VALUES //
With so many amazing Wedding Florists out there, it can be difficult to know when to stop looking and just choose one! But did you know that there’s a simple way to instantly narrow down the endless list of Florists (and this applies to pretty much all wedding suppliers!)? Write down your top personal values, then go back to your shortlist and see which ones share those values. For example, if you’re a real ‘positive vibes only’ kinda gal, then it might be unwise to choose a Florist that is overly pessimistic when you speak to them, or if you value environmentalism, then a Florist whose products or services create unnecessary harm to the environment, may not be the best choice for you. If you take a values-based approach to narrowing down your supplier shortlist, then the list you’ll be left to choose from will be smaller, but the quality certainly will not be. It’s kind of a win-win.
VIBE //
I don’t know about you, but when planning my own wedding, the ‘vibe’ suppliers have given me, both when I’ve interacted with them and when I’ve observed them on social media, has been hugely relevant in my decision about whether or not to book with them. Luckily for me, I already knew which Wedding Florist I wanted to do my own wedding flowers (Little Wedding Garden, Cheshire) but like you, I had to contact a lot of other suppliers, from Stationers to Videographers and a good number of other wedding suppliers in between, in my search for the best people to deliver our wedding vision. When it comes to your Wedding Florist, you will want to work with a person / team that you just know will be fun to work with; someone that will share the highs and lows with you, and be right there with you, every step of the way. But how will you know if they’ll be fun to work with? Well, the truth is, you won’t. But you can make an educated guess based on a few key indicators; things like:
How long does it take the Florist to get back to your enquiry?
If they take too long, then they’re possibly too busy. Busy periods are to be expected of course, especially in this business. Wedding floristry has a ‘busy season’ (typically it’s March to October, but admittedly things are a bit out of kilter since the beginning of the pandemic!), and when a Florist is working on a wedding, it’s naturally going to take them a little longer to respond to emails. Many Wedding Florists run their business single-handedly, with the very suggestion of ‘admin support’ actually laughable to them! It’s often just one woman or man doing all of the jobs (floral designer/accountant/administrator/social media manager/business development manager/buyer) meaning things can take time and sometimes life can just get in the way. This said, a Florist (or any other wedding supplier), shouldn’t be taking any longer than 1-2 business days to at least send a courtesy email to say ‘We’re working on a wedding this weekend, but I’ll be in touch with you early next week to set up a consultation call’. Slow response times can also indicate a wedding supplier that has taken on more work than they can comfortably handle, in order to maximise profit, and that they are struggling to give every client (and potential client) the attention they deserve.
If communication is important to you, then choose a Florist whose response times are good. It can be beneficial to initially make contact with a Florist via one of their social media pages or via WhatsApp (rather than by email) as you’ll be able to see if they’ve read your message and they’ll be able to tell you how best to take your enquiry forward e.g. they might suggest to move the conversation over to email or to another client management platform at that point, so that conversations are easier to keep track of.
What do they say and how do they say it?
Only the very best wedding suppliers (and businesses, generally) understand that a client’s experience is an end to end thing. Client experience is as much about the journey towards receiving the end product or service e.g. proposal, booking and planning processes, as it is about the end product or service they receive, in this case, wedding flowers. It is no good having lovely flowers on the day, if your Wedding Florist had you wanting to pull your hair out in the planning stages. You should feel valued, listened to and important from the get-go, and no Bride or Groom-to-be should be left waiting ages for replies, be provided with half-baked, restrictive or confusing proposals, nor should they have their concerns or ideas dismissed. Not cool, not kind, not a good vibe.
If a Florist’s vibe makes you feel a bit ‘meh’, swipe left and move on – they’re just not the one for you! As a rule, if a Florist (or any wedding supplier for that matter) has been really communicative and helpful throughout the early stages e.g. initial enquiry, proposal stages, then this is a strong indicator that they are well organised, generous with their time, attentive to detail and highly likely to make the entire process enjoyable for you.
REVIEWS //
Reading reviews online from previous couples that a Florist has worked with, is a great way to gain insight into what it might be like to work with them yourself. Look for common themes in the reviews and consider if these are things you value. Of course, if there are any negative comments, consider whether these are legitimate criticisms or not as well as how the Florist has responded to the comments, and make a decision on whether you think this is a Florist you would want to work with. Remember too, that reviews posted on a Florist’s website or Instagram page will have been placed there because it speaks positively of them / their brand (you’d have to be mad to post a negative review of your business on your business page, surely?) so I’m not saying ‘don’t trust the reviews’, I’m just saying it can be worth seeking out a secondary source of information, to balance out any one-sidedness.
Reviews on Google are a great source of testimonial, and you’ll be able to access them for any Florist that has a website. Of course, if you find any negative comments, consider whether these are legitimate criticisms. If, for example, a Reviewer’s only gripe was that the Florist refused to hold their wedding date without receipt of a deposit, I’d say most reasonable people would consider this to be an illegitimate complaint and wouldn’t let it put them off. If however, you read a negative comment and the complaint seems legitimate, you should pay close attention to how the business has responded in the comments, then make a decision about whether you think this is a business you would want to work with.
For belt and braces, you could always seek out a face-to-face or phone conversation with someone that has had first-hand experience of working with a particular Florist. There is nothing wrong with reaching out to a Bride/Groom/supplier that you’ve seen tagged in a Florist’s social media post and politely asking if they’d be willing to tell you about what it was like to work with that particular Florist. You’d be surprised at how willing people are to share their experiences!
PRICE //
It can be really tempting to select the cheapest quote you get (I’m a Bride with a budget myself, so I know from experience how tempting this really is!), but remember,
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get”.
If a Florist has provided a remarkably low quote, there’s a chance you’ll get less than you hoped for; both in terms of quantity and quality. You could find that your floral designs end up being weirdly small on the day, or that the flowers used in the designs just aren’t up to scratch. You might have shown the Florist a picture from Pinterest of an over-sized bridal bouquet that you love; one that has lots of different flower and foliage varieties and berries and grasses and other interesting-looking things, but on the day, you end up with a bouquet that whilst still pretty, is much smaller than you expected with ‘ingredients’ that are pretty basic-looking, even to you, the non-Florist, and worse still, no berries or grasses! It’s the kind of disappointment that’ll take a while to get over.
There are many reasons why a Florist would provide a really low quote, and it could be that they are just starting out and trying to gain experience, and that’s okay; nothing wrong with that (we’ve all been there, and you’ll do whatever’s necessary to get your teeth cut!). Just because a Florist is only starting out, doesn’t mean they won’t be able to create amazing wedding flowers for you, especially if your requirements are quite simple, but it just means that in appointing them as your Florist, you’re accepting a level of risk. The flowers created by that Florist for your wedding are unlikely to be the Florist’s best work ever (in terms of every wedding she’ll create throughout her career), but chances are your flowers will still be all you’ve ever dreamed of, and probably more. It really is a simple question of risk and it’s one only you can answer. My advice would be to apply all the tips in this blog post to help you make a truly informed choice.
And just as a really low quote can come with risks attached, so too can one that’s very high. It can be tempting to think ’I’ll just book the most expensive one because they obviously know what they’re doing!’ but remember, some florists will mark up higher than the industry standard based on their overheads, demand, years of experience – factors which will not necessarily equate to you receiving a better service and better wedding flowers, just because you paid more. A Florist (or any other supplier for that matter) could have many years of experience in the field but be difficult to work with due to lack of professionalism / poor communication / inflexibility, and all that extra cash you just parted with, could feel a bit wasted. The bottom line? Do your homework, weigh the risks and never make price the only deciding factor in your decision-making.
STYLE //
Last but not least (and I’ll admit, this is kind of an obvious one!) but before making your list of wedding florists to contact, do have a good old stalking session of their social media pages and an even better poke around their website, to get a good sense of their overall style. Much the same as every Artist, if given the same paper, paints and brushes, would produce a different painting than the Artist sitting next to them, each Wedding Florist’s work will be different (and that’s what makes it wonderful, don’t you think?). Believe it or not, you could give the same brief to five different Wedding Florists and end up with five different suites of wedding flowers. The differences may be subtle, but they’ll be there all the same, so it’s definitely worth looking at a Florist’s style, and making sure it really appeals to you. This is not to say that if a Florist’s work portfolio online hasn’t got the exact kind of table centrepiece you’d hoped for, that they couldn’t make it for you of course! Remember, a florist’s portfolio is largely a collection of work they’ve been commissioned to do (by the couples whose weddings they’ve worked on) so if they’ve never been asked to create a Harry & Meghan-style arch, then chances are you’re not going to see one amongst their posts on Instagram! In this instance, consider the Florist’s skill level – are they professionally trained? Can they demonstrate having created a floral arch before? – and consider their overall aesthetic, asking yourself, ‘Do I love 99% of their work that I see? Then, try to weigh up everything you’ve seen and heard and decide if you can trust that the Florist has the creativity and technical skills required to create the flowers you’ve envisioned for your wedding day.
Whether you’ve already booked with us, are thinking about making an initial enquiry, or if you’re simply curious about a topic discussed in this blog post, DM, PM or email us with your queries and we’ll get right back to you.
