Once the bridal bouquet and ceremony flowers are chosen, it's time to focus on what type of wedding reception flowers you may use. You'll need to look at food tables, guest tables, the head table, as well as decorating accents throughout the room. However, you don't need to use only flowers. There are a wide variety of choices of greenery that can also be put to good use.

First, you must understand where larger flower arrangements are appropriate... and where they are not. The more elaborate floral arrangements can be used on buffet tables, cake tables, on stands near the entrance and staircases, and close to the band or DJ. These types of arrangements, however, should not be used on guest tables or the head table as they are too large and will block the view of the guests.

Table centerpieces created from flowers should be kept low and small. Make sure they compliment the overall color scheme and theme of the wedding. Nor do all the table centerpieces have to be identical. A unique and interesting idea would be to use a variation in the types of flowers, yet with the same color scheme.

Small bud vases are best used on guest tables. A great combination wedding favor and table centerpiece idea would be to cluster small vases with a single flower in each. After the wedding, the guests can take home one of the bud vases as a wedding favor.

If you can not afford to use many large floral arrangements, choose 2 or 3 for the buffet tables or other key area and decorate the rest of the room using balloon bouquets, tree branches with twinkling lights or rented palm and/or ficus trees.

Edible bouquets are also very popular for table centerpieces. Spun sugar sculptures, fruit baskets and miniature tiered wedding cakes also serve a dual purpose as a table decoration and wedding favors... or as dessert at the end of the meal.

Here are a few more wedding “flower” bouquet ideas you may want to consider:

As you can see, you can incorporate many "floral" bouquet ideas into your wedding scheme without breaking the bank. Large floral arrangements are beautiful to look at, but they can also be very expensive. Consider some of the alternatives to help save money, yet still create unique flower arrangements that will delight your guests.