One thing fresh flowers add to your wedding that no other decorations do, no matter how beautiful, is the fragrance of natural blossoms. The scent allows another sense to be engaged in appreciation the delightful environment created for your celebration. But, as you know, too much of anything can be, well, too much. While it is expected for some people to become teary eyed at a wedding, you want that to be caused by overpowering emotion not by overwhelming flower scent. With this in mind, you should go lightly on flowers with the most fragrance. These include freesia, gardenias, lilies, lilies of the valley lilacs, and tuberoses. Certainly, if you or someone else in the wedding party is known to be allergic to a particular variety of flower, you should stipulate that it not be included in any of the arrangements. The sound of sneezing just does not enhance the wedding ceremony. So as you make your selections for your wedding’s bouquets and centerpieces, consider the aesthetic and other effects of your flowers to achieve blooming splendor with just the right amount of natural fragrance.
The Wedding Flowers Order:
The basic standard includes:
-A bouquet for the bride
-centerpieces for the dinner tables,
-arrangements for the chuppah, including the aisle
-arrangements flanking the kallah chair.
It is also common to have flowers for:
- boutonnieres for the groom, the fathers, and brothers
- corsages for mothers and married sisters,
- bouquets for other females who walk down the aisle.
Flowers can also be used to decorate:
-the place card table
- cake table
-buffet tables
-the entranceways,
- platters and cakes
- individual place settings
- the restrooms and lounge
Flowers beyond the wedding: It's a nice gesture to send arrangements as a sign of appreciation to both sets of parents and to the hostesses for the parties outside the wedding, like the showers and sheva brachos.
Some even order fresh flowers to for hair decorations. Bear in mind, though, that you would need precise measurements for wreaths if they are to look right, and you would not have them in hand until the day of the wedding.
Cost and Expectation
You can opt to have flowers for all of the above with less to spend on each individual arrangement, or you can choose to forego some of the extras to concentrate on the bouquet and centerpieces. Based on your priorities, you could come up with how you plan to allocate your flower budget. The piece of advice you will generally find is that given a choice between flowers at your ceremony versus flowers at the reception, you should concentrate on the latter, as your guests will be there for much longer. But there are way to get more out of your flowers that you can discuss with your florist. . A florist should also not push the most expensive options on you but come up with ideas and alternatives to maximize the floral effects within your budget. There are many options and various possibilities in many price points.
Though you would find some standardization among FTD florists, floral arrangement styles and prices vary widely. You will find some florists that offer bouquets starting at $50, while others, promising a more customized approach are priced at $150 to $300 with similar prices for centerpieces. Corsages start at about $10. To assess which price point you will take for your wedding, you have to know what are the differences in choice of flowers, size, and labor involved in the design. Realize what you are paying for in hiring the florist. With the exception of some rare exotic varieties, most flowers do not cost more than a couple of dollars a stem. So what you are paying for is not so much the flowers themselves as the artistic talent, skill, and labor that goes into designing and constructing the floral arrangements. Plus there is the cost of the florist’s overhead, including the rental space, delivery vans, and insurance. It takes expertise to arrange flowers in a way that will show off their beauty and keep them fresh throughout the wedding
Also see www.examiner.com/x-18522-NY-Jewish-Bridal-Examiner~y2009m9d1-Guide-to-personal-wedding-flowers and www.examiner.com/x-18522-NY-Jewish-Bridal-Examiner~y2009m9d3-Selecting-a-florist
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