Bouquets, flower crowns & confetti – tips for planning your wedding flowers.
Planning your wedding day can be exciting and stressful, especially when you’re trying to match your budget to your Pinterest mood board. To help you plan for everything floral, we’ve put together some helpful tips from Mariske van der Merwe, owner of a Cape Town Floral Design Studio, Floral Abundance Design.
‘I have done multiple weddings up until this point and these are some of my most helpful tips for brides-to-be.’
- Using Pinterest as a guideline only.
As soon as people get engaged the first thing most ladies do is starting to create their wedding mood board on Pinterest (if they don’t have one already!).This is a wonderful platform to gather thoughts and ideas, but when using Pinterest, brides need to consider a few things: are the flowers and ideas suitable or doable for the season, time and location they want to get married in? Are they willing to be open to different suggestions from their floral designer?
- Think about the budget for your flowers.
Brides don’t necessarily consider all the costs included when it comes to flowers. Some things worth thinking about when deciding on your budget is the following: the amount of flowers and the floral equipment needed (vases, stands, pots etc that the venue might not have), labor intensity, the number of tables that need floral decoration. Go through this checklist to decide which elements you want for your wedding day:
- Bride’s bouquet
- Bridesmaids bouquets
- Flower girls’ bouquets or flower crowns
- Groom’s boutonniere
- Groomsmen’s boutonnieres
- Mother of the bride’s corsage
- Mother of the groom’s corsage
- Father of the bride’s boutonniere
- Father of the groom’s boutonniere
- Officiant’s boutonniere
- Flowers for the church/ceremony venue
- Flowers for the reception venue
- Confetti
- Pick your contact person
If you don’t have a wedding planner, decide on a person that can be your contact person for the flowers on the day or weekend of the wedding. It can be your maid of honour, your mom or maybe your sister – give their contact details to your floral designer. There’s no need for you to be involved in all the practical arrangements, unless it’s what you want.
- Communication & Openness
Floral designers are ultimately there to make your day as beautiful, special and stress-free as it possibly can be – to come alongside the bride and make the wedding more cost effective or perhaps more realistic for the season or location. Communication is key – as a bride you need to share your vision but be open to hear ideas and suggestions from your floral designer too – they have experience to know what works and what won’t. Ask questions and trust their advice.
Getting married soon?
Check out these floral design studios to help you plan your dream wedding:
