Behind the Scene of a Wedding Florist
This could be really a blog about “The Days in the Life of a Wedding Florist”. When couples think of their wedding flowers, they are imagining lush, full bouquets, plump arches and aisles filled with petals. This is all possible! But when you meet with your florist, there is more than flowers for which you’re paying. It isn’t just the blooms and the delivery and installation but so many tasks behind the scene that make up your investment for your wedding flowers.
It starts first with a proposal. For me, I want to make sure I’m on the same page as my couples when it comes to the look, colors and quantity. Someone may say, simple greens, but greens cost as much as flowers! A bride may want the loose airy look but with English garden roses that are quite costly.
So, after the initial meeting, I go and collect inspiration, look for the flowers and start your proposal. This can take days to accomplish since at the same time I’m counting stems, I’m creating the look and planning the mechanics. Flowers don’t stay wet themselves, nor does a garland of flowers wrapped around a candelabra stick on with a glue gun. The engineering, flower selection, budget and floral design have taken days already of labor.
The tweeks with the flower budget usually come next. Too expensive, not as many tables as expected, added bridesmaid, etc. and I almost started again with the proposal and a couple more hours of work.
Finally we arrive at a now determined budget with the flowers, sizes and style. Paperwork is next. Your contract isn’t just a standard form. I personalize it for your wedding and you as a couple with your dates and budgeted amount. This takes another hour of labor.
Your wedding day approaches and if there aren’t any changes, we are lucky! Usually not the case. Amounts change and plan ‘b’ is sometimes necessary for your wedding which affects my flower selection. Heat wave? Those hydrangeas are going to droop…
The order for your flowers are next. What? That color isn’t available? Changes to the initial floral selection and choices. Sleepless night? Yes! Thankfully I have an awesome flower rep! An hour or two passes.
Wait for delivery from the flower market and store or begin prepping the flowers. This takes hours. Each rose stem is denuded of leaves, recut and placed in water. Packages of roses can have 25 or more. Buckets of flowers get heavy with the water, loading the truck is physical labor. 4-5 hours will have passed by the time the flowers are processed and ready for bouquets.
Start soaking floral foam, building cages, and manipulating the wire, tools and water tubes to prepare starts the evening before. Boutonnieres, simple posies, and corsages are made a day or so early. Hours of labor. And all along, the worry that you are creating the beautiful floral wedding dream you promised as the florist.
10 hours of floral design for a medium size wedding isn’t unusual. Then delivery, arranging, chasing down tablecloths that should have been in place. Waiting for the venue to finalize the table settings so you can proceed. Wind? Oh no! How to make the flower pots stay put? The long dining table that you had planned for has changed to 5 rectangle tables. Thinking on my feet, I change the shape of the centerpieces to accommodate the proportion and size of the reception tables.
To help with couples’ budgets, we reuse certain bouquets that may have been at the church and put them for the evening dancing. This requires physical labor, navigating guests in the most obscure way possible and usually doing this with many trips back and forth between venues.
The wedding is followed by a brunch the next day for guests. Flowers are repurposed and need either refreshing or redesigning. Those flowers that were treated like royalty are tossed and cleanup begins. The vases, floral foam, wire, flowers, etc. are in need of gathering and tossing. A few more hours of labor.
Understanding the amount of labor and time that goes into flowers for a wedding is essential when couples want to understand what they’re getting for their money. Flowers are a visual element and essential to the decoration of your wedding day. But the flowers aren’t the only thing you are paying for. As I’ve shared, the hours of labor, attention to details and physicality are in each bloom that adorns the aisle or dresses the table.
It is my labor of love
