Matlack’s Guide to Wedding Florals: The Consultation
The question has been popped, the date is set, and the venue is booked – your wedding planning is well underway! Now it’s time to meet with the florist, but what should you expect?
Planning for wedding florals can be overwhelming, especially if you’re someone who isn’t super familiar with flowers or floral design. Our guide to wedding florals will take you from the consultation stage to the big day and help you know what to expect in each step of the process. Your wedding planning process should be exciting, and we want to ensure that the floral part of your planning is fun, smooth, and stress-free.
In the first part of our wedding florals guide, we take you through the initial consultation with our wedding team and what to expect on day one.
When You Arrive
You can expect the initial consultation meeting to take about an hour. This meeting is a good chance for you to see some of our work, share your vision with us, and develop a relationship with our wedding team.
Once you arrive at the shop, we recommend taking a stroll through our gift shop and greenhouse to get an idea of our brand and style while you wait for your consultation to start. We’ll meet in our event consultation room. Feel free to grab a cup of coffee, check out our wedding gallery wall, and make yourself at home – we want this to be a fun and low-stress process for you!
And if you’re meeting with us on the phone or over Zoom instead, no worries! Your consultation process will be almost exactly the same.
Wedding Day Walkthrough
The main thing we’ll do in your consultation is walk through your wedding day, the spaces, and the people to make sure we know who and what will be in need of florals. This will take up the majority of the consultation and will go into lots of detail so we can ensure that your wedding florals fit your vision.
The People
First, we’ll start by going through all the important people at the wedding and what florals they’ll need. This includes the bride, the groom, the bridal party, parents, grand-parents, aunts and uncles, etc. This primarily involves bouquets and boutonnieres, but can include other florals as we see fit.
The Ceremony
Next, we’ll walk through the ceremony and ask questions about the venue and the style you’re looking for. Will there be a wedding arch? An altar? Are there any religious, familial, or cultural traditions you want to consider? All of these things will go into consideration when we’re designing your big day.
The Cocktail Hour
The party’s just begun, so why not add some simple florals to ease into the big celebration? Adding some small florals to your cocktail hour can help jazz it up and make your day more cohesive. We’ll take the venue space and budget into consideration and work with you to add some small pieces- typically things like bud vases and candles.
The Reception
Next, we’ll walk through the reception. We’ll want to know approximately how many guests there will be, how long the reception is, table setups, etc. We will also discuss in detail your venue and find other exciting ways to include florals based upon the layout/natural beauty of your venue.
Guidelines and rentals
Finally, we’ll go over any applicable venue guidelines, talk about any other stylistic choices you want us to keep in mind, and show you the rental options we have available. We can provide candles, compotes, arches, and more to help take your details to the next level. If you’re not sure about any of these things just yet, we’ll work with you and the venue to make sure we have all the information we need.
What to Bring
Fortunately, there isn’t a lot you have to bring to a wedding consult. We recommend you come with the following:
- Vision – we recommend bringing inspiration photos or even a Pinterest board to help us see what your style and vision is. If you’re not really sure what you want yet, that’s ok too! We have lots of examples of past events and we can work with you to help you find a style you love.
- Budget – the closer an idea you have of how much you’re willing to spend on florals, the more accurate of an idea we’ll be able to give you of what is available and possible for your wedding day.
- Important contacts – this include any vendors we may need to work with, venue info, and important friends/family members who may be involved with planning and payment.
- Pen and paper for notes – we like to look at the details, and you might realize there are things you want that you didn’t even think about!
- Realistic expectations – although we want to make your big day as close to your vision as possible, flowers are an organic product. Budget, color, and seasonal limitations may make some things difficult (or even impossible) to achieve. Setting your expectations to match what is possible for your day will make the process much more enjoyable.
After the Consult
Once the consult is complete, you can expect to meet with us 1-2 more times before your big day for revisions and final details. We’ll create and send you a proposal with line-by-line breakdowns of the mutual expectations, a rough idea of what the day will look like, and a contract to sign.
From here, feel free to relax and enjoy the time leading up to your big day, and know that your wedding florals are in good hands!
Get Started!
Still in the pre-consultation phase of your planning? Check out our website or email weddings@matlackflorist.com for more information and examples of our work! You can also find us on Instagram.
