Mastering Your Wedding Flowers: Budget Tips and Florist Selection

Navigating wedding florals requires understanding your style preferences and budget constraints while selecting the right professional partner. Finding the perfect florist involves careful research, asking the right questions, and ensuring clear communication throughout the planning process.

• Determine your floral style by exploring Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration
• Save 3-5 photos to show potential florists
• Distinguish between must-haves and nice-to-haves to align with your budget
• Most couples spend 8-10% of their total wedding budget on flowers
• Ask florists about repurposing florals between ceremony and reception
• Research florists thoroughly by checking reviews on Google, The Knot, and WeddingWire
• Verify consistency in their work and responsiveness in communication
• Ask if they've worked at your venue before and can work within your budget
• Discuss what happens to flowers post-event, including donation possibilities
• Book 6-12 months in advance, especially during peak season
• Confirm how many other weddings they're handling on your date
• Get everything in writing, including arrangements, setup, breakdown, and payment schedule
• Schedule a final consultation two weeks before the wedding

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 0:13 Defining Your Floral Style
• 0:38 Managing Floral Budgets
• 1:45 Researching and Vetting Florists
• 2:42 Important Questions to Ask
• 5:09 Final Episode Wrap-up

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey queens, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Buzz. So we had some listeners reach out and they were asking questions about picking the right florist and flowers. So, on today's episode, here are some quick tips and tricks. When you are navigating all things flowers, the first thing you want to know is figure out your style. You can look through Pinterest or Instagram. Make sure that you're identifying the floral style that you love. If that is boho, romantic, classic, minimal, or you're wanting just this gorgeous wildflowers, look From there. I would save three to five inspiration photos to show your florist.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Next thing you want to do is have a clear mind on your must-haves and what is nice to have when you are dealing with things for your budget. Um, sometimes you want to make sure that those um align well. It is so hard to have your dream and say I'm going to have all of these white roses falling from the sky, but you are on a budget, so keep those in mind. Um, just for a tip related to that budget, most couples spend anywhere from eight to 10% total on their wedding budget on florals. So be upfront with your florist about your range to see if that is something that they can accommodate. Many florists nowadays have a minimum. So if they are outside of that, don't waste your time with that florist. If they are not within that minimum, the other thing you can do is ask if there's any way that they can repurpose those florals in between the ceremony and your reception. Sometimes we love to take all of your ceremony pieces and place those at your sweetheart table so you get the most bang for your buck. Be sure that you're researching and comparing the florists in your area. You want to check reviews on Google, the Knot, maybe, weddingwire, social media. Some things to pay attention to are their consistency with those reviews from clients. You want to be sure that you have a very clear communication with them leading up to wedding day, that they are responsive and there's professionalism. Also, you want to make sure that their photos are consistent, that when you see a picture in one photo on Instagram, when you scroll to another photo, you are seeing the consistency in their work.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Some questions that you most likely will want to ask your florist is have you worked at my venue before? Can you work within my budget and still achieve a similar look? What flowers are in season during my date, and will you handle setup, drop off and breakdown One of those pieces also. What does it look like for that breakdown? One of those pieces also. What does it look like for that breakdown? I will be completely honest I absolutely hate throwing flowers away at the end of the night, so you want to find out what is being done with those florals. Are these things that you have people taking home? Are they going to be repurposed, maybe with a nonprofit that can take those to nursing homes or hospitals, or does the florist pick them up and use them for other things? Another thing you want to ask is if they offer mock floral trials or sample bouquets. This will give you a good idea of what it looks like in person. Keep in mind, those are probably not going to be free, so you want to allocate that in your budget.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Some other things you want to make sure that you're booking early, especially with your peak seasons in your area. You want to book six to 12 months in advance, confirm their availability for your date and find out how much work they have on your wedding day. I have unfortunately, run into a few errors where I had a very popular florist working one of my weddings and, sure enough, they didn't show up until 3 pm when really I needed them there at 10 am because they had so many clients. So have a clear understanding when it comes to that. You want to see if they're flexible with collaboration.

Speaker 1: 4:00

A good florist should help guide your choices without pushing any specific vision.

Speaker 1: 4:05

They should be honest if something is out of season or out of the budget. And then another thing make sure you get everything in writing. Make sure that your contracts include the list of arrangements, your bouquets, your centerpieces, your setup and delivery fees, any breakdown policies, especially if there is a late night strike fee. If your venue and your wedding is going late at night and your venue requires everything to be cleaned up by a certain time, you want to know what that additional fee is, if there's any backup plans for extreme weather, if you're having an outdoor wedding, and then also you want to make sure that there is a good payment schedule. One other last piece is you want to have frequent communication with your florist. Your initial conversations you should have it all ironed out in a decent time, but then, definitely within the last two weeks of your wedding, make sure that the two of you have a phone consultation just to make sure that everything is arranged the way you want and that every final detail is discussed. That is your daily buzz.