Are pedestal and unity candle arrangements a necessity?

shellycub

Hi,

Looking into wedding flower costs. At the minute have gotten good prices for bouquets, buttonholes and corsages. Now I'm wondering is it a necessity to have an altar pedestal and unity candle arrangement? Would the altar look bare? Are there alternatives that I'm not thinking of? We are on a budget. Would appreciate any comments/ideas!!

Thanks

lazygal

Nothing is a necessity. I don't like the candle ceremonies of any description during a wedding ceremony so we left it out.
Also really didn't like buttonholes and left them out entirely. They always look a bit weird to me.

shellycub

Yeah that was something else I was thinking about doing as well. Finding flowers is becoming stressful but it's my own fault because I can't decide what I want.

Cakerbaker

My florist used more basic flowers in the same colors as my bouquet for the altar flowers as she said no one notices the actual flowers in those arrangements, just the colors. So I while I had had peonies, roses, hydrangeas and other bits in the bouquets, the altar flowers were mainly Gerberas, carnations, chrysanthemums. It saved a good bit.

We also put lanterns we already owned with candles on some side alters that would usually have flowers. We decorated small glass jars with lace and put battery operated tea lights in them. We hung them on the pew ends instead of flowers.

lazygal

If it helps, we had one arrangement for the ceremony. One bouquet for me and one for my bridesmaid. Got both mothers a bouquet we gave them the day before as I didn't see the point in handing them flowers on the day. That was it.

shellycub

Thank you both, they do help! Great to get different ideas.

Had thought of getting mother in laws plants instead of bouquets as they would have them for longer as a memento.

Cakerbaker yours sounds lovely, have a few bits and pieces for pew ends and shopping around for lanterns. Will talk to the florists about different flowers. Think my choices are limited as the wedding is in February.

baby and crumble

This might sound strange but I actually got metal flowers for our buttonholes, rather than live flowers. It looked really well, now mightn't work for everyones wedding style but my guys all have theirs still, wear them every now and again.

ec18

baby and crumble wrote: »

This might sound strange but I actually got metal flowers for our buttonholes, rather than live flowers. It looked really well, now mightn't work for everyones wedding style but my guys all have theirs still, wear them every now and again.

Where did you get them?

shellycub

baby and crumble wrote: »

This might sound strange but I actually got metal flowers for our buttonholes, rather than live flowers. It looked really well, now mightn't work for everyones wedding style but my guys all have theirs still, wear them every now and again.

Think these sound lovely, have been googling and found some nice ones but would love to know where you got yours if you dont mind me asking?

baby and crumble

I got mine from an Etsy shop that doesn't seem to have anything listed at the mo... https://www.etsy.com/ie/shop/JuanmarcosDesign

Mine were gold, but there was a silver option. I found a few on Etsy before settling on them, there's a cute one here.

Etsy is GREAT for little unusual things like this. I got more compliments on the lapel flowers than almost anythign else. What I loved was I had a mixed gender party, so my best man and my bridemaids all had the same flower, the girls wore them as brooches, myself and my BM wore them as traditional lapel pins. It marked my party as "my" party, since the girls were all (both sides) in similar dresses. I liked that.