How to Plan Your Wedding Flowers

By on May 16, 2012 in Daily Scoop, How To, Wedding Design Ideas

Planning a wedding takes a bit of organization, and a lot of decision making.  Deciding on your wedding colors and type of wedding flowers are just two of the many choices you’ll have to make during your planning stages.  Not to outweigh  big decisions like your wedding date, location, or wedding dress, but deciding on wedding colors and wedding flowers are a big contemplation as they can set the tone for your wedding day.  Liz from thebrokeassbride.com wrote a recent post on Your Wedding Flowers and How to Swing Them, a great guide of where to start when planning your wedding flowers. (it must be something in the name, she has some great information to share)

Liz shares,“Most of my brides come at the whole wedding flowers thing in one of two ways:  They know exactly what they want, or they have no clue.”  She suggests when starting your wedding flower planning to, “start before you even meet with a florist and pull all the basic numbers. Writing it down beforehand is going to make you feel a little bit more in control, and it’ll bring up  questions that you haven’t thought of.”

After you’ve broken down the basics like how many centerpieces, bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres for the bridal party and family you’ll need, figure out the percentage of your budget you’ll be able to spend on wedding flowers.  From there you can begin to make decisions on wedding flower colors and types.

Keep in mind you don’t have to rely on the knowledge of a florist to help you plan your wedding flowers.  Many websites like afloral.com allow you to search by wedding flower color or wedding flower type, giving you options to work with for your special day.  Reach out and use more of our resources for inspiration like searching for wedding design ideas by theme with great how to videos for step by step instructions.  If you are still a bit undecided on what direction to take your wedding flower types or colors email mindy[at]afloral.com and have her create a personal wedding inspiration board just for you!

Photo credits: Fuchsia and Blue Wedding theme from afloral.com, wedding cake from wedding-flower-and-reception-ideas.com

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Creative Ways to Save on Wedding Flowers

By on May 12, 2012 in Daily Scoop, How To, Wedding Design Ideas

A bride’s wedding budget has to be well planned and balanced to pull off a special day that won’t break the bank.  Having all the areas of your wedding, from your dress, decor and wedding flowers to rentals and caterers budgeted will help you know what you have to work with.  If one area is coming in over budget, brides will have to get creative in order to save on another.  Wedding flowers are a great example of where a little extra planning with the right type of DIY touches can save you cash to use somewhere else in your budget.  A recent article in Huffington Post Weddings, Wedding Flowers: How Do I Get a Cheap Wedding Bouquet, looked at creative ways to save on wedding flowers.

“Flowers and decor will take up approximately 10 percent of your wedding budget, and between personal flowers (bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages), ceremony decor and reception centerpieces things can quickly add up,” states Anne Chertoff.

Chertoff interviews floral designer and blogger Janie Medley for ways brides can save on wedding flowers, and one of her tips is to use larger bloom wedding flowers.  “My first choice would be peonies. Peonies are stunning on their own and you can even carry one single bloom if you prefer.”

Larger bloom flowers like peonies will help you reduce the amount of wedding flowers you’ll need for your bouquet.  Other choices like dahlias, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and sunflowers can create beautiful arrangements with just a few stems.  Choosing silk wedding flowers will take your savings a step further.  Brides can order their choice of wedding flowers anytime throughout the year, even months in advance to their wedding.  Brides can be chic with beautiful, large wedding flower blooms on their special day while also being savvy and smart with big wedding budget savings.

Photos: Sunflower bouquet, weddingbee.com; white dahlia bouquet, ruffledblog.com; hydrangea tied bouquet, weddingchick.com; peach peony bouquet, afloral.com

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Blush Wedding Design Ideas

By on May 11, 2012 in Daily Scoop, Things We ❤, Wedding Design Ideas

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Use blush wedding flowers and vintage accessories to build this entire DIY wedding design idea. This is perfect for the feminine budget bride who wants a pretty in pink wedding with a vintage touch.

Shop Blush and Pink Wedding Flowers

Get More Wedding Design Ideas

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Use Your Silk Wedding Flowers As A Keepsake

By on May 5, 2012 in Wedding Design Ideas

Afloral.com Purple-Boutonniere

Countless hours and unmeasurable amounts of effort are put into designing and arranging your wedding day decor.

Hours of your time are put into items that will be displayed for one day’s event.  With a little forethought and a bit of the right planning you can continue to enjoy your wedding flowers and wedding decor long after your special day.

Planning the right wedding decor items that can be reused, recycled or re-purposed is budget friendly, green and just plain smart. Many brides are going green, that is not just referring to their wedding colors or wedding flowers.  Brides are looking for items that can be re-purposed and reused on and after their wedding day.  Afloral.com showed us some gorgeous ideas to re-purpose vintage finds to create a romantic, vintage rose wedding theme.  Read more about how to score great vintage finds and transform them into a beautiful wedding theme in our vintage wedding design ideas post.

Silk wedding flowers are another great wedding decor item that are affordable and able to be reused after you special day.  Silk wedding flower arrangements are gorgeous, yet budget friendly options that also leave you with a special keepsake.  Silk flowers are an option you can enjoy for years to come.

afloral.com green wedding ideas

Brides can incorporate their wedding flower centerpieces into attractive home decor.  Take a look at Afloral.com’s green wedding ideas and wedding centerpiece idea, it’s recycled wooden crate is a huge hit for home decor right now combined with a fresh look of greenery, branches and trendy kissing ball accents. Wedding flower centerpieces can also be broken down into smaller arrangements to be used around your new home as accents.

Or think outside of the vase and find a way to re-purpose your wedding flowers.  You can use select flowers to decorate a home accent wreath or basket.  Take part of your silk wedding flowers and place them for display in a shadow box for a unique use.

afloral.com pink, blush vintage wedding ideas

Your wedding flowers are not only a  special keepsake for you but also consider making them into a keepsake for you mother, mother in law or other family and friends.  Seen in Afloral.com’s pink and blush (vintage) wedding ideas, a rose bloom inside a vintage tea cup would make a beautiful keepsake.  Your mother and mother in law will enjoy this thoughtful gift. It will hold special memories for years to come.

Silk wedding flowers are an affordable option that will also hold onto all your hard work you put into their planning.  Pick a wedding flower option that you can enjoy days, weeks, years after your special day.  There’s an old wedding practice to put a piece of your cake in the freezer to take out to celebrate your anniversary.  That cake might make it past your 1st year anniversary, but silk wedding flowers will outlast any cake for many years to come.

Don’t forget to search our blog by wedding flower colors for great ideas in planning your special day!  Use the browse by color menu at the top of our blog.

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Create Consistency With Your Wedding Flowers

By on April 27, 2012 in Daily Scoop, How To, Wedding Design Ideas

Many DIY brides get stressed out at the thought of making one unified theme for their wedding. Maybe you feel the same way. You want to have a nice, traditional ceremony, but a casual, fun reception. The only problem is, you want to make sure both of these events compliment each other. You don’t want people feeling like they attended two completely different occasions. When faced with this situation, most brides choose matching color schemes for both events. Nicole Janowicz, a writer for Huffington Post Weddings, supports this decision.

Your wedding colors will be apparent throughout the details of the décor: flowers, linens, centerpieces, etc. Incorporate your wedding colors throughout your wardrobe changes to create a look that is consistent. For example, add pops of your wedding color to your ceremony dress through a sash/belt, headpiece, shoes, jewelry, or even with the flowers in your bouquet. Continue this color story by choosing a cocktail dress in your wedding color for your reception. Even if you are not in white, every one will still know you are the bride.

At Afloral.com, our wedding flower experts encourage you to take it one step further. Pick a set of half a dozen flowers, and incorporate them in every aspect of both events. Take the wedding flowers that you used in your boutonnieres, corsages, and bouquets, and use them to create stunning centerpieces. Use your wedding flowers as a transition piece, allowing them to go from accessory to decor.

Here are some great visual examples.

Pictures were taken from iWeddingNews.com, BotanicalBrouhaha.Blogspot.com, and MarthaStewart.com.

 

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