6 Pieces of Advice For Planning YOUR Flowers

We two girls enjoy what we do. We love working with flowers, we love working with excited brides and event hosts and we love working with each other. What we don’t love, however, is bad advice. Here’s a list  of 6 pieces of advice we can give you when it comes to choosing your wedding flowers and your floral designer/florist.

1. Using only one color or matchy-matchy

A lot of brides want to match the flowers to their bridesmaids dresses exactly. While it is a nice idea to keep the colors in the same color tone, flowers are a great place to add some accent colors and highlights. You want the wedding party flowers to stand out against the dress color, not to blend in and become invisible!

2 . Setting a budget for flowers

Many brides and event hosts do want flowers, and consider them an important part of their day, yet they either forget to include them in their planning budgets, or come up with a price point too low for what they are looking for. A good average for wedding flowers is between 8 & 10% of your total budget, and closer to 12% if you are a David Tutera fan of floral design.

3. Trying to do too much DIY

Brides and event hosts who try to DIY their flower designs, many times will purchase dozens of different styles and shaped vases for centerpieces when trying to decide on the look they want, only to become overwhelmed or undecided. Many times we will receive a last minute call from some exhausted and distressed bride asking if we can take over the stress of their DIY wedding project, Though we try to keep the costs as low as possible, this last minute decision becomes more expensive than if they had just hired a professional.

4. Time to order the flowers!

The flowers your floral designer/florist bring in for you, come from many Countries. It is very difficult to try to contact farms across the world to have flowers arrive within one or two weeks of them being ordered.  At the very minimum, leave at least a six-week window ahead of your wedding week so your florist is able to line everything up. The earlier you plan for your flowers, the less chance for last minute price increases and the more chance you will be able to get exactly what you want.

5. Compromise

One of the biggest mistakes when ordering flowers for a special event, is to not be flexible. We know that everyone has a “special” flower in mind for their big day, however, if you are working within a tight budget you should try and be flexible. A florist can do a much better job if you are open with your flower choices. Tell your floral designer what the overall look, feel, and color scheme is, and then let them create it. If there is a specific flower that you absolutely do NOT want, voice that opinion as well. There are lots of choices in the world of flowers.

6.  Trust the Professional

When you sit down with your florist/floral designer, or any one of the vendors that you are considering hiring for your event, communicate your vision, likes, dislikes, and expectations. Make sure that you are absolutely comfortable with their ideas and suggestions. Hire someone you like and feel comfortable with. Most of all, trust that your designer wants to make your wedding as perfect as you have been dreaming it would be.  Many of the best professionals in this business actually do lose sleep ahead of each event, running through THEIR list of things to do and remember to make YOUR event the best it can be.

Now go out and have yourself a wholesale flower-filled, excellent occasion planning day!