5 Tips For Creating A Budget-Friendly Wedding Bouquet

True story, my Instagram feed is fifty percent flowers, I’m obsessed. Every time we walk into the grocery store, I shout as loud (and appropriate) as possible to my fiance “look how beautiful the tulips are today!” just to drop as obvious of a tip. I am, however, not made of money, and am always searching for budget-friendly life hacks, and budget-friendly wedding hacks. Today, Jeanni Dunagan and Starflower are here to save the day and teach us tips to create the most beautiful and inexpensive bridal bouquet.

The two teamed up with an incredible group of vendors to create this romantic shoot and offer their expert advice on DIYing your own bridal bouquets and wedding florals. We’ve spoken a bit recently about how to choose flowers in season, and turns out, that’s just one way to save a little money on your wedding florals.

So without much further ado, the talented team will woo you with their pretty bridal shoot, and teach us how to create the perfect budget-friendly bouquet – I’m taking notes too!

5 Tips For Creating A Budget-Friendly Wedding Bouquet | Jeanni Dunagan 1

From Jeanni Dunagan & Starflower

Savvy brides looking for ways to save on wedding expenses often consider creating their own wedding bouquet. With a wealth of information available to brides – from classes at a local flower shop to blog articles to online video tutorials – learning how to design and put together a bouquet has never been easier.

Making your own bouquet can definitely help to save money, but we are taking things one step further and offering five tips to further increase your savings on a homemade wedding bouquet!

1. Choose Budget-Friendly Flowers

Love the fluffy look of peonies but cringe at the prices?

Consider substituting a similar-looking bloom such as cabbage roses or English garden roses. Generally speaking, roses, hydrangea, carnations, daisies, chrysanthemums, sweet peas and freesia are known for being budget-friendly.

2. Order Wholesale

This may seem like a no-brainer, but there are a few things to consider when ordering wholesale. Often a membership – and a business license – is required in order to purchase from a wholesale market.

Make a list of wholesalers that sell to the public and take time to research prices between vendors to make sure you are getting the best value.

Bonus tip: keep your order to one or two varieties and ask for a volume discount!

3. Stay In-Season

Because many flowers are seasonal they are more readily available during those times of the year that they naturally grow.

While you may be able to get your desired flowers in the off-season, doing so will usually put a dent in your budget because they will need to be imported. Try sticking to flowers that are in-season or that grow year-round.

4. Big Blooms

By using large flowering blooms (think hydrangea) as filler, you can create a larger bouquet with fewer stems! Try adding some other budget-friendly blooms to create visual interest.

5. Go Foraging

Adding in foraged wildflowers and greenery is one of the best ways to save money on your bouquet. Dreaming of a boho wedding? Try a bouquet of wild-grown daisies or sunflowers. Have a green thumb? Consider using flowers from your own garden – or borrow from a friend or loved one!

5 Tips For Creating A Budget-Friendly Wedding Bouquet | Jeanni Dunagan 4

Portland florist Jill Mason of Starflower and photographer Jeanni Dunagan teamed up to create and photograph a bouquet using the tips listed above. Most of the flowers used in this bouquet were foraged from Jill’s backyard garden and the fresh lavender came from Jeanni’s own garden!

List of flowers used: Garden roses, Hydrangea, Lisianthus, Clematis, Fox Glove, Tweedia, Phlox, Prairie Smoke, Fresh Lavender.

For more DIY bouquet inspiration, visit this gorgeous wildflower bouquet round-up.