These tips for cheap wedding flowers are essential as it's easy for your wedding flower budget to spiral out of control. Flowers are beautiful but always more expensive then you think! However there are hundreds of ways to reduce your flower costs and here are my favorite:

Get a relative to help out

Having a relative help out at your wedding it a great way to get someone involved. It's also a great way to save money! Ask around relatives and see if anyone has a dab-hand at flower arranging.

A word of advice though - leave the bouquets and button-holes to the experts.

Use the flowers from the ceremony at the reception

Often it's not necessary to double up on flowers at both the ceremony and reception. They're often the same type of floral arrangement and so once the ceremony is over, the flowers can then be used at the reception.

Check if the venue supplies flowers

Some venues insist that you use their florists for the venue. If this is the case, be careful as you're likely to get charged through the roof. Try and stick to simpler arrangements or even balloons as this will keep your costs to a minimum.

Check if the church supplies flowers

Many churches have specific rules when it comes to flowers in the church. They may insist that the flowers are done through the church committee, whereby the church flower arrangers will provide the arrangements for a small fee.

If a particular church is popular for marriages, the same flowers may then be used for all ceremonies that particular weekend. This is often a good thing, as you will usually pay a low set charge, however it means you may not get control over the flowers on the day. Check with your celebrant to see if there's any flexibility.

Use a hand-tied bridal bouquet

The bridal bouquet can come in all shapes and sizes, but the general rule is that the more complicated you go, the more expensive the bouquet will be. Having a hand-tied bouquet is an easy way to lower the costs - sometimes even by half.

Use corsages for the bridesmaids, rather than small bouquets

A corsage is a small arrangement that sits on the wrist. They're often made up of one, two or three main flowers and some greenery. They're then secured to the wrist using ribbon or tie. Because they use less flowers, they're much cheaper then bouquets.

An added benefit is that they allow the bridesmaids to have both their hands free during the day - to hold your bouquet, bag or drink.

Choose simple button holes

You can easily triple or quadruple the price of your buttonholes by choosing different flowers or multiple flower buttonholes. Go for simple, one flower buttonholes and you'll keep your costs to a minimum.

Use single flowers instead of bouquets or arrangements

The cost of arrangements or bouquets is usually dependant on the cost of the flowers used and the complexity of the arrangement. You can cut your costs dramatically by going for single flower arrangements.

The best cheap wedding flowers for bouquets are simple and elegant. Single flower arrangements make great a bridal bouquet or table centrepiece. Flowers such as lilies or exotic flowers make stunning single bouquets, and large flowers such as peonies or camellias work great as single flower centrepieces.

Hire any accessories you may need instead of buying them

Before you rush out to buy vases for your table decorations, have you considered hiring them? Most florists will hire any equipment you need to create fabulous floral arrangements. Hire equipment comes in a variety of different shaped vases, pedestals and containers for all your flower arranging needs.

Buy flowers that are season

By choosing flowers that are in season, you will ensure that you get the freshest, cheapest, best quality flowers. Check with your florist which flowers are in season for your big day.