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I think it really depends what you want. I was also floored by florist prices, and ended up DIYing my flowers. If you want something simple that might be the way to go.
600 is a small floral budget, but if they aren't important to you then it shouldn't matter! Look for flower alternatives. I went to a wedding where each bridesmaid carried one large sunflower, it was very tasteful. Also, a lot of bouquets and arrangements can be reused at the reception. For my wedding, I didn't want floral centerpieces to save money- we are doing 8" cakes in the middle of each table instead. Each table has a different cake, hopefully gets people mingling to try all the flavors! I think you'll be just fine with that budget!
I was VERY up front with my florist and basically said over the phone when trying to nail down a consult time that if she couldn't work with my $XXX budget, then I wasn't going to waste her time.
She said as long as I am flexible on what it is I want, she could work with me...
So go into it open minded and I think you can find something nice!
Mine was $300 and I was fully prepared for florists to laugh at me, but everyone was respectful of my budget. I'm getting my centerpiece flowers from a wholesale flower shop in the area and doing them myself, while having bouquets and such done by a florist. I would stick to your budget and see if you can DIY some of it. If not, do what you're comfortable with!
I would suggest looking for people who have taken floral design classes, SRJC has a few classes and one of my friends took a class there. Or you and a friend can take the class and DIY. There is a flower market in the city or you can find some growers in the area. There's a dahlia's grower on Adobe Rd. between Penngrove and Petaluma. If you want something reallly different you can go by California Carnivores in Sebastopol and find some carnivorous plants.
Have you looked at getting your decor/ centerpiece flowers from a wholesale place and just having simple bouquets done professionally? DO you know anybody who can grow flowers for you (assuming you have enough time for this?) I am under the same budget. But we are either growing are own or getting the flowers wholesale and a friend of my mom's who used to be a florist is putting together the bouquets.
My sister is doing our flowers for us and what we're paying is even lower than that, something like $400. The wholesaler she is buying from requires her to be a small business owner to purchase from them though, so she had to go through setting all that up. It took some time and effort on her part and there was also some cost associated with that. That price is for the flowers for 2 bridal bouquets, 2 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 grooms boutonniere, 3 groomsmen boutonnieres, 7 corsages, 6 other boutonnieres, 2 altar arrangements, and 14 centerpieces.
I DIY'ed my flowers and had tons for $800. We ordered off of online websites, had them delievered two days before the wedding and put them together ourselves. We probably had too many flowers. We did a mixture of roses, button mums, rannunculus, two other flowers and some bells of ireland. Worked out perfectly.
I think you should do what is comfortable with your budget. I will be DIYing ours by buying flowers most likely from Costco. Their prices are wonderful. They also have floral packages you can check out. They take custom orders and will make sure to set aside the best flowers for your wedding.
Last time I checked a dozen roses were reasonably priced. You can get 100 stems for $89.99. I hope this helps. Happy planning!
My flower budget is $500, and I went to two florists who quoted me in the $700 range. One thing that I think is helping bring down the cost is that I bought all my vases at thrift stores and garage sales (which I plan to re-sell after the wedding) so that I won't have to rent vases. I'm also considering buying the flowers wholesale, except for the bouquets. Maybe you could use thrift store vases to bring the cost down? There have also been a TON of great blogs about Bees DIYing their flowers, you might want to check them out!
My budget is $5,000 for 50 guests, and so far it looks like I am actually going to be able to come under that. Flowers were so important to me but budget issues made it so I had to really scale back. ( i went from 10,000 budget to 5,000 because I have to do everything by myself and lost my job!) So now I am using fake flowers, but some of the stuff I've been seeing that's done with silk flowers looks beautiful! So don't count that out. Good luck!
One way to save on centerpieces is to use potted plants instead of cut flowers ... they could also double as favor people could take home.
My daughter's wedding cost $5K, and I spent $70.00 on flowers. I took her to an amazing dahlia farm and she picked seven dozen stems of dahlias that were gorgeous. She choose the colors/variety from hundreds of dahlias, and we ordered them. And she had left over ones that we didn't even use! Only pay for what you want. If you are okay with some simple diy, or if you want to order flowers from an online source do that. 
Our budget for flowers is only about $200. Then again, I don't think we'll have flowers in our center pieces at all. All of the girls are going to be walking down the aisle with a bouquet of daisies (about $5 a piece) wrapped with ribbon or twine. I'll get a nice bouquet for myself. Then we need boutinerres for the guys and that's it! All that to say...if you are creative $600 for flowers will go a long way!
have you considered silks? afloral.com has beautiful flowers at really decent prices, especially in the closeout section
Flowers aren't even kinda important to me so my floral budget is super small. As long as you're flexible with what you're getting you'll be just fine. There's tons of great things you can do with the flowers you want within any budget. If it comes down to it, I'd recommend having you're florist make your bouquets (it's not nearly as easy to do last minute as lots of brides expect) and buy centerpiece and other decor flowers wholesale at like Sam's Club or something and DIY.
If you really want a florist so you don't have to worry about DIY-ing your flowers and storing them, you can cut costs in a few ways. You can get seasonal or year-round flowers, get low centerpieces or use 1 type of flowers. For instances, all red roses for your BMs and all white roses for you. Good luck!
Hey--if that is your budget, that is your budget! Consider accenting what flowers you DO end up having with "ornaments of the season". This could be a great opportunity to get creative!
like you, i said no flowers (to my mom) who freaked out! ha! our budgets are about the same... mine is a little less actually but we have less people. i don't have attendants so, that helps. honestly, i think it is really sweet when the day of your wedding is more about the vows you make to each other and less about anything else (i.e. flowers, music, etc)... just remember that no matter what you end up deciding, it will be perfect and beautiful because you are celebrating and promising your love to each other. write that down and keep reminding yourself of it, k! :D so, ideas... loved the idea of going to a flower farm above - if you have one near you, great! if not, you can go to the costco website and order flowers (roses) in bulk. i love the look of loose flowers and those are less expensive because you don't have to trim the leaves, etc. i'd buy the bulk ones and carry them like wildflowers (no ribbon tied)... press the easy button. give each of your attendants one rose to carry and any that are left can go onto tables, etc. then, you could simply put some little tealights on each table - candle light is so gorgeous. just some random thoughts!
good luck!
XO
In retrospect, I actually wish I'd spent less. I loved our flowers, but now looking back, I can see so many ways that I could have spent less.
If you or someone you know has a membership to one of those wholsale clubs, check out some of their flower options:
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1480824
I think that's doable- we're looking to buy our flowers online, and our centerpieces will be non-floral (candles.) We're keeping it simple- calla and asiatic lillies, and expect we'll be under $500.
I spent about $850. That included my bouquet ($80), 3 bm bouquets ($120), 18 centerpieces (this was the bulk of it at $600), and about $50 for 4 dozen roses with which my mom made 32 boutineers, and I plucked the rest of them for the flower girl and to sprinkle around the cake, head, entry table. I think $600 is very doable for 50 guests. Have you check Whole Foods?? They do florals at cost for just the flowers so theres no labor mark up like "real" florist shops have.
I'm meeting with my florist this weekend- we're hoping to stay around $500 for flowers. We have a total budget of $5,000- for a wedding of about 150. I'm just going to have her do the bouquets and boutonnieres. My mom and a friend of hers are growing huge patches of wildflowers and sunflowers (which is my main flower)...and what we can't get from their patches for centerpieces, we're going to do wholesale- I've been looking at fiftyflowers.com.
I'm trying to keep my flower budget to $300. I was very upfront with my florist on my budget. I think it's important to note that when working on a budget. You can't necessarily be stuck on what type of flowers (you are better off to go with what is in season). I'm also limiting it to just boquets for just me and my bridesmaids, we're not having any other flowers.
I think you can have a ton of fresh flowers for that budget if you DIY it. Love the dahlia suggestions here if you are at the right season. I have one bush which yields about 40 gigantic blooms each year! I was quoted $6000 for what I wanted (all orchids) but you can definitely get the same look with filler flowers and inexpensive flowers for $600. A good florist should be willing to work with you. Find one near a major hospital or funeral home ( I know ugh!), I have seen entire wedding pkgs 3 bridesmaid, 1 bridal, 4groomsmen bouts for $99!
I'm using artificial flowers as a) they're cheaper b) they're not as fragile c) can re-use them afterwards. All my flowers have come to a total of £100. Hopefully you should be able to get real flowers with your budget, but if not, artificial are a great option :)
My floral budget is $750 - I told the florist to absolutely not go over, I wouldn't have the money to pay more. I am DIY'ing all the centerpieces out of peruvian lilies (alstoemoria) in pinks and whites, and making a baby's breath "cloud" to go under the cake. Other than that, everything is coming from the florist - my bouquet, MOH's bouquet, 5 corsages, 9 bouts, 1 tossing bouquet, and 2 alter arrangements. It can absolutely be done on a budget!
I'm with you here. My flower budget was $250, since we only wanted 6 bouts, 5 corsages, and I'm DIYing my own bouquet and we're have only 2 or 3 arrangements in vases.
I saved even more money with a voucher through weddingful.com... check it out, you should have some in your area too! I got $200 worth of flowers for $85!!! in this way, I saved even more money, and will be able to have two lovely arrangements with Mokara orchids, which i though I'd never be able to afford. yay!
My table centerpieces are lanterns and shells, not flowers, btw...
Try to find a local wholesale market and DIY as much as you can. We did my bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets (6), corsages (4), bouts (7), and 16 arrangements, plus flowers around the ceremony site all for about $800. We had a mixture of roses, hydrangeas, daisies, poms, and kermits and greenery. Everything turned out beautifully after a little practice. You can save a tonnnn of money if you DIY.
This is one of our centerpieces as an example. This only took about 20 minutes to put together.
What if you went to some of the florists and said you wanted some arrangements for a party? I feel like the second you mention the word wedding that it starts to drive up prices for everything.
I agree! Check out the DIY forums and look at alternatives to having a florist. Depending on the time of year you are getting wed, I'm sure you can find blooms a lot cheaper in markets and wholesale :) good luck
Man I haven't been on here in too long. Thanks for all the great suggestions ladies. I found a florist who was so sweet and friendly. She felt for me and my budget and really worked with me to find seasonal arrangements well within my budget. I have decided though to do bare minimum centerpieces and things for myself and attendants. In other words, am not so traditional that I think it is necessary to but everyone and their mother a corsage (simply because they are somebody's mother if you know what I mean). I am not even a big fan of corsages since they simply get banged on everything and become wilted within an hour. I am having lots of dahlias in my arrangement in cream and peach colors which are going to be available in June. So excited to see the pic on here of how great just dahlias can look. Thanks ladies.
number one rule!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT SAY WEDDING . to a florist she will raise the price 30% or more.. so say u need 20 arrangements for a school function, a family gathering, anything but a wedding.
number two rule. look at flowers that are inexpensive, fillers, in season. local.
number three rule make sure you dont SAY WEDDING!!!!
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Hi ladies.
My wedding is a budget wedding. I am paying for everything on my own. Luckily it looks like I am going to be able to keep the whole wedding under $7,000 for about 50 guests. I am the most reluctant to spend money on flowers since I hate the idea that they are going to die in three days. I have set aside $600 for all the flowers (bouquets, centerpieces...everything). When I call floral shops I feel like they want to laugh when the hear my flower budget. This might be because I live in the middle of Sonoma Wine Country which is such a huge wedding destination that everything is marked way up. Am I being too stingy. Is that really that impossible of a budget to work with and should I consider spending more. Any brides out there, regret not spending more on flowers?