1: Consider your date
My first question to a potential bride or groom is always ‘what is your wedding date?’ Firstly to check that I am available to work on their wedding and that I am not already booked up. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the florist can wait until last minute. Summer dates book up FAST especially weekends. Often up to 2 years in advance.
When considering your flowers you also need to think about what will be available at the time you get married. Just like food, flowers are seasonal, and some flowers are only available at specific times of the year.
Have a look and see if you are getting married around a national occasion? Certain flowers fetch premium prices around special events and the flower growers know this. Around Christmas, Valentines day and mothers day expect to pay up to 5 times the usual amount for popular flowers such as Roses and Gerberas. Ask your florist for alternatives.
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2: Consider your budget
When deciding on your wedding flowers the first thing you should do is decide on your budget. There are no set rules about how much you should put aside for your wedding flowers, but according to ‘the knot.com’ you should be looking to put aside around 8% of your over all wedding budget for flowers.
Be open and honest with your florist about realistically how much you can spend. A good florist will be able to work within any budget, and it will help them narrow down your options. Ask your florist if they have any package deals or promotional offers on at the moment. At Avant Garden we have 4 set package deals for various budgets, from £150 to £1000. Even if those packages are not for you it will give you a good indication of what you will get for your money.
Be realistic about your budget, no matter how big or small your budget the overall quality should be to the same high standard. However if your budget is small, chances are you wont be able to have those tall, overflowing martini vase arrangements that you have spotted in a magazine on every table. However, your florist will be able to offer budget friendly and practical solutions, such as alternating those arrangements of your dreams with more cost effective ones, or filling them with more greenery to bring down the price a little. Magazine and celebrity weddings can often give brides an unrealistic idea of what they can expect for their budget.Work with your florist, to a budget you are happy with. A happy relationship with your florist is all about a little compromise and a little creativity.
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3: Decide on your theme
Weather it be vintage, tropical, centred around a colour scheme or type of flower, not everything has to match. Most brides match the flowers with the colour of the bridesmaids dresses, table centres, jewellery, everything ends up the same and the flowers end up blending in rather than standing out. For wedding flowers to remember try mixing contrasting colours. For example, try holding a sunflower or an orange gerbera up against a dark purple or royal blue bridesmaids dress. The colours come alive and the sunflower really stands out. Contrasting colours can make a real statement and ensure that your flowers are never forgotton.
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4: Decide on the essentials
I would suggest making 2 lists. Firstly a ‘must have’ list. Include all of the things that you just can’t be without……for example; Your bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, centrepieces, buttonholes and corsages? Those flowers that you just couldn’t live without. Write them all here.
Secondly make a ‘wish list’ include here all of the things that you would like but would be willing to sacrifice if it meant compromising on your essentials. Remember that you can always book and pay a deposit on what you need. If you find that you have the extra funds nearer to the date then ask your florist if you can add to your order. They wont mind making a little more money…I promise!!
Remember there are no set rules, you don’t have to have a buttonhole for everyone, some limit them to the main wedding party and some people like to buy one for every guest. Every single wedding I have ever done has been different. Have what you want, it is YOUR day.
5: Consider your dress
The general rule when deciding which flowers will suit your style of dress is the bigger the dress the bigger the bouquet.
Hand tied bouquets tend to flatter most dress styles, these are by far the most popular wedding bouquet ordered at Avant Garden.
Trailing bouquets are more traditional and work better with larger dresses. Trailing bouquets are to be avoided if your dress is slinky.
Sheaf/line or single stem bouquets work best with slinky dresses such as fishtail styles.
Ask your florist if samples are provided, that way you can try your bouquet once you have your dress on at your fitting. At Avant Garden we offer a bouquet sample service. For a small charge we will make you up a small sample of your chosen flowers. This allows you to see your flowers in advance of your big day. If there is something you would like to change or if you don’t feel your flowers fit in with your dress exactly as you imagined, this is a great oppourtunity to change it. And of course if you have bought your dress from Amy J’s bridal boutique, we share the same shop space. So we can arrange for your sample to be ready for your fitting.
6: Don’t be afraid of expensive blooms.
Per stem hydrangeas, roses and peonies may cost much more per bloom, but you need to consider the fact that they take up much more space in a bouquet. You might feel that the ‘gathered look’ bouquets must be cheaper as they look picked fresh from the garden. But you need to consider that these flowers still have to be bought and shipped in from wholesalers all over the world. Each stem has to be unwrapped and conditioned which all takes time, and time means added cost. Having a lot of inexpensive stems in your bouquet can often end up costing more than a few expensive stems.
7: Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty
If you want to be involved with creating some of your flower arrangements, or mum/nanna is a keen flower arranger and would like to be involved then go for it. Just don’t take on too much. As easy as it can look, wedding flowers are not just a night before the wedding activity. Preperation for a big wedding can take up an entire week for a florist. Some blooms open faster than others, you have to know exactly when to buy them so they will look their best for the big day. There are buckets to clean, different types of flower food, the flowers will all need conditioning and keeping at different temperatures….the list goes on. So get involved, but perhaps leave the most important parts to the professionals. You don’t want to be falling asleep into your starter because you were up all night making flower arrangements.
Why not ask your florist if they can recommend which bits you could possibly do yourself. If you can arrange some of the centrepieces yourself this may free up more money in your budget to have more flowers in the bouquets.
Think about re using arrangements. You may want a pedestal arrangement for the church. Find out if family members would be willing to move it to the reception for you? We offer a service where we can do this for you. It’s often more cost effective for you to pay us to move thing than for us to make the same arrangement again for the reception.
8: Trust your florist
We are here to help and offer you advice. We want your big day to be special and we want you to be happy with the service that you have received from us and recommend us to all of your friends. Your flowers will be on your wedding photographs for the rest of your life and so will our reputation. We want to make it perfect.
Be flexible with your florist, and allow them to be creative. Florists are artistic people by nature and take great pride in their work. If we are left to invent we will create something much more spectacular than just copying a photograph from a magazine. Remember that we know all the tricks of the trade, we know how to get you the maximum out of your budget and we can produce ideas that may have never crossed your mind.
If your getting married in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or South Yorkshire then please visit our website and make an appointment today
Http://www.facebook.com/avantgardenuk
We also do venue dressing and event hire items like chair covers and candelabras , our showroom is on firs parade in Matlock if you want to pop down to see everything x
