DIY WEDDING FLOWERS vs. HIRING A FLORIST: We’re back with part three in our series on Wedding Flowers with a discussion on DIY wedding flowers vs. hiring a florist. (Read part ONE and TWO here.) You might want to grab a cup of coffee and some courage, because things are about to get frank.
Many brides are opting to do their own flowers these days, and we think it is awesome! If you’ve ever dreamed of doing your own wedding flowers (especially if you love seasonal bouquets) we think you might be the perfect candidate for DIY.
Here is a handy flowchart to help you decide if DIY is right for you.
DIY Wedding Flowers vs. Hiring a Florist
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU DIY YOUR WEDDING FLOWERS:
If you do decide to go the DIY route, here are some things a florist takes care of that you will have to do:
- Design all the florals, including your bouquet, corsages, the bridesmaids’ bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, altar arrangements, etc.
- Source the flowers and greenery. We source some of our product from a floral wholesaler. Since the wholesale options may not be available to you (a vendor’s license is required), you will need to buy bulk from places like FiftyFlowers.com or Sam’s Club. The disadvantage to this is that you will often overpay for flowers, and you are limited as to the variety available to you. However, with a little creativity and foraging, this is not a problem! You could also find a flower farm locally that you can purchase buckets of blooms from. (shameless plug for Root Design gardens!)
- Pick up and condition the flowers several days before the event. We like to schedule any deliveries for Wednesday if the wedding is on a Saturday. Many flowers need several days to open fully, so take that into consideration when deciding your timeline. Conditioning the flowers includes stripping the stems of all but several leaves and all the thorns, trimming several inches off the bottom, and putting in sterile buckets with clean water. Plan plenty of time for all of this. Some flowers may require refrigeration since they open too quickly.
- Deal with last minute flower emergencies. There is always some small disaster at a wedding! Even if you have carefully counted and planned and adjusted and ordered, there is the inevitable email the Monday of wedding week saying none of the three varieties of garden roses you ordered are available. (That was a fun one.) Another time we ordered Romantic Antike roses as the star of the bridesmaids’ bouquets, and the delivery came with generic white tea roses. There was the day a new supplier in Minneapolis simply forgot to send eight bunches of Lisianthus up to a wedding in Bemidji (five hours away). Oh, and let’s not forget that spring wedding when masses of yellow tulips came instead of white, or the fall wedding when out of season anemone arrived barely out of the bud stage and with stems too short to use in the bouquets. Are we TRYING to scare you? No, the reason I share these fun stories is so that you can be prepared and have someone assigned to deal with the crisis if it comes up.
- Arrange and deliver flowers to the venue the day before the wedding. If you do them at home, don’t forget that they must somehow be transported to the venue.
- After all that, you will need a manicure before the big day! By the end of a full day of floral work, our hands are destroyed. There are always sneaky thorns that produce bloody fingers. Add goop from sticky florist tape, a thin layer of Ecuadorian grime, and a few torn nails from trying to open a box of flowers, and you’ve earned your florist stripes.
If that list just gave you a little bellyache, hire a florist. DIY isn’t for everybody.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A FLORIST (and how to choose one)
A good florist will have the skills and experience required to take your vision and create something beautiful and unique for you. They should provide you with an estimate and will also likely provide a proposal that includes photos and a detailed description of what they plan to create for your day.
Get to know your florist’s style. Stalk them on Instagram, their website, and through the windows of their florist shop. It will go much better for both of you if you choose someone who’s style you really like, and then trust them with the floral vision for your day. If you consistently see garden style bouquets with the flowers you love, you can expect more of the same.
A good seasonal florist will be skilled at working with Mother Nature as the boss. And it’s also worth noting that a seasonal floral plan simply cannot be micromanaged. We can guess and get it close, but Mother Nature is in charge. Gardens have a bad habit of blooming when they want to, regardless of our very specific desire for THIRTY stems of burgundy scabiosa on June 24th. We must take what we can get, but if we go into it with the mindset of partnering with nature, the beauty that can be made with seasonal flowers is its own reward.
As a florist, when I put together a floral wedding plan I want to get to know the bride as well as I can. What are her interests, her favorite colors, her personality? I want more than anything for her florals to reflect her as much as they reflect our unique floral style. I want her to be happy with how they turn out. I joke sometimes that being a wedding florist is like being a psychiatrist. It’s reading people and listening to the things the DON’T say and deciphering exactly which shade of green they mean when they say “fresh, but not chartreuse”.
HOW TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT WITH YOUR FLORIST:
Communicate clearly. When you share a photo with them, explain what it is that you like about it. Is it the organic shape, the colors, the ribbons? If you can’t tell what it is that you like about it, they probably won’t know either. Figure it out, articulate it, and then trust your florist to create a fresh and unique floral masterpiece for you. Be frank with them. They can take it.
Be upfront about your budget. No florist likes to play the guessing game. It makes the planning stage twice as hard and frustrating. If a florist knows what kind of budget she is working with she can spend more time figuring out how to maximize every dollar for you.
How to NOT get the flowers you want: micromanage. It should come as no surprise that a floral artist does their best work in the moment, not when they are constantly checking a photo to see if it is matching up to her bride’s expectations. I know it’s hard. (speaking as someone with a few bridezilla tendencies myself!) Allow for creative liberties and you just might end up with your own viral Pinterest bouquet.
HAVE A FRIEND DO YOUR FLOWERS
What to do when your budget doesn’t allow for a florist and you have no desire to do your own bouquets? Turn to a talented friend. There is no shame in this and it is an excellent way for a budding florist to get their start. Hey, this was us for many years, and we don’t regret one minute of it. We were honored to flower for our friends and gained experience and beautiful memories from it. However, having walked the path, and having heard the stories of others who have also been the Friend Florists, I might suggest there is a right and a wrong way to go about this.
If you are using your friend because they are cheaper than hiring a florist, what you’re really asking them to do is donate their experience and time. Flowers cost basically the same across the board, so if someone can do it on the cheap, they are likely not compensating themselves. A friend may be quite willing to donate their time, but probably won’t tell you just how MUCH time goes into wedding flowers. Want to know? Check her feet for blisters when she’s done.
Don’t expect your friends to produce a product that only a skilled and experienced florist can. Sure, there are some souls whose raw talent can make up for their lack of experience. If you’ve got one of those friends, hug them. And bring them an iced latte. They could use it. But if you are tapping a friend, hopefully your expectations will line up with their skills and experience.
We’ll talk more about budget friendly alternatives later in the series, but this one is worth mentioning here. If you can’t afford to pay a florist and don’t wish to alienate your friends by asking them to do things for free, consider swapping services with them. What is something meaningful you can do for them in return?
LaRonda
Click here for our basic DIY flower timeline for wedding week.