Anthomanic Wedding and Event Boutique Unique Floral Designer Artist

Brandon & Lisa, Stevenson Ridge June 2012 - image copyright, Katelyn James Photography

If you just want the basics on our pricing info, see the investment & process page! Also, read about all the services we can provide for your event, on the services & elements page. We take care of ALL the flower and decor setup on your special day, so you can enjoy champagne while getting ready with your bridal party!

• Use one color in abundance or a monochromatic palette for your flowers and decor. It has a bigger impact on the space than mixing colors, enabling you to use less to create a big flower impact. See one of our design examples by clicking here!
• Use flowers that are relatively cheap for their size. Hydrangea is a great flower to use to create a full look for less money. They may be more expensive than other flowers, however, they fill a large space and can create a very full look relative to their cost. But, keep in mind to only use the white or light blue variety. The more vibrant shades like pink, blue and violet are double the price of normal hydrangea, as they are from Holland and South America. A way to get those pricey vibrant shades is possible if the florist can dye the blooms to attain the shade you are looking for.
• Do ‘posey’ sized bridesmaid bouquets instead of the average size. This could possibly cut your bridesmaid bouquet costs in half…or more than half! Average bridesmaid bouquets run about $150 on average [of course depending on the types of flowers chosen and the amounts needed]. If you change those to $75 bouquets you can save a good bit when you have 3+ bridesmaids!
• Focus the flowers where the photos will be taken. For example: forego aisle floral and put it all on your pergola/arch! You will have most all your ceremony photos there, so why not have a gorgeous backdrop with a greenery and/or floral swag as opposed to the aisle where you might only have a few photos?! Instead of spending $100 per pomander, why not spend $300 on your pergola and save a few hundred dollars!? Or put your pomanders on the pergola where everyone will see them and photograph them?!
• Rent your glassware from the florist or from your venue if they offer such service. This may limit your options, but be willing to use plain, clear glass for your centerpieces and you can have larger centerpieces that can fit your budget! You can turn a low centerpiece into a 24” tall WOW centerpiece for just a few bucks more for a tall riser vase rental! Or even provide your own that you have found on sale at a craft store. Most florists are willing to use your collected vases.
• Add votives or floating candles to your centerpieces. They will illuminate your floral and really help to make it a focal piece at your tables, really showing them off, turning even the smallest centerpiece into a beautiful focal piece.
• Use upgraded linens. This may seem like a non-floral suggestion, however, if you want purple decor, why not opt for purple linens that add a huge pop of color for your reception space and do white or another color floral that can eliminate the need for expensive purple flower options and use cheaper white flowers like hydrangea! This can even allow for smaller centerpieces. See an example of an upgraded linens table by clicking here!
• Don’t assume the ‘hand-picked’ look is cheaper than large, full, rounded bouquets. Many of those tiny flowers are relatively MORE expensive than designs that are large and full.
• If your favorite flower is exotic and pricey [garden roses, orchids, gardenia], add them in your bouquet only. Use other visual/volume filling flowers for your other designs. Your bouquet is photographed more than anything else, so don’t skimp there! Especially when those photos of you, your husband, and your bouquet will be hanging on your walls and in your albums for years to come.
• Don’t pull pictures from magazines, those are often the most expensive designs photographed — they are moreso ‘concept’ designs. Instead, search wedding blogs like Elizabeth Anne Designs, Ruffled Blog, Green Wedding Shoes, United With Love and our local Capitol Romance. Those sites have actual weddings and style-shoots that have realistic ‘average’ budgets.
• Rose petals can have a big impact on your reception space for a relatively low cost compared to filling that space with arrangements. Use them in a vase with some floating candles for an added WOW. It sounds simple, but looks gorgeous! See an example at one of our favorite venues, Stevenson Ridge [click here to see an example].
• Choose a great florist. A well educated, experienced wedding florist knows about, and is familiar working with the different types of flowers and can recommend substitutions or other options to help you save money. You also don’t have to worry about your designs being poorly designed — bad floral designs can stand out like a sore thumb in your pictures — making that discount not worth it! Going with the cheapest florist isn’t the best route. Different florists use different levels of quality flowers, you really get what you pay for when it comes to flowers and design work.  A great florist is worth their weight in gold! You need to be able to trust your florist understands your vision and can make it fit your budget, while being professional, fun, and allowing you to not worry about a thing when it comes to floral and decor! See our other post about comparing apples and oranges, here: http://www.anthomanic.com/?p=102
• We’ve seen a trend in 2012 against corsages and boutonnieres. Corsages are on average $25 each, and when you have mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers, ushers, groomsmen, etc. it can add up to a few hundred dollars, FAST. We also hear many mothers complain about wearing a corsage. If you aren’t bothered about them, don’t do it! It’s your wedding day, do what you want! Don’t pay for something you don’t care for.
• DONT DIY when it comes to flowers [well, many other wedding situations as well]. No, I’m not just saying this because I want you to use Anthomanic. Yes you might save money on buying flowers at some mystery wholesale company online, but the labor you will spend on gathering, prepping, storing, cooling, arranging, transporting and setting up those flowers, I promise you, from one bride to another, is not worth the money to be saved. Don’t you want to be relaxing the day before your wedding, getting together any other last minute details? To put it in perspective, it takes an experienced wedding florist three days to fully execute your designs. Wednesday the flowers arrive. Thursday the design work starts, making sure to gather all materials. Friday designs are completed. Saturday the designs are touched up and delivered. I took flowers to Florida just for personal bouquets, I am a professional wedding floral designer — it took me an hour out of that day, but that was a hassle! I had family arriving, nails to be done, etc. So, for the sake of saving you a headache, hire a florist to do the work for you! The money you spend to hire a florist will be worth it! I found a great article that shows what I often hear from brides that DIY….this is a common occurance!

“From Ever After Florist about preventing a DIY flower disaster:

This is a very risky idea that could end up costing you more money than having a professional floral designer help you with it. I had a bride who I quoted $1,000. This would cover her bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids, a flower girl, about a dozen boutonnieres, some corsages, 10 small centerpieces, cake flowers, and delivery & set up. Sounds like a lot of money, but it was actually pretty decent for all the things she wanted and the flower choices that she wanted. However, she decided that she could save a couple of hundred dollars if she went to Costco and bought and designed her own flowers with the help of some “creative” friends. The bride decided that she would start working on the store bought flowers a few days before the wedding to give her enough time. So she went to Costco bought what she thought she needed, had her friends over to help her, and then started on it. This was harder than she thought. But they were all having fun and when all the flowers were used up, she had to make another run to Costco to get some MORE flowers, and then a third run because she didn’t realize how many flowers she actually needed to make the bouquets look decent. Now she was getting worried because she was actually spending a bit more money than she thought. However, she was still under the $800 mark so she figured she still did good. The bride had finished most everything a day ago, put the flowers in her refrigerator and felt that they would certainly do great in there. WRONG! Refrigerators have food products in them which give off ethylene gas and kill fresh flowers. This is exactly what happened to this DIY bride. Most of her flowers had gotten too cold, froze, and then turned brown due to the ethylene gas and some of the other flowers wilted due to the culture shock between Costco, the car ride home, the mishandling of the flowers by the unprofessional “creative” friends who helped design the flowers, and then going into the fridge. So the night before the wedding, the bride is now at a grocery store ordering her flowers. She ended up with whatever the grocery store had available, which was not exactly what she had wanted, and spent about $500 more here. Her total for flowers between Costco & the grocery store ended up being $1125. It is not worth saving a few hundred dollars when you are working with perishable items. Leave this work to a professional florist who not only knows how to handle and design the flowers, but can guarantee them as well.”