Wedding Flower Elements to consider. How do I start planning my wedding floral design?
I’m Engaged! Now how the heck do I plan my wedding flowers?
New Year’s celebrations often lead to new engagements. Around this time of year we get many new wedding flower inquiries, and we’re here to help get the ball rolling!!
The biggest question we are asked are “what are your wedding flower packages?”. At Petal Town Flowers, we believe that every bride and groom is unique, and for that reason, we don’t offer packages. We prefer to work with our clients to determine their style, color palette and to cover all the elements of your wedding to match your floral vision. We don’t have a minimum, we can cover your grand or intimate wedding! In that way, we are able to create your custom wedding florals to match your style, budget and vision.
“But where do I start?? “
The short answer is this: Most weddings include similar elements to their wedding floral design. When contacting your potential wedding florist, you will be asked about the following:
Style of your bridal bouquet. Would you prefer Cascade, Posy, Hand Tied, Nosegay… All good questions! We’ll help you figure it out :-) And in what color palette? Would you prefer lots of green foliage or more floral? Do you want soft muted colors or some bright pops of color?
How many people in the bridal party? Typically people have the same number of Bridesmaids (who carry bouquets) and Groomsmen (who wear Boutonnieres). However, we’ve seen a lot of mix and match lately!
Will you need corsages and boutonnieres for extended family members such as your parents, grandparents, ushers, officiants, readers? Will there be flower girls or ring bearers? If so, are they old enough to carry a basket without flinging petals all over, or would a tiny bouquet and flower crown be a better choice?
Where will the wedding ceremony take place? Outdoors, Indoors. Winery, Ranch, Beach, Golf Course. This will likely determine the style of your wedding flowers, which may be Classic, Romantic, Modern Minimalist, Bohemian… more to figure out! The location of your ceremony may include an arch or arbor, a chuppah, a grove of trees, a vineyard, a crashing ocean. Depending on your setting, the flowers and elements people typically consider are altar flowers or ceremony markers (wine barrel toppers or stands), aisle petals, seating floral (which could be detached and repurposed to your reception).
Will your reception be indoors or out? And how many tables? The recent trend has been for the bride and groom to sit at a Sweetheart Table, and the guests at either round tables or rectangular farm tables. Depending on the size, quantity and style, your centerpiece flowers can range from small and simple to many and large, or even a combination. For round tables, you could consider low arrangements, or a tall or “see-through” style. For rectangle farm tables, garland runners are popular, or line your table with rows of smaller vases and candlelight. Non-traditional floral centerpieces may include lanterns, terrariums, floating flowers or candles…
Cake flowers, dessert table, cocktail tables, bar flower arrangements and a Welcome sign! These are all details that are often added to the floral design.
“Ok, thanks for all of that, but I still don’t know where to start… “. Another thing I encourage our clients to do when they are first planning is to get on Pinterest and create a board to start pinning your ideas. You may have no idea what you like (or don’t like) until you start seeing things online. As you create your boards, your vision will begin to pop out to you and you’ll have a much easier time making some decisions. Then all your ideas are in one place and you can easily send the Pinterest link to your florist to use as a vision board for planning.
At Petal Town Flowers we know that this is a journey. The wedding planning process takes months in most cases, and things change. Most of our brides and grooms book their date with a small deposit, but the ongoing design may continue until several weeks before your wedding when you know your headcount and have picked all your accessories (such as table linens and bridesmaid dresses). We are flexible and encourage a creative dialog.
If you are newly engaged or would like to get your wedding flower process moving, you can easily download our wedding flower questionnaire from our website, or shoot us an email with any questions and we can help get you started.
Congratulations and happy wedding planning!
Highlands Estate Cloverdale. Wedding arbor flowers, bridal bouquet mauve, blush, cream with loose eucalyptus greenery.