You can spend hours daily on Pinterest looking for inspiration, when the moment to pick flower bouquet, centrepieces and boutonnieres comes, you’ll forget everything. Fortunately, your florist and wedding planner can guide you through the process, and help you pick floral accents for your wedding day.
Selecting flowers for your wedding can be something you’re looking forward to for years or a nightmare. No matter what your view on picking flowers is, make sure you are ready for the process because it isn’t as simple as it seems. If you talk with your married friends they’ll tell you what things they’d wish they knew when choosing flowers for their special days. Proper advice can help you during the process.
Here are the mistakes your florist wishes you to avoid.
You order your flowers too late
Florists no longer supply only special events, they create arrangements and bouquets for various occasions, from baptisms to birthdays and corporate events. So, it’s important to decide what flower arrangements you want for your wedding and contact the local florist in time to order blooms for your wedding day.
Also, some flower varieties aren’t available all year round, so they need to order them in advance to import them from exotic locations. It’s crucial to leave them more than six months before the big event to order flowers and ensure they get the varieties you prefer. When you want peonies in December, your florists will want to know it from June, to contact their foreign suppliers, and ask for quotes.
If indeed, you forgot to order the flowers in advance, fret not! There are florists online who offer same-day flower delivery to make your event complete and beautiful.
You don’t trust your florist
You’ll spend more than three months looking for florists in your town because it takes time to ask friends and family for recommendations, look on their website for previous work, and check online reviews to find out if their customers are happy with the services they provide.
Once you find the florist you want to hire, it’s important to trust them and be open about your preferences. Share with them your vision, dislikes and likes, and don’t forget about the expectations. Be flexible in your expectations because sometimes it’s impossible to bring some flowers varieties when they’re out of season. Your florist will also need to work with your budget, so if you have limited funds for flowers, but you want expensive varieties they may have to replace them with more affordable options.
Trust your florist because all they want is to have a happy bride who has a breath-taking wedding. You hired them for their talent and excellent services, so trust them to make some choices for you.
You don’t research
You’re reading this article, so you want the picking-flowers process to run smoothly. But you shouldn’t stop to this article. Florists are shocked by the high number of brides who don’t research before they step into the store to pick arrangements for their big day. You should begin by exploring the varieties of flowers available around the wedding time. They are more accessible and affordable, so start with them before you check exotic blooms.
Once you select the flowers, use directories like Pinterest to find flower arrangements and bouquets made from the blossoms you prefer. When you’ve found some models you’d want your florist to replicate, it’s time to schedule a consultation.
You ignore the big picture
Don’t be stuck to your bouquet and forget about the other arrangements. All flowers and accessories must be part of a cohesive theme, you decide for the entire event. When you select the blooms for the bracelets your bridesmaids will wear, don’t forget to also pick florist ribbon to tie them. Actually, ribbon is a great flower accessory for festive events because it adds a touch of elegance and romanticism to any arrangement.
Don’t forget that the surrounding view, the décor of the venue and the bridesmaids’ dresses should also match the flowers. Take pictures of the dresses, venue, and other accessories you’ll use to show to your florist before they order the flowers because it’ll help them understand the big picture.
You use a single colour
You may like blue, but you shouldn’t stick only to blue for flowers arrangements because monochromatic arrangements don’t have the same liveliness and charm of multi-coloured ones. Classic blue is the colour of the year, so, understandably, you want to create trendy arrangements, but you should look for other hues that match this colour to obtain a playful effect.
A great option is to use various tones of blue and different varieties of blooms because they can make your bouquets stand out.
You use scented flowers
All flowers have some kind of fragrance, but some varieties have a stronger scent than others, and you should stay away from them. These super scented plants will disturb your guests, especially when the food is being served. If you organise the party in a closed venue, a strong scent can even make your guests uncomfortable. Don’t forget that many people are allergic to strong flower scents. Picking flowers with a delicate fragrance is a great solution.
When you organise the reception outdoors you can choose scented flowers because the fresh air diminishes their fragrance. Combine scented flowers with no-fragrance varieties to maintain a single scent. Mixed fragrances can cause headaches.
You don’t reuse arrangements
When you have to work with a tight budget, reuse the ceremony arrangements at the reception to save some money. The average ceremony doesn’t last more than an hour, and it’s a shame to see all those flowers thrown away at the end of it. Ask the florist to recycle them and incorporate them into reception arrangements.
At the end of the night, offer the flowers to your guests. They’ll appreciate the gesture, and the flowers won’t get to the trash. Most venues throw away the flowers the newly-weds don’t take home, so you should find them a better purpose. Another smart choice would be to ask the florist to repurpose the flowers and create bouquets you send to a hospital the next day, to brighten patients’ day.