Selecting the right vendor for every part of the wedding is what every couple hopes for as they plan their special day. Today, we’re sharing the most important questions you should ask a wedding florist before booking so you can find your perfect floral designer. This post is here to help make sure your wedding flowers are everything you wanted and that everything runs smoothly in the run up to and on the day…
1. Work out your budget.
Even if you have a significant amount to spend and are looking to hire a luxury wedding florist like us, it’s vital to have a breakdown of what you want from your wedding and how much you can realistically spend on each aspect to create your dream day. This will also help you to narrow down your preferred vendors based on what is achievable by each of them within your budget, and plan for unexpected costs. Before you book your wedding florist, you have likely secured your venue and photographer (as these get booked up quickly), and may also have a wedding planner.
2. Create a vision board or Pinterest board based on what you like.
A fun activity - pulling together ideas and inspiration for your wedding. You can pin directly from your favourite vendors on Instagram too, but this doesn’t just have to be of styles you like. It can be of colours and textures too. You might already have one of these if you’re working with an event stylist or planner, or like many, you may have created this long before you even got engaged!
3. Use Instagram to look at a whole variety of wedding florists (even those recommended to you).
Whether you find these yourself or are referred by a friend or planner, this will help to give you a feel for what you are and aren’t looking for specifically with floral arrangements before you look into costs. As you will have already planned your budget, you know what you have available, so can focus on what it is you really like and take this to each florist. This will help you to find a florist who can achieve this without you spending more than you can or want to.
Wedding florists all have their own unique styles and specialities (and produce their best work when they are commissioned for these), and while social media is a ‘highlight reel’, it will give you an indication of who you feel more drawn to. Click on images to see if they work with the same photographers or at the same venues, and visit their website to learn more about them. At this stage, you are still at the beginning of your research so you shouldn’t feel too overwhelmed, rather, more inspired and excited. Follow a few to see which are publishing more recent work.
4. Shortlist potential wedding florists and meet them all.
It may be time consuming, but it is really important that you meet your potential vendors. After all, your personalities have to be a good fit for a streamlined approach to achieving exactly what you want. To shortlist, you could take screenshots and create albums on your phone, or print cards of their Instagram accounts and separate them into piles that are ‘yes’, ‘maybe’ and ‘no’. Make this into an enjoyable evening together. Take a break from it for a while to give yourself time to reflect and then revisit to confirm who you want to visit or jump on a call with. You may want to pre-screen each by having a call before you meet up.
5. Use the following questions to help you to find your dream wedding florist.
Are you available on our date?
Do you have other weddings/events around the same time as ours?
Do you charge for a consultation? (Ours is complimentary - book now!)
How recent are your photos on your Instagram/website?
For this photo, was this your style or the couple’s vision?
How long have you been in business?
How many weddings/events have you done?
When was your last wedding/event and when is your next one?
Can you provide references?
How would you describe your floral design style?
What are your favourite and least favourite floral arrangements to create?
Do you recreate floral arrangements from images?
Where do you source your flowers from?
Are you involved all the way through for each wedding/event?
How many people do you have working with you?
Do you prefer more freedom or do you work closely with your clients?
Is there a maximum distance you will travel?
Do you charge per mile?
Our wedding is at X venue, have you done any weddings/events here before?
Would you communicate with the venue about any decor/installation restrictions?
Would you visit the venue beforehand?
Would a walkthrough of the venue be an additional cost?
Would you need access to water?
We are working with X vendors, have you worked with any of these before?
Would you work with our cake designer to add flowers to our cake?
What is your process for booking right through to setting up and clearing away?
Would you simply be dropping off the floral arrangements?
Do you have packages or would it be bespoke costs based on our requirements?
Is there a minimum spend?
We have X as our budget for wedding flowers, can you work within this?
What designs are possible within our budget?
What flowers will be in season?
What flowers and arrangements will suit our wedding theme and venue?
Can we have X flower as it means a lot to us?
Can we substitute flowers to reduce the cost of the arrangements?
How can we maximise our budget?
Can you provide sample arrangements and if so, does this cost?
We haven’t selected a colour palette, can you help?
Can you recommend other styling aspects to compliment the flowers?
Do we need to hire vases, lanterns, frames, mirrors etc from somewhere else?
If we hire these from you, do you charge for breakages?
If we hire these from you, how do we return these?
Do you handle all delivery?
What would be delivered, when and where?
How long would you need on the day to set up and clear away?
Do you charge to stay during the wedding?
Do you charge to move the arrangements from one venue to another?
How are the floral arrangements stored in the run up to the day?
What insurance and contingency plans do you have?
What happens to the flowers after our wedding?
Can you help with the preservation of flowers after/recommend someone who can?
Will you provide a full breakdown quote?
How long is the quote valid for?
How far in advance do we need to book you?
Will you reserve our date?
Do we need to pay a deposit?
When would the final balance be due?
Do we pay via cash, cheque or card?
Do you offer payment plans?
Are there any additional fees we should know about?
What is the cut-off date for final decisions?
What is your refund and cancellation policy?
Will you use photographs of our wedding in your marketing (print/digital) materials?
It may seem like a lot to ask, but by making sure you don’t skip anything, you’re much more likely to build a great relationship with your wedding florist.
We remain close with a lot of our couples and it’s an absolute pleasure to help bring their vision to life through our expertise and love of what we do.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you to create your dream wedding, event or photoshoot through floral design, then why not get in touch today? You can also click here to learn more about our process or follow us on Instagram / Pinterest for more ideas and inspiration.