Choosing what you want to do with your altar can be hard. It’s typically something that eats up quite a bit of your budget, which is why many people avoid adding anything to it.

Today, I will go through different options and styles and explain the difference between them all where your budget is concerned.

This will hopefully help you find a style you love and a fit for your budget!

Corner and side pieces are a classic and easy addition to any altar. Whether you only do a corner piece, a corner and side or both corners, this look is always beautiful and is typically considered more cost effective.

You can choose just how big you want your arrangements to be and control the ratio of greens and blooms.

Below are two examples of a corner and side piece, one is clearly much larger than the other. Price wise, the larger one is more expensive, but one thing to keep in mind is varieties you have chosen.

If you have your arrangements filled with premium blooms or greens, your total will be much more than if you had a mixture of economical. A few things I can recommend you do:

• Mix your premium with your economical. You don’t need to have your arrangement full of premium greenery, using economical ones is a great way to keep cost down and bulk up your piece.
• Flowers: If you are using White Ranunculus in your flowers, consider switching to a White Rose, Mum or Carnation in your altar. Your personal flowers can have all of the unique and premium blooms you want, but once you get to larger pieces, you can look into switching these flowers out for other more cost effective ones. No one will notice, since your colour scheme is staying the same.

This look has quicky become a favourite of mine. It is beautiful and airy and typically can be very cost effective. You can do a heavier look or something light, as displayed in the photos below. This look is very customizable and gives you a beautiful backdrop, and they are great to repurpose to yur reception.

Source for photo below, linked here.

Source for photo below, linked here.

3. Free Standing Arrangements

This look has gained widespread popularity in recent years. Many think it is a more cost effective option, but is actually the opposite. These arrangements need lots of greens and flowers to really fill it in and make it nice and luscious. If you have the budget for it I highly recommend this look, it is beautiful and having them stand at either side of your head table afterwards is a great way to incorporate those blooms into your reception.

Source for photos below, linked here.

 4. Pillars with Arrangements

If you want flowers but want your altar to look a little simpler, pillars with flower arrangements on top might be your best bet. You control exactly how big/small you want these arrangements to be and how many pillars you'd prefer to have framing you.

Source for photo below, linked here.

Source for photo below, linked here.

Want to see more? Click here to see our website and the many looks we've done for our amazing brides!

Written by Anna M.