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If you can see your gay wedding day budget spiralling out of control, you may like to think about arranging your own wedding flowers to save some money.

It needs some forward planning and as it can be time consuming, you may want to bring in a friend to help. If you haven't done this before, get a book out of the library or go on line to get some ideas on how to do it, what materials are needed and what types of design to use.

Those who may not have the time or skill to tackle complicated arrangements, could get their florist to do the big floral displays and just do the table decorations, boutoniers, corsarges and bouquets themselves.

Once you have decided on your designs you have to work out all the materials needed to put them together such as ribbon, florist wire, floral foam, small receptacles for the table decorations, pins and so on. You may be able to get these from large garden centres or hobby shops.

It is adviseable not to plan large table decorations for the wedding reception because it inhibits the general conversation of your guests if they have to keep peeping around a large vase with a huge floral display in it.

To save money, plan to use flowers that are in season, these may be grown locally which will also help to reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding day.

The wedding flowers should be purchased from a wholeseller, those near London can use New Covent Garden, or you may have a local grower who can supply you. Local florists will not be too happy to provide flowers unless they charge you the full retail amount.

Check with your wedding venue to see if they can supply vases, make sure they will be suitable for your purpose, you don't want to turn up with long stemmed roses only to find they only have short ones.

Any non-floral embellishments, such as bows and ribbons can be made a few weeks before hand, providing they are stored carefully.

If your displays rely on a lot of greenery, this can be prepared before hand, leaving you to add the flowers a day or two before hand.

When storing your own wedding flowers, keep in a cool place, out of direct sunlight, and mist daily.

Alternatively, you can use silk flowers which, although more expensive, can be used over again. Nowadays artificial flowers are much more natural than they used to be and can be arranged, weeks before you need them, providing you wrap them in tissue to keep the dust off them.

Although it is a lot more work, there is something very rewarding about walking into your wedding venue and seeing your own creations around the room. check water level in containers and mist the foliage every day. Your wedding flowers can be added just 1-2 days in advance.