When planning for a wedding, you aren’t just prepping for the main event. There are multiple other pre-wedding celebrations to account for—each of which has its own code of conduct. Simple things like figuring out where to stand or how to dress need to be rehearsed in advance. 

At the same time, you’ll need to consider what is a required or optional rehearsal expense. Today, we’ll answer whether or not you should spend on flowers for your rehearsal dinner.

Should I Spend Money on Flowers for the Rehearsal?

There are many pros and a few cons associated with buying flowers for the rehearsal.

Yes: Buy Flowers for the Rehearsal

We greatly recommend buying flowers for your rehearsal for the following reasons:

Subscription Boxes

Flower subscription boxes, like Bouqs, can offer wedding parties a perfect middle ground between paying for flowers just for a single occasion. For example, if you wanted unique valentine’s flowers, you could opt into a subscription box now and still have more coming later.

Subscription boxes also allow the bride and groom to look at physical samples of popular wedding flowers without breaking the bank. Use the same strategy for wine pairing because you won’t know which reds go with succulent pork until you sample each food and drink yourself.

Smooth Rehearsal

If you like flowers and wine, buying a subscription box would work for your needs, but what if you aren’t interested in drinking wine or buying flowers outside of your wedding? It still may be a good idea for you to purchase rehearsal flowers if you want your rehearsal to go smoothly.

Your rehearsal dinner is your special time to spend with your loved ones away from the excitement of the wedding. It’s also used for rehearsing the actual dinner, which is a necessary evil. Everyone needs to know precisely how the wedding will proceed once it does.

If one thing is out of place, it could throw off the dinner, where your guests need to stand, or how the table needs to be set. For this reason, we recommend buying flowers for your rehearsal.

Re-Use Flowers

Is your rehearsal dinner immediately before the wedding? Likely, you can still use your flowers for the wedding. You can save a lot of time setting up your flowers at the rehearsal dinner if that’s the case. Try to put both days beside each other as best you can to save a bit of money.

No: Don’t Buy Flowers for the Rehearsal

We would recommend against buying flowers for your rehearsal dinner if you aren’t interested in purchasing a subscription box or you think your rehearsal dinner will do fine without them. You can also put a mock centerpiece where the flowers should go, but that still requires work.

The best reason not to spend on flowers for your rehearsal dinner is money. If your rehearsal dinner is weeks before the actual wedding, then you’d have to throw those flowers out before your big day. Even if your wedding day is close, you can still save by opting out of flowers.

The average rehearsal dinner costs $1,900, and you may be able to lower that amount by $200-$300 just by leaving out floral centerpieces and wedding arch blooms.