Wedding Flower Inspiration

Wedding flowers are a great way to express your personal style and taste during your wedding.  From the bridal bouquet to the reception centerpieces, the theme can be transformed through flowers.  Summer and spring weddings are full of reminders of the warm air and blossoming florals.  Setting the tone for your wedding can also be accomplished with the perfect first impression of your flower flare with a Floral Wedding Invitation.  Today, we share are few of our favorite floral arrangements as well as a few of our favorite floral wedding invitations.  For even more inspiration, visit our Floral Arrangements board on Pinterest.

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Floral Wedding Invitations

Floral Wedding Invitations

Floral Wedding Invitations

Floral Wedding Invitations

Floral Wedding Invitations

How to Plan Your Wedding Using Pinterest

Pinterest is an amazing way to plan any party, find new cooking recipes, locate good books and of course, it is one of the best ways to plan a wedding.  But, be careful!  Planning a wedding can be overwhelming enough without of barrage of ideas being hurled at you from all directions as fast as you can scroll down the page.  With any type of wedding planning, the use of Pinterest should be done so with some thoughtful useful strategies.  Otherwise, you may end up totally confused, over budget and not any closer to checking the items off your to do list.  Here are four ever so important things that Pinterest can help you with in your planning.

1.       Floral Arrangements:  Pinterest has an endless number of images for wedding flowers, bouquets, boutonnieres and table reception arrangements.  Use these images to narrow down the overall look that you want for your wedding.  Here you will be able to decide what types of flowers you would like and what colors you want to incorporate.  All this is wonderful, but a strong word of caution is coming your way!  Understand that most of the images you see are over the top, no holds bar and no wedding budget floral arrangements.  They are often ideas that people have and these people may not have had a budget to contend with for their event.  Flowers are an expensive part of the wedding and the bigger the arrangements, the bigger the bank needs to be to pay for them.  So, realize when you are pinning these glorious florals that they may need to be downsized to fit your budget and that will change the look.

2.       Wedding Dresses:  Pinterest is also a great place to find pictures of wedding dresses.  The latest trends for the upcoming seasons are sure to be found here.  You can definitely narrow your search on Pinterest and decide what you like and don’t like.  Once you have decided on your dress, just a word of caution!  This dress may not be found anywhere but a foreign country or a place that isn’t realistic for you to travel to.  So, be prepared for the possibility of needing to settle on something similar.  And of course, the image you fall in love with might be $10,000 over your budget.  Just sayin!  Be prepared to consider alternatives that won’t break your wedding budget.

3.       Bridesmaid Dresses:  Pinterest is sure to have the perfect style and color of bridesmaid dress that you are looking for to complete your bridal party look.  But, again, be sure you can actually find the dress before you get your heart set on it and be sure you have considered who you have asked to be your bridesmaids.  We have a great article on our Wedding Tips page that can help with this, “Tips for Selecting Your Bridesmaid Dresses.”  If you really want the dress you have pinned, consider hiring a seamstress and finding a pattern and material for her.  Don’t expect this to be any cheaper, however. With clothing’s mass production these days, a seamstress might actually cost you more.

4.       Wedding Invitations:  Pinterest is also a great place to find the style of wedding invitations you are looking for.  Everything from handmade to the less expensive online invitations can be found.  Be careful when you start pinning though and getting your heart set on a particular invitation.  Custom made invitations can be well over $2,000 and often this is an unexpected wedding expense that could cause you to go over your wedding budget.  A great alternative is going with an online stationery store.  These stores typically have the same paper quality, printing process and even the same styles that you would find in a stationery store.  Since they don’t have the brick and mortar overhead costs, their wedding invitation prices can be as much as half the cost.

Here at Occasions In Print, we pass that savings along to our clients while offering high quality, distinct wedding invitations.  Be sure and visit us today and find your perfect wedding invitation.

 

Five Easy Ways to Stay Within Your Wedding Budget

There is no doubt that a wedding today can be more expensive than a down payment on a new house.  Between the cost of the venue and the cost of the food, an entire wedding budget can be chewed up leaving little left for all the other important details that will make your day a grand event.  If you don’t want to settle on location or the sit down dinner you have wanted as part of your reception since you were 12, there are a few other steps you can take to help you reign in your budget and still have the wedding of your dreams.

Consider a Videographer instead of Photographer.  Most videographers today are about half of the cost of a photographer.  So, if you find a photography package for around $3000, you are likely to find a videographer for about $1500.  But don’t think you will miss out on the captured image of photography.  The key is to find a videographer that has the capability and technology to capture images within the video and turn them into pictures.  This is not a complicated or really unique process, it is just important to determine if the videographer has the computer setup to accomplish it.  Or, if you do research and find that once you have the video, you can do it yourself, even better.

Consider a Second Hand Dress.  Second hand dress doesn’t mean that you would lose any elegance, style or compromise on the condition of the dress.  There are thousands of brides who have elected to sell their gowns after the wedding.  And remember, these are dresses that for the most part have only been worn for less than 24 hours.  E-Bay is a great resource for gently used wedding dresses as well as Craig’s List.  Wedding Dresses can be compared to cars – a new car the minute you drive it off the lot losing a huge amount of its value, but is still in pristine condition.  So it is with a wedding dress.  

Order Flowers Based on the Season.  When planning your wedding consider the time of year and what flowers are going to be in season.  Florists will always have the seasonal flowers readily available and at a lower price than those that are out of season.  Be sure to do your research ahead of time and plan accordingly.  This will greatly reduce the cost of flowers.

Consider a Smaller Bridal Party.  Most couples want to share their big day with as many close friends and family as possible standing in their wedding party.  A large bridal party makes for a great photo and of course, great bachelorette and bachelor parties, however, the bigger the party, the bigger the expense.  Each bridesmaid will need a bouquet and each groomsman will need a boutonniere.   This can increase the flower cost dramatically.  There is also the traditional bridal party gift that is given to each attendant and the rehearsal dinner cost.  Electing to have only one or two attendants will decrease your overall costs and allow you take those dollars and put them towards the more expensive elements of the wedding like the venue and food. 

Order Wedding Invitations Online.  Wedding Invitations can also be a big expense within the wedding budget.  Custom wedding invitations can run in the thousands of dollars. In addition, brick and mortar stationery stores mark up their products in consideration of their store overhead costs.  Ordering your wedding invitations on line is a great way to save money and get the exact same quality and often the exact same product anywhere from 50% to 70% cheaper.  Online stores do not have the overhead expenses and consequently can pass along the savings to customers.  Most fine stationery stores carry the beautiful stationery company Carlson Craft.  These invitations can also be found online at a greatly reduced price and they are exactly the same.