As you have probably gathered by now, I truly believe that flowers are the piece de resistance when it comes to styling a wedding or event.

They are the most simple, natural way to provide decoration and ambience, but it can often be daunting trying to work out what your floral style is or how to rectify what you want for your wedding with what’s seasonally available or fits with your budget.

Jay Archer is based centrally in the South East and covers Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire. I adore Jay’s relaxed, pretty style and her penchant for nostalgic blooms and growing as much of her own produce as she can, so clients can know their flower from seed to petal.

Jay has cast her floral magic over events we’ve done at both Fetcham Park and Cams Hall, creating beautiful designs that help accentuate and compliment the existing features of both houses.

JAY ARCHER

Floral Design

I would have loved the opportunity to dive into this world with a professional at my side, guiding my choices and educating me as to what was possible and available.

In this extract from a guest post on Under The Vintage Veil, Jay discusses how to get to grips with your flower budget.

Before you even consider favourite flowers and table centres, you should work out what is important to you on your day and what flowers you actually need such as the following:

Jay meet's with prospective clients, providing them with their very own inspiration board along with their personally tailored proposal, as well as providing a trip to the flower market in order to give you a hands-on knowledge of the blooms you choose.

Bridal bouquet

Buttonholes - for the groom, best men and fathers

Bridesmaids & flower girls

Church/ceremony venue - including front of church, fireplace, pedestals, signing table, pew ends/chair flowers, font display.

Reception venue/wedding breakfast - table centres, gift table, cake/ table, fireplaces, windowsills, entrance to marquee

Venue decorations - candles, fairy lights, garlands, escort table, entrance decorations, wall lights, bar arrangements, decorative wreaths.

Seasons, locations and re-usability

Nowadays, flowers are imported from all over the world and it may surprise you that springtime flowers are widely available from October and summer flowers can be procured as early as February! Traditionally, winter weddings were difficult to provide for and the main options were roses or orchids but now there is a lot of choice.

However, if you use seasonal flowers and foliages then you will easily keep costs down. For example, a July-September dahlia will cost around 45p a stem, whereas a rose can be £1.20- £3.50 per stem. On top of this, you need to allow for workmanship and travel expenses; ask your florist about this upfront and check if they charge VAT.

There are an abundance of British grown flowers and, if you catch them bang in season, they can be cheaper still. You could also look for florists who grow their own flowers, like me. The flowers can be grown to order and again, are a lot cheaper as growing them on your own land keeps travel costs down - and is environmentally friendly too!

Once you have established your ‘flower essentials’ list, you can then think about working out your budget and, if there is money left in the pot, maybe you can add that to the displays in your ceremonial venue (which tends to be the least decorated room due to the brevity of time that you’ll be in there).

Ask your florist to provide a price range in the quote for each arrangement to reflect the seasonal and higher flower costs, for example: ‘Bridal bouquet £55- £120’. In summer, the lower priced bouquet would likely be hand-tied and include grasses, delphinium, scented herbs and stocks whereas the higher price would be a wired shower bouquet to include roses, orchids and crystal detail and could take around 4-5 hours to make! Table centres can start from £45 per table to include a mix of glass jars, jugs, bud vases and candle votives, whereas as candelabra would be around £70-£90 each.

Another point to consider is the move around of arrangements. A good florist will move arrangements from room to room or from the church to the reception. To save money further, why not ask your florist to turn the pew ends into the gift bouquets for Mums and use the signing table arrangement for your top table or gift table?

Florist checklistWhen choosing your florist, visit their website and directories; are there recent wedding photos in their gallery or on their blog? Are there recent reviews of their services?

Before meeting, check they have worked at your venue before. If they haven’t, meet them there as if they provide a quote without seeing the venue the cost may increase once they go and measure up!

Be honest about your budget. A lot of time goes into writing quotes and the florist needs to know what you are prepared to spend; there’s no point rejecting someone for being too expensive when you didn’t tell them your cost expectations!

Ask the florist where they source their flowers; can they get local, cheaper flowers or can they grow their own?

Does the florist have another wedding on the same day as yours? If so, they may not be around to move your arrangements around between venues and this could mean you either have to do it yourself or waste your money!

Do they have a range of pieces to hire and if so, are hire prices included in the cost ‘per table’ or per arrangement? Will the quote include VAT and travel expenses and when do you need to pay a deposit?

Finally, after meeting them, do you like them? If you’re not sure they ‘got you’ or they came unarmed with pictures, an open mind or were cagey with some of their answers when you asked about money, they probably aren’t right for you.

A rough budget guideTo help you further, please see the budget guide below with examples of what might be available for the top and bottom end of your budget. These costs are based on price lists from various florists around the country to give a good overall price.

However, it really is worth speaking to your favoured florists about working to your budget. Please note, none of the budgets account for travel expenses or VAT:

£1500- £3000 budget• Hand-tied bridal bouquet or wired shower bouquet

• 5x bridesmaids bouquets with seasonal flowers

• Flower girls baskets of petals

• Buttonholes for groom, best man, Dads and Ushers

• Corsages for Mums

• Gift bouquets for Mums

• 2x large pedestal arrangements for church. To be moved to Reception later on

• Pew ends

• Archway for church

£250 budget:• Hand-tied bridal bouquet to include seasonal flowers and a few roses

• Small bridesmaids bouquet of seasonal flowers

• Confetti cones for guests

• Top table arrangement: low and low or mix of pressed glass, jars and votives. This could double up as your signing table arrangement.

• 1-15x low or tall table centres

• Cake flowers and arrangement for cake table

• Gift table

• Venue decorations including candles, decorative wreaths, escort table, lanterns, garlands, fireplace dressing, olive trees, fairy lights, pedestals, rose petals

• Flowers for canapé trays

• Buttonholes for groom, best man and fathers

• Corsages for Mums

• Top table arrangement: low and low or mix of pressed glass, jars and votives. This could double up as your signing table arrangement.

CONTACT Jay Archer Floral Design

07519 818 223 www.jayarcherfloraldesign.com