How to choose a retail wedding florist

"I'm a party planner, here's my card. I can help you..."
Beware of party planners. There's a night and day difference between phoning Domino's delivery, and wedding consultants who deal with many wedding vendors. Party Planners have typically have no experience in high stress weddings, and should be avoided. Wedding consultants are useful but costly. They interface directly with vendors on your behalf. Sometimes you can do just as good on your own. Also, since they have no shop and no overhead, they also don't own the candelabrum, the rolls of fabric, the decorative columns, etc. They just rent them and the cost gets passed on to you. One good example was a psuedo-florist's price for the poly lace runner used for the aisle at the church. Her price was $100, which was way out of control for a glorified roll of butcher shop paper. All the florist shops quoted us $35, which is much more reasonable. Go with an established wedding florist that you can go into and inspect their operation. They also have photo albums of many previous wedding flowers and corporate affairs. The psuedo-florist we spoke to did not even have a photo album, instead she had a few photos in an envelope. Not very impressive. I really have to wonder why it's so much trouble for them to buy a $5 album and stick the pictures in it. This makes all the difference in the world. The wedding flowers are the most visible part of your wedding, so unless you know the person real well, why take a chance on ruining your day? First of all, once you've decided to get married and settle on an approximate date, waste NO time in searching for the florist. There are only 52 weekends a year, and maybe 104 possible weddings each florist could work on. If they have a decent staff and more trucks, they can probably handle more. But don't waste time.

Finding Wedding Florists: Get References From Friends, Coworkers, Reception Halls.
Your best resource is people you know. Ask around, look at wedding albums of other people to get ideas from their wedding flower arrangements. It's very helpful to pick up a book or 2 with cake photos and wedding flowers, they proved most useful for our wedding.  Talk to recent brides and mothers. They are the ones that can really give you the juicy details. If something bad happened between them & their florist, boy will they tell you about it. If you are having the reception at a decent hotel or resort, they may have a list of preferred vendors that you may want to call. This list contains vendors that the resort has worked with and knows to be reliable and professional. Remember, the resort's reputation is stake also.  When you look at photos, verify if the arrangements look good.  Are they sparsely populated with flowers, and have tons of green and baby's breath piled up to make it look like something?  You want nice full displays with lots of flowers that make you go "wow" the second you see it.

We had our reception at the very lovely (and expensive) Boca Raton Resort.  We interviewed 3 florists from their list and eventually chose one of them. Most florists will meet by appointment only. Try to schedule your appointment as early as possible on a Saturday morning. This increases your chances of being able to see the flowers scheduled for a wedding that day before they are delivered. Seeing the flowers will give you ideas for your own arrangement, as well as give you a glimpse of the florist's work. Ask the florist if they are familiar with your church and reception hall.  Do they have enough available resources on your wedding date? While you are there, ask the florist to make you up a sample table centerpiece. They can do it in about 5 minutes while they discuss your wedding. All the florists we interviewed did this for free. They just take it apart and throw the flowers back into the mix after you leave. This is a great selling tool for them, and a powerful visual aid for you, as you can hold it in your hand and know exactly what your floral arrangements are going to look like. Be forewarned, however, that florists seem to put more flowers into the "model" than you actually receive on your centerpieces. We were a little irked, and you should have them indicate in the contract how many flowers will be in your centerpiece. You do not want to see 7 or 8 flowers, and a bunch of greenery and baby's breath. Ask what accessories like vases, candelabrum, light stands, etc. they have.  One thing, many books recommend balloons to help save money. Sorry folks, this isn't a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses. This is a fancy, romantic wedding reception, most likely at a decent hotel or resort. In our opinion, balloons do not belong at a wedding unless you really cannot afford flowers and are having your reception at a condo clubhouse.  Then it's acceptable in that type of setting.  But if you are spending thousands on a fancy hotel, don't cheapen the look with balloons.

Money Saving Tips For Dealing With The Florist.
It is important to know everything you are expected to pay to the florist BEFORE you agree to employ them. For example, are there any hidden setup or delivery charges? Does the florist charge a consultant fee? Most do not. Some may, to pay for the time spent meeting with you. There is always the risk that they will spend many hours giving you ideas, only to have you go elsewhere. Most florists are honest, but some will nickel and dime you to death. So watch out for all the little incidentals that add up quickly, especially personal flowers. You can expect your bridal bouquet to be $150, nosegays for bridesmaids to be $35-$50, flowers for mom, dad, flower girls, groomsmen, etc. See how quickly it adds up?  You're already down one paycheck and we haven't mentioned the church or reception site yet. Ask the florist if there is a setup/teardown charge for items like chair fabrics and table cloths. IF you use either the florist or a linen company, make sure the contract spells out who is to take down tablecloths after the reception. DON'T ASSUME THE HOTEL DOES IT. They may charge you for the task. Here are some money saving tips:
 

Buy your reception favors online and save time and money
You can buy many wedding reception items online at a discount. Ask for the Disposable Kodak Wedding Cameras, or even better, have all your guests sue their digital cameras to take candid photos from the reception and email them to you later, or put on CD. You can also order other reception items online such as Flower Girl Baskets & Flower Girl Gifts, Wedding Ring Pillows, Favors & Bubbles, Cake Tops, Garters, and Table Decorations.

Recommended books on wedding flowers and bridal bouquets:
 

You want someone with trucks and the experience of delivery and setup of your wedding flowers at receptions. You should determine if your "psuedo-florist" has a good connection to the delivery trucks. They may have done some weddings successfully in the past or have some contacts in the industry, but the main issue is they have NO CONTROL over trucks belonging to other people.  Also, since they do not have the buying power of a wedding florist shop, their prices are usually higher. Now you are wondering "Hey, they don't have the overhead of the big shops, why aren't they cheaper?" Usually they sell the same products, so they still charge the going rate. In fact, with one such florist that we received a quote from, the exact same package was $1000 more than the wedding florist shop we ended up choosing. She also had a huge invitation album, which is the EXACT same one I saw in all the Mitchell's Formal wear shops, the bridal warehouses, and other wedding vendors. She charges the same full retail price as the other vendors, so she really brought nothing unique to the table. I don't care how good the florist is, or how much they care about you, if they don't put it in writing, no deal.  There's no way they'll remember 11 months from now what they "promise" you today.

Place inexpensive Disposable Wedding Cameras each of your tables at the reception.

Buy Ring Bearer Pillows online.

Limit the number of people in your bridal party.  This saves on the expensive $35-$50 personal flowers.

Rentlinens from a linen company.  Florists just rent from them anyway, and charge more.

RECYCLE! Put your reception table centerpieces on columns at the church and move them to the reception.

Don't get married near "flower holidays" like Valentine's day. Flowers cost 2X-3X!!!

Keep flowers and decorations at the church to a minimum. Church's want them removed afterwards.

Have your ceremony and reception at same place. This uses fewer flowers, saves transport charges.

A typical centerpiece is $100 or more.  Make your own centerpieces out of silk. This saves a lot of money!

Make sure the florist specifies minimum number of flowers in table centerpieces. You don't want sparsely spaced centerpieces.

Avoid florists who charge consulting fees.  Just the flowers ma'am!

Pay by credit card. If the deal goes south, you can have it removed from your bill.

 

Recycle your wedding flowers!
Having the florist put your reception table centerpiece flowers at the church is a great way to save money. Most churches want the place clean when you leave. They might have mass after your wedding hence they want all the flowers and decorations out of there, and you can't throw bird seed either. We saved $1200 by by using our reception table floral centerpieces at the church. You may have to pay a small delivery fee. We paid $75 extra for this service. But be forewarned, some wedding florists will not do this, as it cuts into their profits. Two florists made up dumb excuses like "The flowers cannot withstand being moved." Hello, McCfly, anybody home? If they can move the flowers to the church, they can move them to the reception also. The flowers are not going to die in 5 hours. Take a look at the photos below from our wedding.

    Here you can see we had our table centerpieces resting on columns in the church.

    Then the flowers were brought to the reception hall to be placed on the tables.

Close-up shot of Nancy holding her bouquet.

You Must Have A Clear, Concise, Written Contract!
If you go to court with your wedding florist, the judge will say "Where is your contract?" So make sure they have a written contract stating everything you expect of them in writing. If the florist refuses or gives verbal claims, get up and leave. Do you think they will remember months from now what they promised you? A written contract will help them remember. Learn from the many people who got burned when they showed up at the church and were missing personal flowers for mom and dad, because there was no contract, or only verbal promises and no way to enforce it. On the contract, you want it to be clearly stated EVERY SINGLE PERSONAL FLOWER, including flower girls, bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc. If the florist is to move wedding flowers from the church to the reception, make sure that is clearly stated on the contract, along with any special setup or delivery charges. Don't accept any "storage fees", they are a scam. Your flowers are usually arranged the night before or the morning of your wedding to keep them fresh, so there should be not storage fees. There better not be any wedding flower storage fees! The contract should very clearly state what time the ceremony and reception start so your florist can plan accordingly. The contract should state what is being done with the card table, cake table, any staircases you want decorated, and your wedding centerpieces. Will the florist provide lighting? We had a wonderful lighting package included in our setup. The florist brought in 2 towers with spotlights aimed at the top of every table centerpiece for great accent lighting. This added a real classy look.

Keep in mind a contract does not guarantee the florist will show up, it just guarantees that you have legal claim to compensation if they don't honor the contract. Want to see a copy of our wedding florist contract? A must see if you've never seen one! Just click on it:

On our contract, we scratched out the linens and went with a linen company who did it cheaper, because we also decided later to have the chairs wrapped with the same Champagne chair covers and teal chair bows. Notice how the florist listed the times on the contract? This way there is no doubt over when they have to be there. Note itemization of ALL flowers including personal ones.

What should you get for your floral arrangements?
We have unique preferences but here are a few basic items. Get as many flowers as you can afford for your centerpieces. Our centerpieces as shown in the photos above were $100 per table. I would have been happier if they had a few more flowers on each one. Our centerpieces looked nice, but could have used less green and more flowers. Don't think I'm crazy, I consider myself pretty sharp, and I have a photographic memory. But I KNOW the florist put more flowers in the sample that he built for us before we signed, than he did in the final product. Nothing looks better then a centerpiece full of flowers. Nothing looks more anemic and cheap than a centerpiece that's all green, fluffed up with baby's breath and sprinkled with a few small flowers. We bought books on wedding flowers to help us decide also. If you know nothing about flowers, a book is the answer for you.

We compiled this short list of the better books on flowers and decorations. We researched all the online stores for the lowest prices. One problem we found was bookstores carry hardly any useful wedding books, and selections are sparse. Forget about finding wedding flower books in the stores. The books on this page are available at 20-30% off at Amazon.

Different types of wedding flowers
Ask for large blooming champagne, peach, and crème roses. They fill in the spaces nicely. The curly willow sticks add a nice touch too. The florist can spray paint them any color you like to match the flowers. One thing you don't want to do is place the centerpieces right on the table if they are big, your guests cannot see each other across the table, and shorter guests can't see the activities. We had our flowers elevated atop vases so the guests are looking UNDER the centerpieces. Each vase was filled with water and a lovely orchid with ivy draped vertically down inside the water. The flowers then rested atop the vases. This looked classy, as the photos above show. This is a typical floral arrangement and you should not pay more than $120 for this. You can also light the vase with a light base that adds about $50 to the cost. We could not justify the extra cost and why so much for something the florist already owns?

Some people like the candelabrum, which usually have candles hanging off them. These usually cost over $200 or more each to rent. I still can't figure why, because the florist owns the candelabrum, so why charge over $100 more for the same floral arrangement. It's just another way they suck money out of you. For the groom, I recommend the Stephanotis flower. It is a little pricier than the others, but it is simple yet elegant, adding a touch of class to an already classy guy.

For the bride, get the biggest, best statement-making bouquet you can afford and make sure it's in all your pictures. Make sure they don't use some cheap plastic. Better florists will wrap it in a nice foil or green fabric. Have your wedding florist make a cheap throw away bouquet for the bride to toss. And remember folks, pay with your credit card so if the florist rips you off, you can dispute the charge.

A lot of vendors get upset when they see our comments. Yes there are many florists who are truly honest and are great artists. But guess what folks, sometimes the greedy will feed off the euphoria of the bride. And while vendors get upset by my comments, there's a lot of brides who get upset because they were overcharged or did not get what was verbally promised to them. Bottom line: We have no problem vendors what they are worth as long as they are honest, show up on time, fulfill your contract and leave the bride smiling. And brides will reward them by recommending them to future brides.

Remember, do what YOU want to do, not what other people expect of you, and and stay sharp. The only one looking out for you is YOU. The wedding industry can be an expensive, nickel-and-dime-you-to-death industry. There's enough hidden charges and weasel clauses out there to confuse a used car salesman. They make you feel sub-human for not buying this or that, but armed with the knowledge I've given you here, you are now fearless wedding warriors in my image (yuk, what a thought) ready to deal with the best of them. And remember, if they don't put it in writing, it means they won't do it!

Go on to the next chapter:
The Best Wedding Books by Category

The information on this site is Copyright © 1996-2012 ConsumerNet, Inc. and is solely for your private use in wedding planning. You may link to us or make printouts for your own personal use, but no parts of these pages can be reproduced, sold or transmitted in any form without our written permission.