This is the Best Time to Hire Your Wedding Florist.
An Arch by Walden Floral LA and Nashville - NOV 2021.
We all know planning a wedding can be stressful. Coordinating and hiring all the vendors can just be the tip of the iceberg. As an experienced floral company in the wedding industry, we know exactly when the right time is to bring on a florist, when it is too soon, or even too late.
Without a doubt, the best time to hire your wedding florist is after you have booked the venue. Without a booked date and venue it’s impossible to find out if the florist is available and will be unable to give an accurate quote. With a booked venue, your florist has the ability to give you an accurate quote based on the design opportunities that your venue provides. These opportunities could include, an arch or structures that are unique to the venue, the table count, the ceremony area, cocktail hour, the reception area, and how long your venue allows vendors to set up/breakdown.
Based on your current situation, you might be able to wait, or you might need to hire one right away. Read on to learn more about when to bring on a florist to your team of wedding vendors.
The Best Time to Hire a Wedding Florist and Why.
After you have chosen your venue you will have a lot of information that will allow the florist you are talking with to give you the most accurate quote. This is why we think this is the most ideal time to book them. It will make it easier for the florist to accurately quote you, which in turn will make your job of planning the wedding easier.
Every item that the florist provides costs money. That is just the way it goes. So if you come to the florist with a full, accurate list of your needs for the wedding, you will get the best quote upfront.
The information about your venue that will benefit your quote is:
Your guest count and table count.
Your table shape.
Your welcome area.
Structures in the venue for possible floral decoration. This could include fountains, fireplaces, lounge areas, entrances to spaces, archways, and anything unique.
Ceremony arch type and location if present, and any types of structures that would be associated.
How many bridesmaids and groomsmen?
Set up times for vendors.
Teardown times if needed.
When Should You Hire the Florist You Want?
If there is a particular florist you want, it is totally okay to reach out to them first. The reason for this is simple. Florists book up, often months to over a year in advance.
If you are worried that they will book up fast, then you need to secure a date with them asap.
One great way to go about doing this is to find out how much they charge to hold a wedding. The deposit is normally a percentage of the overall cost in order to secure the date.
If you know in general how much of your overall wedding budget you are going to allocate to flowers, then you should tell the florist in your initial conversation. The cost range for flowers is a wide range, so this gives your florist direction when writing up a quote to let you know what’s possible within your budget. At this point, you will have a better picture of what you will need.
Don’t wait too long to book your florist. You need to make sure you give your florist enough time to source the flowers, vases, and candles that you want. They also need time to book their team, organize logistics, create a mood board, and place flower orders. The sooner the florist can order your flowers the better chances you have of getting the flowers you want. We start organizing and planning for our weddings months in advance, and we place our flower orders one month before the wedding.
If you plan on booking your florist in advance, follow those rules above and you will be just fine. Just make sure to communicate quickly to your florist’s emails so that they can best assist in getting you your dream flowers for your big day.
When is it Too Late to Hire Your Wedding Florist?
It is almost never too late to hire your florist. But you are taking some risks by doing so.
Firstly they may not even be available at that point. When you hire a wedding florist at the last minute, you are risking not being able to get the flowers you want as well. The reason for this is flowers are usually ordered and brought in specifically for your wedding. Anything ordered less than 2 weeks before the wedding is a risk.
In most cases, the florist will be picking what is available at the flower market, if they live in an area that has a flower market. Most of the time they can still find some flowers and make it work, but they’ll set the expectation that they can only get what’s available at that time. Nature is amazing, but nature doesn’t care about anyone’s plans. On the flip side, a lot of places around the country don’t have flower markets and their only option is to order your flowers in advance.
We have worked with brides with tight timelines like this in the past. Usually, it is because another florist had to cancel on the bride due to unfortunate circumstances.
If your florist cancels on you at the last minute, the first thing you should do is reach out to your venue and wedding planner. Ask them for a vendor list and then call everyone on the list and find someone who is available.
Obviously, when you wait until the last minute to hire the florist there are just so many things that can go wrong. Hire your florist up front, that way they can really help you get your vision into motion for the best day of your life.
If you would like a quote on your wedding. Reach out to us today.