How to Budget for Your Wedding Flowers with Blooming Haus

From the bridal bouquet to buttonholes for the groomsmen, statement ceremony flowers to striking table centrepieces and more, there is a lot to consider and budget for when planning your wedding flowers.

London’s floral engineers, Master Florist Michal Kowalski and business partner Michael Dariane, the brains behind Blooming Haus, are here to discuss how to nail that floral budget.

Setting the Budget

First things first, you need to sit down with your partner and figure out a realistic wedding budget that you will be able to stick to and are willing to spend, for all aspects of your wedding.

Typically, the flowers will make up around 10% of your wedding budget. Each florist will have a different average price, but our packages for a small wedding start at £2,000. This allows us to keep within our aesthetics and use the most presentable floral materials. Once you have set the budget, do make sure you continue to refer back to it!

Inspiration time

It’s time to create your mood board, visualizing your wedding and finding ideas for flowers as well as the colour scheme – platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram are great for inspiration but also look to fashion, the arts, culture and you as individuals and what you want your day to reflect.

When you are looking for inspiration, have in mind the time of year you are planning to marry and seasonality. Some flowers bloom in summer, whilst others bloom in winter, meaning that the price depends upon what month you are choosing. If you want a low-cost wedding, definitely stick to locally grown, seasonal blooms as they will be at their most beautiful and will be less expensive whilst in season. Many of our couples let us have free reign over the selection of the blooms, as long as we stick to their colour scheme – meaning they are getting the most stunning selection for their money.

Make sure to bear your chosen venue in mind, taking into account the type of venue, colours, textures, style of interiors and amount of daylight, as this will affect how many and what flowers you want. Your chosen florist will however guide you through all of this.

Meet with your florist

Wedding flowers can be expensive, so it is crucial to shop around to ensure that you have found a florist that suits your needs. Make sure you take your inspiration to suppliers when meeting them, so you can hear and see how they would bring this to life and so they can ensure your budget will cover your dream ideas. We like to create something small based on any inspiration that our couples may have given us when enquiring so they can get a good feel for our style. This is also a great time to ensure that suppliers are being transparent about costs, to ensure that they aren’t omitting extra charges in the quotes which may appear later on. After meeting them, you should expect to receive a quotation with a summary of the costs.

Flower crunching

After finding your inspiration, it is time to decide what flowers are crucial. While some flowers are more expensive than others, a good way of tackling this is mixing expensive with inexpensive and sticking to a few varieties of blooms to keep it simple. This won’t affect the look of your bouquet at all, as you can fill it with an abundance of foraged greenery to create a fuller looking bouquet with plenty of texture.

Stick to one ‘wow’ moment

If you’re budget is limited, focus on one area and allocate your floral budget to one special place. This way, you can still have that wow impact on your guests. Whether that’s a striking, abundant bouquet which, in our opinion, is essential for any wedding, or an eye-catching installation, is up to you but it’s critical to have one ‘wow’ statement.

Less is more

A great way of making your flower budget stretch further is by displaying smaller groups of flowers in bud vases or glass jars throughout your chosen venue, giving the impact of more without using as many flowers. If this isn’t for you, potted plants can make great centrepieces and they are also better for the environment. Dotting scented candles around also amplifies the décor and these can be easy on the budget.

Don’t D.I.Y!

We have seen many couples making the mistake of skimping on their wedding and arranging their flowers themselves without professional help, making it much more expensive than necessary in the end. Avoid doing the flowers yourself unless you are experienced. Leave it to the experts no matter the budget, as we have experience with all types of budgets.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

The price of your beautiful blooms will also depend on how many arrangements you would like. A good way to cut down on costs and be good to the environment, is to make your flowers work harder by reusing them throughout the day. For example, an impressive floral-arch for you to say ‘I do’ underneath can also double up as a statement piece for the reception.

Or, if you have always dreamt of urns filled with whimsical arrangements adorning the altar, these can be transported to be the main focal point during the wedding breakfast. Make sure you speak to your florist during your first consultation and express your wish to re-use as this will enable your florist to better plan for you.