Tips from a Luxury Wedding Planner

In the age of Pinterest and social media it's easy to get swept up in the endless possibilities of wedding planning and design. It's probably safe to assume that most people don't have an unlimited budget, but figuring out how to stretch your budget isn’t always straightforward. We recently spoke with Abby Gallagher of Blue Orchid Design, based in South Florida. While she’s known for planning luxury weddings, she’s shared some amazing tips to help maximize a wedding budget. A huge thank you to Abby!

About Abby and Blue Orchid Events

Abby Gallagher was born in Canada, raised in Michigan, and has now been living in Florida for 8 years. With a deep love for all things beautiful, she has a unique history of luxury yachting which has now evolved to living ashore, planning and designing stunning events for her clients. She has 15 years of hospitality and event management experience and her Bachelors from the University of Michigan. As a socialite by nature, she never passes a moment to have a good laugh and deeply cares about the people she meets in her life.

Besides running her business, Abby also owns Blue Ocean Events (planning private yacht weddings), is an avid motorcycle rider, has travelled to 32 countries, gardens, creates her own beauty products, and is mildly obsessed with throwing dinner parties.

Catch her @blueorchideventdesign and blue-orchid-events.com

What does the average couple budget for their wedding in the US?

The national average is between $36,000 - $40,000. I get updates from TheKnot.com as a premium advertiser with them. They send out these spec reports that are really interesting. That figure was included in one of the reports, which I thought was really affordable.

$36,000 to $40,000 is the absolute minimum that you'd ever be able to spend here in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. I'm a unique person to ask because I can tell you a lot more about my client's particular budgets. This area of South Florida is considered one of the top destination wedding locations in the states. New York and California are probably a little bit more expensive than here or just as expensive. For example, my average client is spending $150,000 on their wedding, but many clients are in the $50,000 - $150,000 range too.

Some clients keep a stricter budget than others. One of the first things I do with my clients is a budget assessment. 

It sounds like you’ve got a wide range of budgets within your client base. Do clients ever go over budget? How often does that happen? I ask because I know my fiance and I are over budget, so I’m curious if this is just an us problem.

Our role is to guide people with their budgets, but 95% of my weddings go over budget.

Myself and a lot of planner friends talk about contracts all the time. We have a clause in our contracts that says we are not responsible if the client exceeds their budget. As planners we’ll go through each category with the client, including venue proposals, photographers, videographers, entertainment, florals, etc. and dive into what’s possible within each category budget-wise. 

We’ll also discuss the type of aesthetic that the client might like. They might want light and airy or fine art photography, but photographers are crazy expensive. Sometimes we’ll recommend a photographer who’s more lifestyle focused with bold, rich colors. These photographers are still great with natural light, but they might be newer to the wedding business so they’re a little less expensive. We try to give clients options to keep them within their budget, but often they choose a more expensive option.

This also happens with floral and rentals. Some clients can’t imagine not having a gold rimmed charger, so then we have to add those. When it comes to wedding budgeting, it’s almost like evaluating people’s shopping habits. For example when I go to Target, I’m going for specific items, but then I’ll pass by an aisle and say “Okay, well I do need one more candle.” It’s hard to control people’s shopping habits and that’s essentially what a wedding is - one big shopping trip through many different categories.

By how much are couple's exceeding their wedding budgets?

On average I would say between 5 - 7%. If a client budgeted $50,000, we would guess they’d go over by $5,000 to $7,000.

Is there a particular category where most clients go over budget?

I would say florals because all of the other items are very tangible. When we’re looking at food and beverage minimums for example, it’s very easy to build catering packages that meet that exact amount. Photographers, videographers, entertainment are also easier to work with budget-wise. They have specific packages and associated costs, so we know that up front - there’s not a lot of variability. Service vendors are just a lot easier to work with since we have the tangible numbers.

Floral is one of the only categories where every single time we work with any of our clients to collect floral proposals, we send the floral designers the exact same inventory list, the same inspiration images, color palette, and ideal budget. Every single time these proposals come back, they vary by thousands of dollars. Floral designers are very complicated because they are the most artistic vendor. They they may be using premium florals for some things, they also have extraordinary labor fees, and they may be working with a wholesaler who’s giving them different numbers than another designer’s wholesaler.

Do you have any tips to help cut down on floral costs?

The biggest thing we can do is repurpose, that will help to save a lot of money. For example, any florals on the bars, sweetheart table, bathroom arrangements, dessert table, etc can be repurposed from the ceremony to the reception. This is something that we can do as planners as long as it's not a huge arch installation.

Here’s a real life example: we had aisle markers at last night’s wedding. I think there were 10 aisle markers and two entrance arrangements, which were on pedestals, all which were repurposed. We also had a chuppah with two large installations. The florist zip ties the chuppah together so we can just clip those off and move parts of the installation to the sweetheart or King’s table. We can style those arrangements to go in front of the table and also include the bride’s bouquet as decor.

We didn’t do this last night, but with entrance arrangements or any sort of arrangement flanking your stage, you can repurpose as a tall centerpiece on your tables. By repurposing these as two, tall centerpiece arrangements, you’re saving yourself up to $250 a centerpiece. That’s $500 right there. You can also use bridesmaids bouquets on the guest tables, which also looks really pretty and saves money.

Another way to stretch your budget with florals is to talk to them about swapping our premium flowers for something more affordable and in-season. An easy swap is a peony for a garden rose. Florists have a tool that allows them to pump air into a flower, which helps the flower to be wider and fluffier. You can basically create a garden rose that looks like a peony this way. People also do this with tulips so they look bigger. 

You’ll also want to have a conversation about the composition of the flowers to greenery. I know it sounds weird, but if you look on Pinterest and type in wedding centerpieces, you’ll likely see 5% greenery and 95% flowers in a very full floral centerpiece. If you ask them to increase the amount of greenery to be 20-30% greenery, that in itself will save you money.

A quick easy one that’s very common is to have two types of centerpieces. If half of your centerpieces are tall and half are low, that saves you a few hundred dollars per centerpiece.

You’re also starting to take on more international weddings. There seems to be a belief that international weddings are less expensive than US-based weddings. Is this true?

The world’s a big place. There are places that are going to be cheaper and places that are going to be more expensive. If you choose to go somewhere in the Caribbean or the South of France, that will be super expensive. You also have to consider travel costs. But if you choose Bali or Costa Rica, both popular options, it can be less expensive. It depends on the country of course. 

So there's not a really easy answer to this, but what I can share with you is all the research that I've done. Scotland is a great example because we all imagine the UK to be expensive. I’ve had a whole bunch of proposals sent to me from these castles that have basically been renovated and are now boutique hotels with the ability to host events. Their pricing is very different than here in the US since they price out the rental of the castle for the full weekend buyout.

The weekends include a welcome reception on Friday, and all of your guests can stay at the castle through Sunday. The wedding itself is decently priced, and Sunday they host a brunch. Your guests typically pay for their rooms themselves, so that cuts down on the cost too. This particular proposal was $90,000 for the entire weekend - meals, drinks, staff, and two nights of accommodations for your guests. That’s what clients spend here on one night in Miami. The only other things you pay for are floral, photographer, videographer, and music.

It can be cheaper for the couple, but for your guests international weddings are obviously more expensive. 

You’re currently planning a wedding in Budapest. Can you tell us a bit about pricing there?

From what I’ve seen, a full planning and design package is $4,000 in Budapest. My fee at the moment is $14,000 for the exact same thing here in South Florida. Photographers in Budapest, their full day of service, including two shooters with a full digital gallery is $500. Food and beverage minimums are still high, but service vendors are much less expensive.

If you had to choose a location for a destination wedding, a place you’re really excited about, where would it be?

I have a fascination with Egypt. During quarantine I actually reached out to a couple of really luxury hotels in Cairo that have these private oasis gardens that look out over the pyramids. I think designing a wedding there would be really cool. 

In terms of the experience though, I'd say that my dream destination is actually southern France. The chateaus and the culture in Southern France are so romantic. Many of the chateaus partner with local chefs and floral farms too.

Check out more of Abby’s work on Instagram @blueorchideventdesign