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Image by McNamara Photography
In a recent post I briefly explained many of the aspects of floral and event design. I am going to break down the more traditional floral budget today, starting with your personal flowers. I will explain how much you should budget for each portion of your design and what items you should be considering. Typically flowers in general will be around 8%-10% of your overall wedding budget. That would break down to the following amounts:
$2,000.00-$2,500.00 8%-10% of an under 25k overall wedding budget (based on 25k)
$3,000.00-$3,750.00 8%-10% of a 25k-50k overall wedding budget (based on 37.5k)
$5,200.00-$6,500.00 8%-10% of a 50k-80k overall wedding budget (based on 65k)
$8,000.00-$10,000.00 8%-10% of an 80k and up overall wedding budget (based on 100k)
Your flower budget will most likely be broken up into the following parts:
10-20% Personal Flowers - greatly depending on the number of attendants
10% Ceremony Flowers
5% Cocktail Hour Flowers
50% Reception Flowers
5% Special Extras
These are very approximate percentages as some brides will have one bridesmaid in her wedding party but will want a lavish place card table arrangement which would in a sense reverse her % for personal flowers and cocktail hour flowers. Use the above breakdown as a guideline, but don't worry about it at all if your amounts fall outside of these parameters.
If you're having a tented wedding, be prepared for additional costs and additional vendors. A tented wedding costs more money since you have to bring everything on site, and there's no way to really get around that. Here's a list of items you need to consider when working with a tented event that you wouldn't need to deal with if you had your wedding at an existing venue. You don't need all of these items but it gives you a pretty complete list to work off:
If you want to learn more about tents, check out one of our past blog posts here: What you need to know about tented weddings.
Reception Tent: So this is pretty obvious. The size of your tent depends on the number of guests you're having. If you are planning on an outdoor ceremony and/or cocktail hour, make sure you consider getting the next size up for your main tent as a rain plan. Better yet, consider a cocktail tent if your budget and space allows. In addition to your tent, you need to consider tent sides- clear, mesh, white, windows, a dance floor if you're not having a complete tent floor, and maybe even a stage for your reception entertainment. Depending on the size and style of your tent, this will vary from $500-$10,000.
We have expanded the Kate Parker Weddings brand to include a number of products, most notably our custom Out of Town (OOT) Welcome Baskets. While OOT welcome baskets are often a DIY project for many brides, I wanted to show you our process so you get a better sense of how involved they can be from the ordering through shipping of each individual basket. We will ship to as many hotels as a client requests, contacting each hotel in advance to let them know our baskets are coming. In addition we send each box with a list of guests as to minimize any confusion. I hope this tutorial gives inspiration for the DIY brides and maybe even some expert secrets and tips of the trade! 
Sarah and Rob are a beautiful couple, who had a great wedding weekend! I loved working up at the Retreat at French's Point. Hope you enjoy the photos!
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One of our June brides is having her reception at a farm in Southern Maine called Laudholm Farm. We are creating an earthy and organic style with a muted color pallete, naturally composed floral arrangements and touches of burlap. The flowers we will be incorporating are: white hydrangea, mini green hydrangea, white peonies, cream garden roses, white and purple anemones, white and green ranunculus, star of Bethlehem, and fresh lavender. We are custom staining and distressing two different sizes of wooden boxes for the flower vessels. We'll be using wide-mouthed mason jars with dahlias and anemones for the cocktail hour as well.
Take a look at the images below to get an idea of the reception centerpieces and table design! Something Sweet by Michelle will be creating the cake, a linen hem-stitched themed design, complete with her incredible and impossible-to-copy sugar flowers. The reception tent will be provided by Sperry Tents Seacoast, so we know it will look fantastic! We'll post more inspiration images from our other weddings as we get closer to them!
What a great wedding up at the Samoset Resort in Rockland, Maine!! Sabrina and Mark had a great color scheme especially with their splash of red!
Hope you enjoy the photos!
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We work with Michelle Bohigian from Something Sweet by Michelle for our wedding cakes as often as we can. She came to our studio one day with a little bag of cookie favors from Jennifer of Cookie Creatives. Wow, were they beautiful -all hand-crafted and packaged, customized to fit your style and color scheme! I took a few photos of some of the samples she brought, but make sure you check out Jennifer's website to get a complete look at her fabulous favor options!
There is a lot of labor involved in making a bouquet, especially for the bride. The size and shape have to be perfect, the flowers have to be the highest quality you can find, and the construction is very intricate. Then you have to add the usually complex ribbon wrapping to complete the look. I asked my floral designer to photograph the steps it takes to make a bridal bouquet, and I wanted to share them with you. I hope this provides some insight to how much work is really involved in making beautiful personal flowers!
1. Processing flowers: Flowers are ordered from numerous countries around the world and are delivered to the studio in large boxes. They are packed either in 10 stem bunches or if they're roses, they will be packed 25 to a sleeve. Each flower will have to be stripped of its leaves and thorns, cut and placed immediately in water to hydrate, and then they will be ready to use. Depending on the type and number of flowers you're working with, processing can take anywhere from an hour to one or two days.
The cause of a lot of confusion, brides are looking for more than just table centerpieces theses days. Lighting, linens, lounge furniture, specialty candles, outdoor decor, the list goes on and on. Because of the growing complexity of wedding design I think there should be some clarity to how much should be spent on your flowers vs. your floral and event design. In general I would still allocate 8%-10% of your total budget to your flowers. This should include:
You don't need to include all of these flowers on your wish list, but it shows you all of the possibilities. In terms of your budget, expect to spend around 50% of your total flower budget on your centerpieces. Depending on the number of members of your bridal party, your personal flowers can really eat into your budget as well.
Here are a few photos of examples of the more classic flower proposal and what you should expect for services:
Photo by Blush Imagery
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Kate Parker, New Hampshire
Vendor: Wedding Planner
Website: Kate Parker Weddings
About Me: Kate Parker is the owner of Kate Parker Weddings, a wedding planning and floral and event design studio located on the Seacoast of NH. KPW specializes in simple and sophisticated weddings throughout New England and New York and also provides lighting services, paper products, custom out of town welcome baskets and music entertainment. Kate loves to work with as many details as possible- ribbon banding, monograms, favor tags etc to make each wedding unique and fabulous! She lives in Somersworth, NH with her husband Ryan, son Zachary, and chihuahua Lola. Although she doesn't have much free time, Kate loves to travel, read a good book, and entertain for close friends.
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