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You’re engaged! Congratulations! You’ve set your date and booked your venue and photographer. The expense of it all sure is adding up. The cost of Virginia wedding ceremony flowers, all of their variables truly depend on your asks and tastes. I’m always very honest and transparent when it comes to the cost of flowers. Hence, I like to give you options that will resonate with your budget. For this blog post, let’s compare some wedding altar designs. Wedding ceremony flowers boast a wide range of prices. Let’s explore!

Altar Flower Designs

Ceremony altar designs are one ticket item that can vary quite a bit cost wise. When it comes to your Virginia wedding ceremony flowers there are many things to consider. First, is there a structure already present at the venue that we will be designing on? If there isn’t then there will be a rental fee associated with your design build. Let’s talk about potential designs and their costs.

The above pergola is located at Historic Jasmine, a venue in Providence Forge, VA. The bride had asked for an asymmetrical, yet full design across the top for her Virginia wedding altar flowers. This particular design cost was $1200. It included a running mix of some premium and standard flowers mixed in with greens to achieve the look. If we were to flower in the two columns for a full altar design, this pergola would be $3600. Flowering in the two upper corners only with some draping greens and a symmetrical design it would cost $425. For each corner or $750. If we were to flower the upper left corner and then do a smaller design for the opposite post that would cost $650. So as you can see big variations in costs for different looks.

Altar Columns and Toppers

A popular trend to achieve altar focal impact for your wedding ceremony flowers is to do columns with floral toppers. Your columns offer many design and look options. From modern, metal stands to wooden or cylindrical boxes there’s a lot of flexibility with these designs. And anything can be spray painted to be cohesive with your wedding look and feel.

The bride for this wedding at the Dominion Club requested large aisle markers. These easily repurposed to guest tables at the reception. A few things to keep in mind when pricing a design such as this is that there me be an additional fee. A ‘flip’ refers to moving designs from ceremony to reception. Each stand priced out at $375, inclusive of a $25 stand rental fee. And I had to mindful of the summer heat. I was able to add in some garden roses. Summer wedding months are not as popular due to the heat. The floral cuff/drape tie backs were $125 and were front facing designs only.

Floral Ground Garden

The floral ground garden is a Virginia wedding ceremony flower option with versatility. There are so many things about a ground garden that I love! It’s highly flexible and can fit into many budgets. We build these in sections and these easily can ‘flip’ to your reception. You can utilize them as table centerpieces or on the ground of a sweetheart table. In front of the bar or columns that may surround your dance floor. Line them in front of your stage for your band. There are plenty of ways they can be re-used. Just be aware that there usually is a labor fee associated with a flip. Flowers can get really ‘sad’ in the heat. I would expect, based on stem counts for a light ground garden to start at $700. A larger, more dimensional design, cost upwards of $2500. Design below estimate – $1400

Arch and Broken Arch

The arch and broken arch have their own space with wedding ceremony flowers popularity. Do you prefer asymmetry? Or do you like the look of your ceremony flowers full and symmetrical? My flower friend and web designer, Michaela Keel of Maree Floral in Salt Lake City shared with me an example of arch designs below. As you can see one is full and fluffed up with greenery with lighter touches of flowers. The other broken arch design has more flower content. They are the same price. Here in Virginia, designs like these would be $1600.

More Designs to Consider

There are so many more Virginia wedding ceremony flowers designs and possibilities to consider. Regarding your budget for your ceremony flowers, it really comes to how much you’re willing to allocate. Ask yourself, how important that design element is to you. I feel confident in my design skills to drive a unique vision forward for you. Let’ talk!

I consider Courtney Raihall of Solidago Studios as THE ‘go to’ wedding bouquet preservation guru here in Richmond. Preserving your wedding flowers here in Richmond, VA has become increasingly popular and a question I find my brides asking me about who I recommend.

I had the pleasure of meeting Courtney on a random Wednesday AM not too long ago. I knew of her name as one of my former brides used her for wedding flower preservation. She wanted to preserve her bridal bouquet from a wedding I did at The Mill at Fine Creek last April. Courtney had reached out to me to connect and strengthen our wedding pathways and I had been eager to write a blogpost about flower preservation. It was perfect timing.

Courtney’s Background

Courtney’s love for wedding bouquet preservation was birthed from a wetland’s ecology study at VCU. An environmental science major at the time, Courtney utilized this one particular study to harness the magic of flower preservation. Needless to say, it became a thing she wanted to pursue.

Process

And so began her all organic approach (with no color preservatives) to wedding flower preservation in her quaint 2BD/1BA apartment in Richmond. She was able to glean farm scraps from Monarch Flower Farm which also served as her post-college employment. The process for wedding bouquet preservation begins with deconstruction for some flowers such as roses, ranunculus and other blooms boasting many petals. All petals and stemmed flowers along with greenery will go through a 3-4 month press process.

Book Early

What Courtney wants you to know………. It’s important to connect with her early. She recommends 2-3 months pre-wedding contact and booking for your bridal bouquet preservation with a 4-6 month final product turnaround, post wedding. Assign a point person who will transport your bouquet and maintain the stems in a vase of water. And also, you can expect a natural fade and patina to your flowers once the process is complete.

Future Goals

Future goals? Courtney would love to pursue large scale, fine art installations utilizing her pressed flower method. For now, she’s also offering a line of pressed flower holiday ornaments as an accompaniment to her wedding bouquet preservation business.

So, being a wedding florist in Virginia has afforded me the luxury of rubbing elbows alongside of some truly great wedding photographers. Below is a list, in my opinion, of whom I feel to be recognized as some of the best Virginia wedding photographers from a Richmond Florist perspective. They just have a knack for capturing my wedding florals, their depth, true colors and beauty. In no particular order as I’ve enjoyed them all:

Chelsea Schmidt Photography

Chelsea of Chelsea Schmidt Photography really wowed me after working a wedding together last spring at The Mill at Fine Creek. She has a very straightforward approach to her work and her images are always so clean, unfettered. My wedding florals were represented naturally and she didn’t lose the details in the highlights. My bouquet was definitely photographically challenging, but Chelsea nailed it! Her photography is polished, if you will and she captured some genuine moments. Hence, she’s definitely considered one of the best Virginia wedding photographers from a Richmond wedding florist, IMHO!

Chantel Cruz Photography

Chantel and I recently worked together on a very collaborative styled shoot at The Hidden Oaks or, mock wedding, if you will! She was an absolute joy to be around. Bright, attentive and creative and a great communicator. Her photos speak for themselves (you need to check out her website!) and I haven’t even seen them all yet. She’s another one that was able to just cleanly and beautifully capture our event.

Stephanie Whitehill Photography

I had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie for our client’s wedding at King Family Vineyards on a crisp November day. Her and her team were so kind to work with. I would describe Stephanie’s photography also, as clean ( can you detect a theme with what I like?). Her clients appear to have a genuine ease about them as is indicative in her photos. She has a very soft approach to documenting people, nothing too fussy or over-posed. And all this translates into super pretty photos. I enjoyed her so much, I asked her to do a styled shoot at Northfield Estate with me!

Megan Garrison Photography

Megan is a total gem to me and we’ve partnered on two occasions with the third, a Richmond wedding florist referral from her coming up this weekend. She’s landed me what my friends like to call the most iconic, romantic wedding photo and I have to agree with them. Setting the stage, it was from a wedding styled shoot for the venue Sunset Cove that she manages. She’s got a true knack for photographing not only wedding couples, but for people in general. Her photos are just beautiful and she’s got quite the eye for framing her subjects and creating an environmental photo with people.

As a Virginia wedding florist, one of the most important elements to your wedding is your bridal bouquet. The bridal bouquet is THE statement piece from which all other wedding designs evolve. Choosing your bouquet style and shape can be overwhelming with so many options. Here are some of the bouquet styles and shapes that we love.

Round Bouquet Style

This design is what I’d call a rounded, structural silhouette bouquet. Classic wedding flowers.

Whimsical Bouquet Style

Garden Style silhouette. Presents as rounded, but has fun tendril like lines. Mixed bouquet. Great example of an early spring wedding bouquet because of the cooler weather types that are available such as poppies and coral charm peonies.

Modern Bouquet Style

Modern, artful. Uniquely structured. Tropical flowers

Cascading Bouquet Style

Every couple’s taste and style are different. I believe your wedding should be unique as the two of you are! Hopefully this blog helped you narrow down options when determining your bouquet styles and shapes.

Learn how to pin a Boutonniere. As wedding floral designer in Richmond, Virginia and one who also designs for proms and homecomings, the proper pinning of boutonnieres has proven to be complicated for many.

You’re given a small grouping of flowers bound by tape or ribbon with two
pins…….now what? I’m here to help!

1. Your left side lapel(the flappy thing on your suit or tuxedo jacket) is the side
   you’ll be placing it on. Over your heart!
2. The top of the boutonniere flower or greenery is best placed two inches
   below the collarbone, centered on the lapel.
3. Hold it in place on the front of the lapel and grab a pin.
4. Pin from the back or underside of the lapel catching the back of the
   boutonniere and going back under the lapel.
5. The boutonniere should not flop over or be wobbily. No portion of the pin
   should be showing. Second pin is only needed if you’ve bent your first pin.
6. You’re now photo ready!
   Enjoy the video below for further instruction. Feel free to reach out for all of your
   floral design needs.
   Happy Flowering,
   Stacy