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.

2020 Newly Engaged? How to plan for the cost of wedding flowers.

Congratulations! You're engaged! That's great news! Now for the (sometimes) overwhelming part of planning your romantic wine country wedding. Usually what is on everybody's mind is "how much will this wedding cost?", and the question we get most is "how much do your wedding flower packages cost?"

My immediate response is that every bride and groom is different in terms of style, color palette, and the floral pieces they require. For that reason, Petal Town Flowers doesn't do wedding flower packages - we create custom wedding flower designs to match your unique vision and style. Sounds expensive? Well, it could be, but usually we can tailor your choices to match your budget.

Why do wedding flower costs vary so much? Flowers are living breathing things, and they are sensitive to seasonal availability and to swings in market pricing (like red roses around Valentine's Day). Choosing peonies over dahlias will have an impact on your cost, depending on the time of year. Flower trends also affect market price, which affects your ultimate cost. When eucalyptus garland becomes popular, the market price of eucalyptus goes up.

Some flowers are large and loose, which will take up more space, and some flowers are very dense and will require more blooms to fill your bridal bouquet. Choosing the style of your bridal bouquet can slightly impact the overall cost, but the largest component of the cost is in the design labor. For that reason, choosing "cheaper flowers" doesn't necessarily reduce the overall cost by much. What makes the most difference is in the size and density of your floral pieces multiplied by the  quantity you desire.  For example, a loose  and airy bridesmaid bouquet will cost slightly less than a tight compact bouquet, but when you multiply that by four bridesmaids versus eight bridesmaids, you will start to see a larger difference. 

So what is the bottom line? While we don't like to quote costs before we understand your specific elements, we can offer a range in pricing to give you a basic idea:

• Bridal bouquets will range from $150 up to the $250 range

• Bridesmaids bouquets will range from $55 to around $100

• Flower Girl baskets and crowns are around $45 each

• Boutonnieres (the "man flower") are $20

• Corsages (either pinned or wrist) are $35

• Ceremony flowers depend on your venue, your style etc -

  • Arch, arbor or chuppah flowers start at $100

  • Wine barrel toppers, large altar arrangements etc start at $95

  • Aisle bouquets are around $45 each

  • Petals for aisle are around $120

• Centerpieces vary widely, depending on size, style and the floral element -

  • Short simple country style will be between $55 to $75 per round or square table. Farm tables will depend on the length and number of florals per table. The longer the table, the more space to cover.

  • Low and fuller will range between $65 to $85

  • Garland is charged by the foot and depends on if it's loosely placed, or woven, and if it includes flowers or only greens.

  • Tall, large, full will start around $85 and go up depending on many factors

For the budget savvy bride or groom, some things to consider to keep your costs lower -

• ask about renting the vases for your floral pieces. Typically no one needs 15 square vases after a wedding is over. Florists love to get them back and will often reduce the price of the flowers if the vases are returned.

• re-purpose ceremony flowers for the reception. Sometimes you can re-use the aisle bouquets for cocktail tables, dessert bars etc. Altar or Arch pieces can be snuck into reception areas while your guests are moving from one space to another. Ask the venue coordinator about relocating flowers.

• add votive candles, which are less expensive than flower arrangements and can fill the space between or around your floral centerpieces.

A lot to take in? If you'd like to get the ball rolling, the best way is to complete our wedding questionnaire. The questions will prompt you to think about your design and the elements you are looking for. Another great tool is Pinterest - create a board and start collecting ideas and inspiration from the vast web. Once you are ready, we can create a custom flower quote for you, which you can continue to refine until about a week before your wedding.

Happy Wedding Planning!

Wedding flowers Trentadue Winery. Copper arch flowers. Bridal bouquet full greenery plum mauve flowers.