Seven Questions To Ask Your Wedding Florist

Seven Questions To Ask Your Wedding Florist

Today we're going over questions to ask a wedding florist! What should you ask a florist when planning your wedding? These seven questions will help you identify the perfect florist for your wedding. Finding a reputable local florist with the ideal experience will make the process that much easier. They'll be able to work within your budget and offer helpful suggestions to steer you in the right direction. Buying wedding flowers can get pricey, especially if you have no idea what kind of florals you're targeting. You'll benefit from having a premade list of wedding flowers you're interested in viewing, ranked from most desired to least before your floral consultation. For even more expert help, grab your FREE copy of our Floral Cheat Sheet!

1. Can I see examples of your work?

A great wedding florist should offer you photos to look through! If you're in their shop, they may even have live examples available during the consult. Doing your homework and checking out their work online before you make the appointment will save you time! It will give you a better idea of their style and what they offer! Don't forget to ask if they have any examples of past work at your specific wedding venue.

2. Have you worked events at my ceremony or reception site before?

Having a wedding florist that's knowledgeable about the space, shapes, and colors can help when you're trying to do your floral design. If the florist has been there previously, they'll know venue restrictions and other limitations about the site way before they arrive. 

Ideally, your florists should communicate with your venue directly to ensure that your plans don't interfere with the venue's policies. If the florist hasn't been there before, ask if they're willing to do a site visit. It's not essential, but it's a definite plus! It's a great way to save money in the long run and prevents ordering products that won't get used. As a wedding planner, it helps ease my nerves if I know that every single vendor has been to the venue at least once. It saves a HUGE amount of time if they know where they are going, where to park, where to set up, etc.

3. How many weddings are you handling on the same day or weekend as mine?

It's not uncommon for florists to do multiple weddings in a single day. A professional florist should make sure they have enough staff available to cover your event and extra people on hand just in case of an emergency. You'll want to be fully aware of who will be on-site on your event day. You should ask if that person has ever worked your venue. You also want to know if it's going to be the same person doing your consult or overall floral design. They won't always be the same person! The person doing the design or assembly may not be doing the floral setup. Find out who's coming on the day of your event and relay that information to your wedding coordinator.

4. Will you be dropping off flowers, or will you help with the setup too? 

There are different costs associated with these two types of orders. Some florists require a minimum order amount before they'll even travel on-site. If your order is small, wedding flower pickup and setup could be your responsibility. Don't assume your wedding coordinator will be there to take care of it.

Most coordinators have stipulations on their contracts that they don't assemble or arrange flowers on the wedding day. If you qualify for delivery, expect to pay a fee for it. Keep in mind delivery and setup are two different things, and you should expect additional costs if you opt for setup. If the floral setup isn't in the budget, pick a friend or family member with an eye for detail to help. If you're responsible for delivery, DO NOT leave flowers in a hot vehicle. Move them to a climate-controlled area ASAP!

Trust me, if it's in your budget, opt to pay for setup and delivery! If you want the florist to return for teardown and cleanup, that's going to be an extra charge as well. In some cases, it also costs additional if it has to be done after hours. For example, if your venue has events booked all weekend, they might require that the florist comes out Saturday at midnight for cleanup versus Monday morning. 

5. Are you willing to work within my budget?

Wedding florists are magicians with flowers! They can do wonders with any wedding budget by replacing the more expensive stems with similar-looking flowers. They can also get creative and assemble your florals on the fly.

Keep the following essential tips in mind when working with a tight floral budget. First, you have to be open and flexible to new ideas. Second, you have to be willing to scale back what you want, especially if you experience sticker shock at your first quote. Let's be honest; if you've never done this before and have no idea how much flowers cost, you're going to be shocked. Lastly, some floral companies have minimum order amounts they require before booking clients. So expect to make some concessions if you're hoping to get by on the bare minimum.

You can save money by doing a pickup order and having a friend, or family member set them up for you. Floral arrangements created by experienced florists always look better than those done by an untrained individual. So if you're banking on your flowers looking immaculate, bite the bullet and pay for the florist to set them up.

6. Do you offer any other rentals? 

Florists sometimes offer other event decors, and you may be able to get extras like drapery, fabric lanterns, candelabra from them. Dealing with one company can make the process easier for you and eliminate additional delivery fees. Plus, the florist knows what they're working with because it's all their stuff! If they don't offer these rentals, ask if they partner with a rental company for them. They may be aware of certain items in their inventory that they work with often. And, if they recommend them, they'll work well together.

7. What happens to the flowers after the wedding?

So here's the ugly truth about your beautiful flowers; if you don't make alternate plans for them, they're going in the trash, sister!

Wedding venues, florists, and planners deal with leftover flowers multiple times a week. They look at your flowers more like stuff that needs to be cleared out of their way during the cleanup rather than beautiful arrangements that will brighten someone's day. So, to make sure your flowers go that extra mile, you need to make arrangements for your florals long before they get set up.

They could go home with your parents, but you need to make sure that they have plenty of space in their car. You could send the centerpieces home with VIP guests as extra little favors but be mindful that the containers going home with those guests could be rentals. You won't be getting any of them back and may end up with additional charges on your bill!

Donating the flowers to a nursing home or nonprofit is an option, but you'll need to arrange this in advance. For example, at a nonprofit in this area, they will only do pickups on Mondays. If you're doing a Saturday wedding in July, your flowers aren't going to last until Monday. Keep all this in mind when allocating money for your floral budget.

We hope that we have answered some of your burning floral questions! 

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