How To Prepare for a Wedding Consultation

Thinking about your wedding flowers is exciting but where to begin may seem overwhelming at first. You are unique and so is your way to approach your wedding florals. This guide will help you, whatever your approach, to work with a florist to make your wedding flowers memorable.

What you need to know before you book the consultation.

Basic Information Needed for Each Approach

• Wedding date: To book a florist and to know the available seasonal flowers.
• Venue: Whether the venue is indoors or outdoors impacts the floral decisions. 
• Guest list:  The guest list gives the types and numbers of arrangements. 
​• Budget range: A budget range gives you and the florist design flexibility. 

Photo credit: AverageJanePhotography.com

Your Approach Reflects Your Personality 

There are three general approaches a consultation can take. One is to bring a lot of visuals as described below. A second way is to have the broad strokes of how many elements you want, for example, your bridal bouquet, the number of bridesmaids, and an arch, A third option is to come with the basic information and be open to where the creative collaboration with a floral designer can take you. 

Each approach has its pros and cons. To ensure you use your time wisely, it helps to be clear what approach you want the consultation to take before you arrive. Let's look at each approach in more detail. 

Approach One - your ideas are set

Bring inspiration images.
A collection of wedding floral images is the best way to communicate to a florist your desired style and colour scheme. Think of your favourite flowers, and why. This opens a heart centred approach to selecting flowers meaningful to you or someone close to you. 

Be sure to include a few images of what you don't love as well as ones of what you love to help guide the process. Both are helpful to the florist.

List all the places you want flowers and bring photos for those as well – bar, archway, head table, guest tables, signing table, cake table. This also helps coordinate a consistent overall floral aesthetic. 

Bring along any fabric swatches or photos of bridal party clothing. These details can help the florist choose flowers that complement the overall feel of your wedding.

Photo credit: AverageJanePhotography.com

List your desired arrangements.
From your guest list and confirmed venue you can create the list of your floral elements. Think through ahead of time all the arrangements and settings needed to fulfill your dream. This helps your florist prepare an accurate pricing estimate to help you stay within budget.

Consider your budget.
When considering your floral budget, be clear on your must-have floral elements. If price was not an issue, what's your blue sky dream for your wedding? Share this vision with your florist. Florists are skilled and creative dream makers with amazing resourcefulness!

Approach Two - the broad strokes

In this approach, you have an idea of how many elements you want and maybe a colour theme. The florist has more creative leeway to explore and give definition to your broad strokes. All within your budget.

Approach Three - exploring possibilities

This approach is all about the flow of the day. You still need the basic information - date, venue, quest list and budget. The difference is you open yourself to going with the flow of the day to capture key moments in flowers. It's a creative collaboration with the floral designer.

You have an idea how the day will roll out, for example if you're having an early morning wedding, the light will be of a certain quality, how do you capture that in flowers? Maybe the cake cutting is next, how do the flowers capture that moment?  
The flowers help to tell the story of the day.

Be Confident Your Florist Is Listening To You

Whatever the approach, a consultation goes by in a hurry. You want to make sure you make all your key points. Ask everything you need to ask to be confident you and your wedding florist are communicating with clarity and are on the same dream and budget page.

Most importantly, you need to feel confident your florist is listening to you.

We hope this helps you in the consultation process. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. If you would like to book a free 60 minute consultation with us, we would love to meet with you. Send us a request in the comments on our Contact Us page or call 902-209-3638 or email [email protected].