Practical Wedding Planning Advice About Florists

A successful working relationship with your wedding florist starts with determining your flower budget. You have to know what you can spend before you start picking out bouquets and centerpieces. Also think about what you really want from a florist. While most brides hire a floral designer to do all of the wedding arrangements, some brides DIY some of their decorations and only hire a florist for specific things. For instance, you might want to make your own centerpieces, but have the florist create the bouquets and boutonierres.

It is helpful to know what role you want a florist to play in your wedding planning before you start meeting with them. You may find that some are very flexible about providing a la carte services, while the big name floral designers may want to have creative control over the entire event. It is also smart to have at least a general sense of your wedding decorating style in mind before signing a contract.  While most can certainly create beautiful arrangements in a wide range of styles, it helps to have a florist who “gets” your sense of style. A florist who specializes in formal, elaborate centerpieces might not be the best one to decorate your whimsical reception or rustic casual wedding.

Come to your initial interview with a florist prepared with color swatches, pictures of bouquets and centerpieces that you like, and photos of your wedding venue. Be sure to let them know if you have any special requests, as that can affect the quote they give you for their services. Perhaps you want to have crystals added to your bouquet to match your crystal bridal jewelry or you would like to carry the same variety of orchid that your mother did. At the same time, it pays to be open to suggestions from the florist. They are the professionals, after all, and if they are advising against choosing a specific out-of-season flower or recommend switching out one variety for another to trim costs, they probably have a very good reason.

Something else that will enhance your working relationship with your florist is to expect professionalism, but not unrealistic perfection. Flowers are natural things, after all, and each one is unique. It is always possible that your roses might come in looking more peach than apricot or that a certain flower is suddenly unavailable at the last minute due to a weather issue. As long as the florist delivers gorgeous arrangements in the generally agreed upon style and color, it’s all good.

Non-Floral Decorations for Wedding Receptions

As beautiful as fresh flowers are to decorate a wedding, they do not fit in with everybody’s taste or budget. There are many elegant and beautiful ways to dress up your reception venue without using cut flowers. These are some wonderful choices for non-floral decorations for wedding receptions.

Candles: The flickering glow of candlelight will add romance to any style of wedding. They are generally quite affordable when compared to flowers, which makes candles an excellent option for the bride on a budget. When decorating with candles, the key is to use them in large numbers to really make a statement. While a couple of votive candles in the middle of a table for ten will not look very impressive, a collection of ten candles in different heights will look marvelous. You can also use one large pillar candle and display it in an interesting holder like a lantern or a hurricane to give it style and size.

Balloons: This type of non-floral reception decoration is a bit more controversial. Some people feel that balloons are a fantastic way to add color and fill up a large reception space in a festive way. Others believe that balloons are either too casual or too juvenile for an event where the bride is wearing an elegant bridal gown with gorgeous wedding jewelry. As a rule of thumb, balloons work best for informal or whimsical receptions. They will look more sophisticated if you use chic color palettes such as gray and yellow or jewel tones, rather than primary colors that will call to mind a child’s birthday party.

Props: There is a big trend these days of using unique props for wedding decorations. They are fun because they are so different than the standard floral centerpiece. In addition, carefully selecting the props you use will allow you to express your personality and give your reception character. Ideas for cool props include stacks of vintage books, old birdcages, funky little sculptures, and large wicker balls. Use props that enhance the overall theme of your wedding, whether your style is a Roaring ’20s bridal gown with vintage wedding jewelry or an ultra modern loft wedding.

Fabric: Gorgeous fabrics can be used to truly transform your wedding venue without flowers. Drape the ceiling in pink organza to cast a flattering romantic glow over the entire space. Hide ugly columns with elegant curtains. Decorate the front of the bar with a swag of material in your wedding colors. Because fabric effects are done on a large dramatic scale, you will only need a minimum of additional decorations to complete your reception decor.

The Essential Flowers for Your Wedding

There are a number of flowers that are needed for a wedding ceremony. Chief among them, of course, is the bride’s bouquet. For a wedding with attendants, bridesmaid bouquets are also a must. They can be identical or you can mix and match different flowers for each bouquet. As long as you pull in some of the colors from the bridesmaid jewelry and dresses, they will look very pretty. If budget allows, it is always nice to add some crystals or pearls to the center of the bridesmaid and bridal bouquet flowers.  Brides who will have a flower girl will also need a small bouquet or rose petals for tossing. A floral wreath is traditional for a flower girl, but not mandatory.

Next on the list are the flowers for the men in the wedding. You should plan to order boutonierres for the groom, groomsmen, ushers, fathers of the bride and groom, and grandfathers of the bride and groom. While you are at it, be sure to order flowers for the mothers and grandmothers of the bride and groom as well. Corsages are the traditional ornament for those special ladies. The trend right now favors wrist corsages over the type that pin to a dress. An update to this concept is to have the bride and groom’s mothers carry small posies of flowers and give the corsages only to the grandmothers.

For your ceremony venue you will need flowers for the altar area at the minimum. Jewish brides might choose to use flowers to decorate the chuppah, although it can be dressed entirely with a piece of fabric if you prefer. Flowers for the pews or aisle seats are a nice touch, if budget allows. Always ask the florist to transport the altar arrangements to the reception site so that you can reuse them. Optional flowers for the ceremony would include floral wreaths, garlands, and petals to line the aisle for an outdoor service. They are all lovely, but fine to omit if they are too costly.

The bulk of your floral costs will be in the centerpieces for the reception. You will need at least one per table, so if you had 100 guests sitting at round tables for 10, that would be 10 centerpieces. Considerably smaller floral arrangement can be used to dress up the cocktail hour space. Since the cocktail tables are generally quite small, a vase with just a few blossoms will be enough. Also plan on a small arrangement for the bar. Additional bouquets for the guest book and gift tables, escort card table, restroom, and entryway are beautiful, but not required. A great trick is to order extra empty vases and have the bridesmaid bouquets serve as the decorations for those extra tables.

Easy Winter Wedding Centerpiece Ideas

Christmas ornaments are a great design resource for holiday wedding centerpieces. A very simple idea is to gather a collection of beautiful round Christmas balls and place them in clear glass elegant footed vases. Make the look more wedding than holiday by choosing ornaments which are not in the very traditional red and green combination. Frosted metallic lime green with purple and silver balls would be gorgeous filling a clear footed vase or hurricane. Coordinate the napkins and stemware on the table to the colors in the ornaments to create a beautiful reception table design.

Sparkle is very popular for winter weddings, from beaded gowns to crystal bridal jewelry to the bride’s bouquet. To bring some sparkle to your reception, try a crystal branch centerpiece. Tall white or silver painted branches can be artfully arranged in cylinders, vases, or painted ceramic pots. Using clear fishing line, suspend large crystals from the branches. Crystals with an “ab” finish will really capture the light and look dazzling. Hang small lanterns with candles from some of the other branches to help illuminate the crystals. It is a fabulous centerpiece for the bride who loves sparkly things like crystal bridal jewelry.

A very charming idea for a winter wedding centerpiece is gingerbread houses. The bride and her mom could make the houses themselves from kits or simply purchase them already made. The gingerbread houses can be decorated in the wedding colors, or could even be created to look like little gingerbread chapels, complete with gingerbread brides and grooms! This centerpiece makes a nice tie-in to the wedding favors. Gingerbread cookies in glassine bags with pretty bows would be perfect. Attach a small card with your favorite gingerbread recipe to the favor bags.

Certainly flowers are beautiful for centerpieces at any time of the year. An ultra easy idea for a winter wedding centerpiece is to buy pots of white poinsettias to use as table decorations. Remove the foil wrapping they come in and place the plants in white glazed ceramic pots. Surround the white poinsettias with crystal votive candle holders to add sparkle and light to the tables. The effect will be simply gorgeous for a winter white wedding, and as a bonus, the potted poinsettias will be far more cost effective than arrangements of cut flowers.

Wedding Favors as Centerpieces

When looking for a way to trim the wedding decorating budget, it helps to find items that can do double-duty. One very clever idea is to arrange your wedding favors in a way that doubles as a centerpiece. There are many ways to do this, and the results can be as charming as they are thrifty.

Flowers are the most popular type of centerpiece, and a great option for wedding favors as well. The blossoms you select and form of display will depend on the style of your reception. Let’s say you were having an informal country celebration and wearing a very simple lace wedding dress and delicate jewelry – painted tin pails planted with sunny yellow daisies would be darling. Set an small wooden bushel basket (upended) in the center of the table and arrange the little pails of daisies around the basket. Cluster one group of three on top of the basket to add height to the centerpiece design.

Special vases with single stems can also work beautifully for favors that double as centerpieces. Choose a flower with a very large bloom, such as one full hydrangea stem or a lush garden rose in full bloom. Make it a unique favor by picking out vases with character, such as a mis-matched collection of white milk glass vases. Or opt for the clean look of chic narrow oval vases. Play up the modernity of the vase by using flowers in a vivid color like bright orange or fuchsia. Group the vases in the middle of the table to create the illusion of a large display of flowers.

Candles are always popular for both favors and centerpieces, so why not combine the two into one? The key is to display the candles in holders which are beautiful enough to be keepsakes. (After all, a half-melted candle in a plain glass votive holder is not much of a gift!) Tall etched glass candle holders will look beautiful with the flame flickering in them. When your guests see how pretty they look, they will be delighted to find out that they get to take them home! Or create an enchanted effect for an evening wedding by hanging small lanterns in jewel tones over the centers of each reception table. Put them on hooks which will make them easy for the guests to remove their lantern to take home at the end of the night. A unique favor and a unique centerpiece idea all rolled into one!

Quirky Wedding Ideas

Every wedding shares many elements in common, but that is no reason that you have to do them in the expected way. Most brides will give their attendants bridesmaid jewelry, but instead of giving each girl an identical set, why not have custom bridesmaid jewelry made with unique variations for each attendant? What a simple way to show each of your bridesmaids that you see her as an individual, not just as part of a matched set.

Your wedding favors are a great place to try something a little different. No matter how traditional the wedding, it is always okay to go out on a limb with the favors. At one wedding I attended in a mountain resort, the newlyweds gave pens from the resort as their favor; not just any pens, but the retro kind filled with liquid and a moving scene. To dress them up, they handmade special clear triangular tubes which fit the gifts to a “t”. It made a nice presentation for favors which were inexpensive, but also fun, unique, and enjoyed by all the guests.

Centerpieces are one of the main forms of decorations for most wedding receptions. Flowers are always gorgeous, of course, but blossoms in a vase do not always look so original. Think of new ways to display your flowers, like putting them under a sheet of Plexiglass on the table or inside clear boxes. Or skip the flowers altogether and design centerpieces around something that is near to your heart. Book lovers can stack up piles of their favorite classic stories (pick up vintage hardcover versions in second hand shops) and top with a ribbon or a few loose cut flowers. Or maybe you are headed to Paris for your honeymoon. Attractive Eiffel Tower replicas would look marvelous as centerpieces. Almost anything goes, as long as it looks stylish or beautiful.

Allow your mind to wander and your creative juices to flow, and before you know it, you will have planned a wedding which is quirky, fun, and entirely you.

Unique New Wedding Centerpiece Designs

The thing which is making the wedding centerpieces for 2010 fresh and interesting is not so much the flowers used as the way in which they are used. If last year was all about offbeat materials in simple vessels (think river rocks in a clear square vase), this year is almost the opposite: the flowers are more traditional, but the vessels have a lot of personality. You can choose vessels which tie in with your wedding theme, your favorite color, or ones which just look cool. The choice is yours.

Let’s say that you are planning a wedding with bright citrus colors like lemon and lime, bringing your signature colors through everything from the bridesmaid dresses and jewelry to the ceremony programs. Rather than simply choosing yellow and lime flowers and putting them in clear vases, you can really run with your color palette when you design the centerpieces. A great look would be to fill a clear plexiglass box with real lemons and limes. On top of that, place a collection of clear short cylinders, each of which holds a perfect white and yellow daisy. Sheer perfection and utterly unexpected.

Who is to say that all centerpieces must be placed on the dinner tables? A really fabulous effect can be created when the floral displays are suspended above the tables. One of the most gorgeous wedding photos I have seen in a long time was of a cluster of white rose pomanders suspended over the wedding tables in lieu of standard centerpieces. Another spectacular idea for hanging centerpieces would be long strings of orchids, either in pure white or in a bold color like hot pink.

Funky props are another top centerpiece idea for 2010. Instead of a vase, use your favorite knick knacks as table décor. Fill a Morrocan lantern with blossoms and let them spill over the sides. This is an area where a couple can really think outside the box to come up with a centerpiece which says something personal about them. A couple who adores travel, for example, could use old fashioned globes on the reception tables. Drape them with greenery and surround them with tiny tea lights, or be brave and cut the tops off of the globes; instead of the Arctic Circle, your centerpiece globes could be topped with flowing white flowers. Centerpieces this distinctive will make your wedding truly unforgettable.

Add Height to Your Wedding Centerpieces

Dramatic centerpieces will add style and elegance to your wedding! A great way to achieve this is with tall elements that reach skyward. These are some great ways to add height to your wedding centerpieces to get that stunning look that every bride desires.

First of all, think beyond traditional flowers in a vase. A fantastic way to get height in your centerpieces is to create trees from branches. They can be decorated according to the season and style of your wedding. For instance, if you are having an elegant Winter Wonderland wedding and plan to have lots of sparkle in your wedding like crystal jewelry and chandeliers, hang shimmering crystals and beads from the branches. White or silver painted branches will be extremely elegant when draped with their own glistening crystal wedding jewelry.

Another really neat way to give your centerpieces a vertical line is with non-floral elements such as coral. Paint faux coral in red or for more drama, black, and set it standing up into a bed of sand or pebbles. It can be surrounded with starfish and seashells for a true beach theme, or flower blossoms for an elegant chic effect that will look great in any reception setting. The coral is a wonderful element that can be pulled into other aspects of your wedding design, such as on the invitations and as a graceful wrapping paper print for favor boxes.

Very tall candelabras add magic to an evening wedding. Choose an antique silver for an old school opulence, Art Deco style crystal for a modern/retro wedding, or an ornately designed black painted candelabra for a cool Gothic romantic effect. Not only will the candle holders add considerable height to your tablescapes, but when filled with tall taper candles, the vertical effect will be even greater. Candelabras can be adorned with flowers, or pay a nod to Truman Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball, and simply twine them with greenery.

The Basics of Wedding Centerpiece Design

Designing your own wedding centerpieces can be a very fun project, if you know where to start. Whether you want to make your own table arrangements or simply want to have the knowledge needed to work with your florist on the design of your centerpieces, the more you know, the easier it will be. These are the basic elements of wedding centerpiece design that everyone should know.

The Vessel:This is what will hold your flowers. The most common vessel for centerpieces is a vase, but many other types of containers can be used. You can really set the style of your centerpieces by the type of vessels which you choose. A garden urn, for instance, would be lovely for a garden theme wedding. A tall silver vase works beautifully for a formal affair with the bride in lots of sparkling crystal bridal jewelry, and a simple tall clear cylinder is modern and clean. Baskets, pitchers, bowls, and silver mint julep cups are some other options for wedding centerpiece vessels.

The Flowers: Obviously, the flowers are the most important part of a wedding centerpiece. You will want to base your selections on certain categories, such as season, color, style, and cost. Choosing blossoms which are in season at the time of your wedding is always a very smart idea. They will be less expensive, fresher and prettier, and will also evoke the feeling of that time of year. A poinsettia, for instance, would be marvelous for a holiday wedding, but would be just plain odd in July. Lovely lily-of-the-valley definitely say “spring”, and nothing says autumn wedding quite like mums. Of course there are some wedding flowers, especially roses, that are year-round staples.

The Extras: Once you have selected your vessels and flowers, it is time to think about the extras that will make your centerpieces unique. Brides who are wearing crystal bridal jewelry may choose to adorn their centerpieces with teardrop crystal accents dripping from the flowers. For an earthy look, weave natural elements such as wheat and seed pods into the blossoms. Or add a gentle scent to your centerpieces with the addition of fragrant lavender and rosemary. When it all comes together, you will have designed wedding centerpieces which are unforgettable.

The Prettiest Pink Wedding Centerpieces

There are so many wonderful options for pink centerpieces out there that the first step is to narrow it down to the style that is best for your wedding. For instance, if your bridesmaid dresses are pink and green striped A-line dresses which will be accented with pearl jewelry, take a look at the preppy centerpiece suggestions. If your style is more contemporary, such as charcoal gray bridesmaid dresses with simple crystal bridesmaid jewelry, then you will enjoy the modern pink centerpieces. For those brides who love the customs and heritage of weddings, the traditional centerpieces will be your cup of tea.

Preppy pink wedding centerpieces are cheerful and perky, with fairly traditional flower choices. They will always be lush and beautiful, but need not be fussy or formal. A perfect example would be big fat garden peonies in silver mint julep cups. Set one at each place setting and fill the center of the table with a candle in a hurricane lantern. This is a great look for an outdoor wedding.

Brides who want something more contemporary and chic will love the look of submerged flower centerpieces. Take a branch of pink berries and submerge in a tall clear cylinder filled with water. These centerpieces are simple yet striking. You can also layer in other vessels of submerged flowers, like bouquets of pink tulips and exotic pink orchids. The resulting centerpiece design will be clean and modern, yet breathtakingly beautiful.

Traditional brides will find countless pleasing ideas for pink centerpieces. One of the most classic is a lovely mixed bouquet of flowers in a range of pinks set into a simple round clear vase. Include roses, lisyanthius, sweetpeas, and tulips for an utterly romantic effect. If you should happen to be a May bride, delicate pink lily-of-the-valley would make darling table decorations. They are fairly small, so they are best used either as an accent to more substantial pink blossoms like roses, or as centerpieces which feature clusters of vases to give the tiny flowers more presence. Pink is such a lovely color that it is the ideal accent for almost any style of wedding.