Bridal Bouquets: How to Give Budget-Friendly Wedding Flowers a Luxury Look

Have you always dreamed of walking down the aisle holding a bridal bouquet overflowing with sumptuous blush blooms and elegant eucalyptus branches? While wedding planning on a budget, you might worry your deluxe wedding bouquet needs to shrink to balance out the quickly rising costs.

Don’t let florist sticker shock scare you away from expensive looking florals—your bridal bouquet and wedding flowers can absolutely elevate the ambiance of your day without a hefty price tag. By keeping an eye on costs and utilizing inspired design choices, your bouquet will look picked straight from the pages of a bridal magazine.

Below, find out how to make a luxurious bridal bouquet using budget friendly wedding flowers.

Essential elements of a beautiful bridal bouquet

Your wedding is a reflection of you and your partner’s style and taste. While you can follow bouquet guides and suggestions for choosing the right selection of flowers, as long as you love the look, your bridal bouquet is perfect. However, if you find that you need some extra wedding bouquet tips as you’re DIY-ing floral perfection, here’s a few bouquet basics to keep you on the right track:

• Choose the right size and shape to fit your bridal look: Whether you’re looking for large and free-form or petite and round, there’s a bouquet that fits your needs.  Read more: How to Choose the Right Size Bridal Bouquet for Your Wedding
• Use your wedding colors as inspiration: Keep your bouquet flowers in the same color family, using coordinating and complementary shades to bring your bouquet together.
• Have enough stems to build your bouquet: Make sure you order enough (or more) flowers to complete your design and have some extra to account for unexpected mess ups or re-dos. 
• Design concepts elevate bouquet aesthetics: Incorporate principles of balance and symmetry for visual beauty to match your wedding day glow.
• Tie it all together (with ribbon, lace, or other decorative fabrics): Securing your bouquet is a necessity, and the fabric or ribbon provides an elegant and easy to hold cover-up for your rubber bands and stems.

How do you style affordable bouquets for weddings?

When you’re trying to keep costs under control, trimming excess expenditures might feel like losing quality. Wedding day essentials like the bridal bouquet often carry a hefty price tag, but luckily there’s ways to make your bouquet look like a million bucks without dipping into your honeymoon fund.

With the right tools and ingredients, you can put together budget wedding bouquets that rival your pricey local florist’s designs (and at half the cost).

Pro tip: If you’re a newbie when it comes to floral design and arranging, browse our guides for step-by-step instructions on how to make a DIY bridal bouquet and more wedding floral design tips and tricks – you’ll be a flower pro in no time!

Wedding bouquet tips to keep your flowers cost-effective

Keep your flower costs in check without sacrificing style with a little ingenuity and creative thinking. Here’s a few easy ways to stay on-budget as you plan for your bridal bouquet and other wedding flowers:

Be a DIY bride

Design services come at a premium, so why not take styling into your own hands?  Let your creativity shine with a one-of-a-kind bridal bouquet. Not only will it be unique, it’ll give your wedding a personal touch knowing the extra love and time put into making your own wedding flowers.

Ready to create but not sure where to start? Ling’s designer flower boxes give you all the ingredients you need to create stunning floral designs in your color palette of choice. Each stem style is custom selected to blend together perfectly, making it easy for you to DIY your way into expensive looking yet affordable wedding bouquets and floral decor.

Choose your stems wisely

If you’re taking on a big floral DIY project, be open to shopping around to find the best combination of product and value. Consider bulk or wholesale options if you’re arranging your own wedding flowers. Not only will it keep costs down, having a large amount of the same type of flowers ensures your decor will elegantly flow together from bouquet to ceremony and reception decor. 

Read more: How Many Flowers Do You Need for a Bridal Bouquet?

Use faux flowers to get a look you love

Artificial flowers are a beautiful and budget friendly choice for creating your dream wedding bouquet. Here’s a few of our favorite reasons for working with faux florals:

• You’ll have your favorite flowers in hand: Going faux lets you include blooms that would normally bust the budget like peonies, dahlias, and orchids at a fraction of the price. 
• You’re not at the mercy of seasonal availability: Premium fresh flowers come with a higher price tag, especially when they’re out of season. With faux florals, you have access to every style of flower at any time of the year to bring your wedding vision to life.
• No special handling needed: You don’t need to worry about hydration, coolers, or wilting petals, making them a perfect choice for DIY brides.

Wondering how to make budget-friendly faux flowers look luxurious? Up next, we’ll walk you through suggestions for dressing up affordable bouquets for weddings.

Ways to make budget wedding bouquets look expensive

Now that you’ve got an idea of how to keep your flower budget contained, try some of these tips for creating a stylish and luxurious bridal bouquet using your budget friendly wedding flowers:

Choose flowers that reflect your wedding theme

Continuity goes a long way when it comes to styling expensive-looking wedding flowers and decor. Designing your bridal bouquet to be on-theme with your wedding mood will make your flowers seem bespoke. For a romantic garden wedding, for example, you might select soft and charming bouquet ingredients, while a chic city wedding might guide you toward a more bold and structural arrangement.

Work with a sophisticated color palette

Think about your desired wedding colors and how they reflect the overall feel of your wedding day. A rust and sepia color palette with soft florals and textural nature-inspired elements, for example, reflects an earthy, vintage vibe. Or if you’re going for glamour and elegance, try a moody burgundy and black color scheme bursting with the darkest roses. 

Read more: Top 20 Trending Wedding Colors for Bridal Bouquets in 2023

Dress up your bouquet with high-end materials

Whether you add sparkle and fluff to the bouquet itself or wrap it in luxe fabrics, finishing touches make your bouquet stand out. Think about pearls peeking out between peony blooms or a vintage rhinestone brooch securing silk velvet ribbons wrapped around the flower stems.

CONSIDER ADDED GREENERY AND TEXTURAL ELEMENTS

Fullness and movement are two traits you’ll notice in wow-worthy bridal bouquets. You can achieve the same effect by utilizing foliage and branches that add texture and shape while blending seamlessly with the focal flowers and color theme. Eucalyptus, willow and grasses are all popular bouquet additions, and you can branch out and experiment with any type of interesting greenery.

Thoughtful design elevates the look of budget-friendly wedding flowers

How you combine your flowers, branches, and greenery can make all the difference in elevating a bouquet from normal to extraordinary. Balance big focal point blooms with coordinating supporting flowers, and give your bouquet movement with varying shapes, lengths, and textures.

When arranging your bridal bouquet, remember the floral design “rule of three” and try using uneven numbers to create visual balance. A proportional, balanced design will always look more expensive. 

Don’t forget flowers for the bridal party and wedding decor

Having a cohesive theme throughout your wedding floral design instantly creates a sense of luxury. Coordinate your overall look by including similar floral elements, colors, and styles extending from your bridal bouquet and bridesmaid’s bouquets to ceremony arch and reception centerpieces.

Why are wedding bouquets so expensive?

While you might experience sticker shock when you first start scouting for wedding flowers, there are actually a lot of different elements that go into creating breathtaking wedding bouquets. When you contract with floristry services, the total cost includes more than just the flowers. You’ll be paying for:

• Consultation
• Design services
• Floral sourcing and storage
• Rental or purchase of vessels and mechanics
• Transportation
• Installation and breakdown
• Staffing wages

Seeking out a la carte bouquet options instead of full floristry services, or taking on some of the tasks yourself (or with help from family and friends), helps lower the price point and make professional-looking wedding flowers more affordable.

Read More: How Much Does a Bridal Bouquet Cost? 

What are the most inexpensive wedding flowers?

The most affordable wedding flowers for creating beautiful bridal bouquets are varieties that are readily available year-round. If you’re looking for fresh flowers, budget-friendly blooms include carnations, daisies, roses, and baby’s breath, to name a few.

For getting a more luxurious look that fits your wedding budget, consider a bridal bouquet crafted with artificial flowers. With better affordability compared to fresh florals, going faux opens up your design options to even the most expensive-looking wedding flowers without the astronomical price point.

Find Beautiful and Affordable Bouquets for Weddings and More with Ling’s Moment

At Ling’s Moment, we know how important it is to have gorgeous floral options for brides of every budget. Our thoughtfully designed faux florals blend seamlessly with your romantic wedding theme and bring added elegance to your day.

Whether your wedding theme includes moody blues, soft pinks, or romantic reds, there’s a color palette to fit your style. Explore our designer wedding color schemesand be sure to tag us on Instagram @lingsmoment and share your luxe and lovely Ling’s bouquet.