Who Run The World?

This is something new for my blog. I mention my work life and how much I love floristry a lot but I have never properly sat down and spoke about running a business and the hurdles you come across along the way. This isn’t me making out I am most successful woman in the world because I am very far from it.

Recently I completed a wedding order for a couple that I am friends with and it was by far the biggest wedding I have completed solo. The style was very natural and shabby chic with a pastel colour scheme and I am over the moon with how all of the flowers looked! Thank you to those who voted on my poll on IG, I am so surprised you all wanted a wedding flower post – so here you go!

Disclaimer: This is going to be a very very long post so grab a coffee and a snack. Throughout this post I will be talking about the Bride a lot – I am fully aware men can be very involved with the choice of flowers and there are many many gay couples who order wedding flowers. 

PREP

I cannot stress enough how important preparation is – the more you plan the less stressed you’ll be. I usually offer 3-4 consultations for free depending on the size of the wedding and I printed out so many checklists online of what flower arrangements people typically like depending on whether it is a church wedding or not. Pinterest is basically your best friend no matter what business you run, it is so easy to create mood boards and share them with the bride.

BUDGET & PROFITS

Before you have the first consultation, do your research! I googled local florists and the prices they charge and also looked back at previous receipts from the wholesalers so I know I can give them an approximate quote that is correct. Depending on the wealth of your city the prices you charge do vary – some florists double, triple or even quadruple the wholesale price of flowers, but because I am only a freelance florist I only double it. I am still building up my client list so I don’t want to over charge and doubling seems to work well for me!

SHOPPING

I wrote a crazy amount of shopping lists and to do lists during my prep stage. So for a bit of background: The first wedding consultation I had was in January and the wedding day was late august. So I asked for a 10% deposit in April and the remaining total in June. As soon as I received the money I started shopping! Amazon and Ebay have been amazing for buying products that are typically sold in bulk. Remember to make a list of everything you need to buy, even the little things like spare batteries.

When I ordered the flowers I made sure to pre-order them so I was guaranteed to get the specific variety of flowers I wanted and it makes the day at the wholesalers a lot less stressful and the best thing is that you don’t pay any extra to pre-order! Just if you are pre-ordering make sure you check all of your flowers/products over first before you leave the premises.

FLORISTRY TIME

This is the best but most stressful part. The first thing I do is prep the flowers (how many times can I say prep in this post). To condition the flowers you need to remove all the foliage from the stems that’s below water level, then trim the stems on a 45 degree angle. Next thing to do is work out how many stems of each flower you have then assign them for certain arrangements so everything’s equal and you don’t run out of flowers.

The first thing I started to work on is the arch as I knew all of the foliage would last much longer than any flowers. But because of the height of it I could only complete half – the other half would be done on the wedding day.

The next and potentially my most favourite part is the Bridesmaids bouquets, my clients ordered 5 Bridesmaids posies using Roses, Hydrangea and Gypsophila. However the Hydrangea wouldn’t last all day without water so small plastic tubes are used and wrapped in with the stems. I have finished each bouquet off with a silver ribbon!

Next is the lantern arrangements – these will be used down the aisle as well as on the tables as centrepieces. I bought these lanterns from The Range and the fake candle were included, making these lanterns amazing value for money. The wooden tree slices are bought from Ebay, you’d think they are inexpensive, wrong. I found this out a little too late, so before you send off a quote DO YOUR RESEARCH.

The flowers I have used are Roses, Eustomas, Scabious, Spray Roses, Delphinium, Clematis, Gypsophila and Eryngium.

Thanks to my mum for being a fab model. The Bridal Bouquet is a cascading waterfall bouquet and this was done using a foam holder. When I chose the flowers for this bouquet I chose the best quality ones as it is going to have more attention than any of the other arrangements. Each of the roses have pearl pins in the centre to create a more luxurious feel.

The flowers used are very similar to the lantern arrangements: Roses, Delphiniums, Eustoma, Aster, Heather, Scabious and Eucalyptus.

Lastly I made the thank you bouquets, which are to be given to both Mums. These bouquets are aqua packed so on the day of the wedding I don’t need to worry about them being out of water and wilting. With every bouquet I always include flower food, a message card and a business card!

WEDDING DAY

If you are a wedding florist and turn up to the wedding looking glam, then I applaud you. On the day of the wedding I woke up at 4am and the ceremony wasn’t until 1pm! So a strong coffee is a must! All the flowers that aren’t kept in water must be done all the day and for me that was buttonholes and wrist corsages. Each buttonhole is finished with a ribbon to hide any wires and tape then popped into a box with a pin (remember to take spares!).

In the buttonholes I used Delphiniums, peach Roses and Eucalyptus. But for the Grooms buttonhole I made it difference by swapping the peach Rose for a white one with a diamanté pin in the centre and added a scabious to match the bridal bouquet! The two wrist corsages are a great substitute for traditional corsages and these base for the wristlets are a snap band so they are adaptable for any wrist size. The flowers used are: Scabious, Eustoma, Gypsophila, Aster and Spray Roses.

I hired out a van but unlike me, make sure you do your measurements before hand. I stupidly hired out a van that was too small. When I started loading the van I realised the arch was way too big so I had to dismantle the whole thing (it was stress city at my house that morning). Once everything was packed up we made our way to the venue! The first stop I made was to the groom party to deliver the buttonholes, then to the bridal party to deliver all bouquets and wrist corsages! They both looked so so stunning!!

All the staff at the venue were so kind and helpful so I worked alongside them to make the ceremony room as magical as possible, placing lanterns down the aisle, moss on the cake table and then rebuilding the gigantic arch. When I say the arch was big, I mean it was big. Nearly too big for the room haha (thank god for ladders).

So I hope you all found this post interesting, I was tempted to split in too parts as I know this is a huge post so let me know in the comments if you made it to the end! I enjoyed sharing this all with you, so thank you so much for reading.

Until next time,

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