Category — Flowers

Photo by Angela Sevin

One of the best ways to add make your wedding more personal and unique is to add meaning and significance to your choices.  So rather than just choosing your flowers based on their appearance and fragrance, you can make your flowers meaningful by paying attention to their symbolic meaning.

Both the type of flower you use and its color give it meaning.  I’ve listed the meanings of some of the most popular wedding flower ideas…but if you are in love with the look of your flowers, forget about its meaning.  You have enough to worry about!  This is just an added bonus if you’re the type of girl who likes each choice to be rich with meaning.

Photo by Jeff Belmonte

MEANING OF COLORS

Red - Desire; strength; courage; passionate love.

White - Innocence; humility; purity.

Pink - Youth; happiness; joy.

Blue - Peacefulness; calm.

Purple - Royalty; admiration.

Yellow - Joy; light-heartedness.

Orange - Confidence; satisfaction; zest for life.

Green - Optimism; health; renewal.

MEANING OF FLOWERS

Orchid - Perfection; a rare beauty; sophistication.

Rose - Love; passion.

Daisy - Loyal love; innocence.

Tulip - Perfect lover.

Calla Lily - Magnificent beauty.

Hydrangea - Thank you; frigidity.

Zinnia - Thoughts of absent loved ones.

Now I’m in for it…or my sweetie is.  The next time he brings me home flowers you bet I’m gonna be reading all kinds of things into what he picks out.

Are you considering the meaning of your wedding flowers in your choice?  Leave me a comment.

Photo by Anne Norman

Picking out floral arrangements for your wedding and wedding centerpieces is an EYE OPENER.

Who knew flowers could be so expensive?  Especially when you’ve got a wicked case of champagne taste…and a beer budget.

One of the best ways to plan your dream wedding an affordable wedding is to “model” the success of others.

No, I’m not suggested that you walk a runway and strike a pouty lip pose…

“Modeling” means you find a bride who successfully did what you want to do…plan an unforgettable dream wedding on a budget…and imitate her behavior.  Find that bride, do what she did, and you’ll end up with her result: the wedding of your dreams at bargain prices.

That’s why it’s so important to find out what other brides have done that WORKS.  Because you want what they got…do what they did to get it!

Here are a few brides to turn to for flower ideas inspiration:

Pamela on DIY Wedding Flowers - This bride was inspired by the beautiful silk flowers at her cousin’s wedding.   Even though she’d never done it before, Pamela headed to the craft store and assembled her own silk floral arrangements for her wedding.  What she said afterward,

“Now when I look at my wedding pictures and see the flowers, I feel pride in my creations. I also feel pride in knowing that in order to save a lot of money, I was able to try my hand at something I had never done before. That feeling was worth even more than the few hundred dollars in my pocket!”

Whitney On Picking Flower Weddings - Whitney used a combination of wedding savings techniques to keep her flower budget under $500.  By choosing local, in season flowers, using potted plants and silk wedding flower arrangements, she had beautiful floral arrangements for less.

Christie On Pretty and Cost Effect Wedding Bouquets - With help from a 75% off sale on silk flowers at the craft store, Christie’s floral bouquet for her wedding cost only $25!  And she saved it after the wedding as a keepsake.

If these stories have inspired you to give diy silk wedding flowers a try, check out these Guidelines For Creating Your Own Silk Flower Arrangements.

But like everything else…only follow these suggestions if they are right for you.  There are plenty of ways to get creative and save on your wedding while you AND have the wedding of your dreams.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Got a flower savings idea?  Leave me a comment.

I just LOVE flowers.  There are so many different things you can do with them.

Trouble is, I need to see something before I know what I like.  I just don’t have these fabulous flower ideas tumbling around inside my head.

The solution: pictures that create idea wedding inspiration!

I’ve assembled a few of my favorites for you to check out.

Centerpiece Ideas: Different Vessels - This article sounds way more boring than it actually is.  It describes cool, unique ways to use different “vessels” (vases, baskets, jars, etc.) for your wedding centerpieces.  One of our recent brides selected vases of different themed designs for each table.  The design differences were subtle enough that each centerpiece matched, yet different enough to delight the guests.

Easy Breezy Flowers - Simple flower ideas for wedding centerpieces from www.CountryLiving.com.  I happen to know a couple of the designers for this magazine personally, and while they can make anything look easy, these actually take the cake.

Bridal Bouquets: Defining Your Style - StyleMePretty.com reminds me why I love them all over again!  This blog post has several photos that will help you identify your style…something you’ve gotta know before you talk to a florist.  Otherwise, they’ll drive you CRAZY with questions!  Just show them the pictures that inspire you.

Where did you find your flower ideas inspiration?  Leave me a comment.

Photo by cliff1066

Advice from a budget-minded bride:

“I wanted beautiful flowers for my wedding…that didn’t break my budget.  So I decided to or my flowers wholesale and then arrange the centerpieces myself.

“They turned out…okay…not great, but okay.  I could totally tell the difference between the ones I arranged and the professional bouquets I had.

“If I was doing it again, I would have ordered everything from ProFlowers.com.  They were great!  Sure, I saved money doing my own arrangements, but with all the time my mom and I spent working on them right before the wedding?  It would have been worth having them done professionally.”

An online florist like ProFlowers.com can be a great way to save and still get the flowers of your dreams.

Some more resources to check out:

Florist Tips To Stretch Your Budget - This article provides the basic guidelines for cutting costs on your reception flowers.

Do It Yourself Flower Arrangements - If you do decide to take on your own floral arrangements for your wedding, here are 6 basic flower arrangements that even a novice can pull off.

Growing My Own Bouquet - Here’s how one bride plans to give her do it yourself ideas a sentimental twist with her flowers; all her flower arrangements will be picked from her neighborhood garden.  Great pics of hydrangeas, roses, tulips, poppies and peonies.

Got flower ideas?  Post them here.