A Wedding Florist’s Top Dos & Don’ts

It’s great to address the key ‘must have’ items first and ensure you have allocated enough budget to cover these – typically these will be the centrepieces for your wedding reception and any personal flowers for the wedding party. If there’s room to splurge, do this on statement installations that provide a backdrop to key moments throughout your day – this could be a bespoke cascading design framing the couple during the ceremony, or an overhead canopy to enclose guests as they dine. These are the details that give you the most beautiful photos and will live on in your guests’ memories.

Some varieties are more premium than others. It’s a mistake to assume that everything that grows in a garden can be cut and used in floral arrangements – it’s surprising how often clients think this is the case. Seasonality is another factor some couples don’t consider. If there are flowers that are particularly important to you, consider having your wedding during the right season for them. 

There is no point splurging on a stunning bar backdrop if it means that you have limited budget for tables where guests spend the most time. We would also always recommend re-using where possible, too – for example, consider ceremony pedestal or column designs that can be re-used as a backdrop to the top table. The three areas to prioritise are a backdrop to the ceremony/where your first photos as a married couple will be, the table centres and the personal flowers.

That might sound like a strange piece of advice because we are incredibly detail orientated, but what we mean is you might be tempted to add things in at the end just for the sake of covering an empty surface or to disguise a ‘pass through’ space where you and your guests will spend very little time. The truth is it’s a waste of budget, and people won’t notice – particularly in low-traffic areas.

Contrasting colours can make a great combination – for example, pale blue with peach. But take the professionals’ advice. They do this day in day out and will be best placed to give you the best suggestions. Just let your florist know what you don’t want in your designs – if there are any varieties of flowers or any foliage you’re not a fan of, let them know so they don’t include it or anything similar.

The biggest trend we are seeing at the moment is actually a lack of trends altogether. Our clients are tuning into exactly what they want and drawing on their personalities and preferences to design their wedding flowers with us – we are seeing everything from classic English country garden to Bridgerton, James Bond to The Great Gatsby.

If you’re looking at a vast room, you will need large designs to make an impact. Sometimes it’s better to invest in the designs at the top of the aisle, rather than have a design that is too small to dress it. During your ceremony, your guests will be wearing lots of different colours, so it’s worth taking that into account as well if the photographs are particularly important.

The wedding party flowers offer a great way to give you and your closest family and friends a cohesive look – in our experience, taking inspiration from the bridal bouquet or the groom’s buttonhole and carrying this through works beautifully. (Thinking of buttonholes, never underestimate how many people will hug you throughout the day, leaving a fresh buttonhole looking a little tired. Ordering a spare one to put on just before speeches means it looks fresh as ever.)

If the flowers are sourced and cut within the right timeframes, you should have no issue with freshness. Naturally, some stems are less hardy than others and may wilt slightly on a hotter day, but your florists should be able to gauge that in advance and prepare accordingly – this obviously goes for more than just your bouquet, too.

You will often find that some flowers are available outside of their natural season depending on where and how they have been grown. That said, they always look their best and are at their highest quality during the time they would have naturally grown – like fruits and vegetables – so it’s always encouraged to use seasonal stems, which will also guarantee abundance.

The way to do this is by working with an over-arching colourway across all designs. Whether you are very knowledgeable on flowers or have no idea where to start, your best bet is to show your florist images of anything you’ve seen that you’ve loved and explain why you love it. From there, your florist will be able to suggest designs with those same features. Another option is to describe the feel of what you envision, and your florist will be able to show you some options. Any personal details or features you want to incorporate are also very good to know (no matter how unrelated to floristry you may think they are).

The easiest way to preserve freshness is to make sure that the flower choices are hardy and reflective of the season. However, there are a couple of things that can be done throughout the day. For example, when your personal flowers are delivered, ensure they are kept somewhere dry and cool, away from any hair dryers or curlers. In the height of summer, we tend to deliver bouquets in water with longer stems and cut these down just half an hour before the ceremony to make sure everything is as fresh as it can be. If you have any designs that will be left in full sunlight in the height of summer, and that you then want to re-use later, consider asking your florist to remain on site with spare flowers for a refresh before they move to their second area.

Visit LavenderGreenFlowers.co.uk