what you are doing and you'll like the result. That way you don't order flowers first and decide you just can't do it.

I was blessed that my best man had been in FHA and had oddly enough learned how to make boutiniers. There are videos on You Tube about how to do these also. Make sure there is no fruit in your refrigerator and place these in ziplock bags and they work out wonderfully :)

So that's how I did our wedding flowers for a total of $250.00 our cost :) Will post the rest of the pics later my internet is running slow :( 

Ideas

Before I go on to the rest of the wedding I want to put a little bug in your ear.

If your a couple who has been together for a while you may very well have all the dishes in the world you need... and other such things that people give at weddings..

Instead why not ask family with gifting parts of your wedding?

A friend of ours suggested it one day. She asked us what do you really need for your wedding?
My answer at that time was the cake.  I had tried making one myself which turned out great but with everything else I was doing I was worried about time. She and her other half took care of our cake as a wedding presant.

My grandparents helped with the photography and the dinner.

And my praents paid for the DJ

There were other bits of help along the way...

But with all this help we made the cost as low as possiable on everything and as more post go up you'll see how!

The Photographer www.timbrya.com

Photography is important to any wedding.. and yes those beautiful pic's of those special moments will stay with us forever..... but.... think before you get a photographer... do you like those staged photos where everyone looks like they have a stick behind them??

I sure didn't, Corey and I wanted fun and carefree, someone who would understand and get into our theme who would make it about us and not everyone else...

The other issue we wanted to tackle was the cost... Do you know that photographers will charge you loads and then not even give you the negatives??? We looked at a friends picture's.. they were all staged... they were on a dvd but password protected so they couldn't copy them... they spent over $2,000 just on the photography not to mention the photos.... Um nope we couldn't afford that...

What we could afford was a guy who took the pictures (free engagement photos) and gave us the disk.. yep all the negatives... and you guessed it under $1,000

If you live in Central IL. Please check Tim out, he is an awesome fun loving guy and his pictures speak volumes... just check these pic's out...

Tim found a close by place that was so much fun between the wedding and the reception.

His ideas were endless and all fun and all with us in mind...

The funny thing is this would be something we'd do on our own at home LOL

Corey and I

The ham of the night Colty

My favorite on from after the wedding!

Tim took the time to get to know us, I hope your photographer does the same! Check out the small guys, honestly they do some of the best work out there!

http://www.timbrya.com/

or Tim Brya Photography on facebook!

Frugal wedding

Okay, it's hot outside.. which means I can't be outside.. going stir crazy.. so with not wanting to think about weather the heat will cause a harvest issue... and in light of my soon to be one year anniversary.. and my oldest on a wedding kick. I decided to do a few post on a frugal wedding.

Frugal wedding sounds kinda like a joke right?? I've seen the budgets for our friends and about feinted.
Honest our $7,000 orginal budget sounded modest by far.. now what if i told you it cost Corey and I less then half of that..

Your thinking.. it wasn't very pretty, she settled on a dress she didn't like... it wasn't tailored to them... or their parents paid for everything... uh nope.

I will be including links for things I think are important so follow along and I hope you pick up a few ideas to help lower your cost.