Monday, February 17, 2014

Portsmouth Wedding Flower Budget – Ideas in Bloom featured in recent Borrowed & Blue article

Wedding flower budgets can vary widely, so we were very pleased when Borrowed & Blue approached us about a budget article they were working on. You can click on the image below to see the article in it’s entirety (including photos of our work and fellow NH florist Simple Bouquets), but I thought I’d elaborate further here. Interested to know the factors that can increase or decrease your wedding flower budget, or how to decide what portion of your budget to allocate to flowers and decor? Read on!

Portsmouth Wedding Flower Budget

What is the range of budgets you work with?

Floral budgets are unique to each wedding and largely depend on variables such as the size of your wedding party, the extent of your ceremony decor, or the number of tables at the reception. Average floral budgets that we see tend to be in the $1,600-2,500 range.

What are the things that dramatically increase/decrease costs?

There are many factors that can impact your floral costs. Here are a few:

  1. Size of the wedding - The larger the bridal party, the more bouquets and boutonnieres you'll need. Likewise, the higher the guest count climbs, the more tables/centerpieces will be required.
  2. Types of flowers used - Not all flowers are priced alike. If your heart is set on a wedding bursting with peonies, it's going to cost more than if you chose seasonal flowers in your color scheme.
  3. Accent decor - This could be anything beyond the traditional ceremony and reception decor. Perhaps you'd like masses of romantic petals to line the aisle, lush garland to frame the doorways, or unique rental items from your florist. The addition of items like these will of course impact your budget. You will have to keep in mind that they will likely require additional set up and potential breakdown beyond the base cost of the item as well.

What makes a bride/wedding easy and fun to work with?

We like to think that the floral design part of the wedding process is always fun! Couples who come to us because they love our style and are open to creative suggestion are always great to work with.

Anything you feel prospective clients need to know about costs?

The general suggestion is that floral costs should account for 8-10% of your overall budget. We often see couples who come to us later in the planning process when they have already spent the majority of their budget without accounting for their flowers. It can be very frustrating to achieve the look of your dream wedding if you haven't properly allocated for it. I strongly suggest at least touching base with a few designers early in the process to get a general sense of the costs involved. Thoughtfully planning out your budget early will save you a lot of stress later on!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Rebecca & Justin’s Cyclorama Wedding

 

Cyclorama_Wedding_Flowers (10)Rebecca and Justin’s wedding in Boston was a stunner!  The couple planned to wed in the neighborhood where they live (the beautiful South End).  Luckily there was a perfect garden setting just behind their building that made for a gorgeous ceremony spot.  From there it was a short stroll down the street to the reception at the Cyclorama.

If you’ve ever been to an event at the historic Cyclorama, you know what an absolutely massive space it is.  It can technically seat near 900 people for dinner.  Since the bride and groom were not expecting quite so many guests we immediately got to work designing ways to make the space seem more intimate and invoke the “secret garden with a urban twist” look Rebecca was hoping for.  It was great challenge, and one that I think we met beautifully!

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Rebecca’s bouquet featured white garden roses, astilbe, stock, and touches of sword ferns and sedum for a fresh-picked look.

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Boutonnieres were a combination of green thistle, wax flower, freesia tips and sword ferns.

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A custom built escort card display held hand painted canvases with each guest’s initials.  We designed the boxes to support these decorative trellises in the front, with deep wells in the back to hold shrubs and plants of varied sizes.  Add in a few lighting tricks from Boston Uplights and you have one eye-catching display!Cyclorama_Wedding_Flowers (16) Cyclorama_Wedding_Flowers (23)

Garden inspired arrangements dotted the cocktail tables.

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Beautiful drapery kept the reception space a surprise while guest enjoyed cocktails in the lobby.  Here’s a peek at the plants we had hung from the grid work on the ceiling.  They formed a circle above the dance floor.

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Guests entered the dining area through a living hedge we created on either side of our metal arbor.  Our friends at Pleasant View Gardens drove a large truck of their finest trees, shrubs and plants into the city to bring our sketches to life.  We couldn’t have imagined it better!

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Each table featured three floral pieces – One vintage sewing machine drawer filled with greens, white hydrangea and white spray roses flanked by more two modern glass pyramid vases brimming with Free Spirit roses.

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The couple wanted a clever twist on the traditional photo booth for their guests to enjoy.  Our vintage photo frames were hung from the pipe and drape to create a backdrop and many of our other props and plants were staged around the area.

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The entire room looked absolutely magical.  To see a full gallery of this event, please click here.

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Many thanks to all the wonderful vendors we worked with on this project.  A truly great team!

 

Flowers & Props | Ideas in Bloom
Plants | Pleasant View Gardens 
Planning | Alden Blair
Catering | Capers Catering
Lighting | Boston Uplights
Ceremony | Private South End Park
Reception | The Cyclorama

Photographer | Fat Orange Cat Studio