How do YOU choose a florist?.......

We haven't actually booked a florist yet or visited any shops (we aren't at the booking stage yet for flowers) but i have been doing a bit of research on prices and styles etc so...

• What makes you choose a particular florist?......

i think their style, if they have a individual style then thats fab if you like it, if they can do a range of styles then it is good to see examples...some florists i have looked at just show their traditional work and i am looking for a more rustic (just been picked from a garden look) it's good to show a variety

also i think price will be a major issue for us...i am considering doing my own flowers as so far it's looking to be around £70 for my bouquet and £50 x 3 for my bridesmaids...in my opinion this is ridiculous...i know a lot of time goes into them but when a normal bunch of flowers without the W word would cost half the price it doesn't seem fair!

• What do you look for in a website?

I like to see examples (and lots of them) and also prices...or an idea of prices so that you can roughly price it up...

• Do you feel obligated by a free,no obligation consultation?

I would presume that this was the norm...their is no way that i would pay to go and see a florists work/ask prices etc and be expected to pay for that even if i didn't go for them...i thought it would work like any other supplier e.g. meeting a few photographers before picking the one...they are kind of pitching for your business so i wouldn't expect to pay or be tied down

• Are wedding fayres useful?

wedding fayres are useful but i would be picky about which ones you do... it might be worth paying more for one of the bigger ones than a few smaller as i always find it's the same suppliers and probably the same brides at each of the local ones

good luck x

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply! I will take on board what you said.......

Just a word to the wise...i did my own flowers(being a florist 'n' all) thinking that it would be easy as i did it for a living right!?

Erm well the day before and the morning of my wedding when all other B2B were relaxing with a glass or two of vino, having their hair/nails/make up done i was still sat doing my flowers and stressing about finishing the table centres lol.

If you are doing your own flowers i would recommend artificial so that you can do them well in advance ? xx

If you need any advice feel free to message me!

In all honesty i would just choose the cheapest i could possibly find sorry !

Lol, thanks for that!

Cheapest is not always good though....some things can be cheap for a reason ☹️ xx

Haha i know...going to make a girly evening of flower aranging...got mixed centrepieces (e.g trio of different sized vases etc, all tables different) so would be costly for a florist to do these ... i may get someone to do my bouquet and b.maids but just do the centres myself! i may try and find a 'from home florist' as i have heard they are cheaper...i can't justify £70 for a bunch of flowers i am going to hold for all of 1 minute...have a few pics with then throw at someone to take home with them haha....maybe i'm being tight but oh well!! Thanks x

I went to one florist and they basically told me to go and find some pictures on Google... I know what I want and was describing it perfectly well. When I suggested the type of flowers I liked, she said they were out of season but didn't suggest others in that kind of style or colour

The florist I've gone for was completely the opposite, and totally "got" my idea. I'm not having much done by them as my SIL2B used to be a florist so is doing the bouquets, but I was very impressed

I went for the florist I liked best, partially on recommendations (caterers + local to me florist who doesn't quite cover the area I was getting married in). In the end I went with the freelancer as she seemed to "get" my ideas far more than the lady with a shop (who had trained with the other lady - small world!). Prices similarish, but with one I was being "pushed" where she wanted to go - roses, admittedly ones that were an nice colour, but I don't really like them that much and the other took everything into account and was really interested in me and my original ideas rather than fitting me into a box.

Although I want flowers I wasn't actually very fussed with exactly what I have. I've gone with one of the florists that is recommended by the venue - her prices were reasonable and my friend used her for her wedding.

She doesn't have a website and I have given her free reign over my flowers. All I've stipulated is that she uses whites and creams only with green foliage and that I want posies rather than the trailing type bouquets.

We found our florist at a local wedding fayre so I would definitely recommend going to these as they are much smaller and more intimate and I think you get more time to talk to your potential customers. The lady we ended up going with was friendly and took the time to talk to us and go through possible options without being pushy or trying to force anything on us. Also, she had a wide variety of flowers available at different price ranges which I think it's important particularly with centrepieces as with 8/9 tables to fill, the cost of these can soon add up so maybe have one or two cheaper options available.

She offered us a free consultation where she came to our house to discuss things in more detail and we booked her during that.

For me, just a wide range of pictures showing samples of your work is important for a website along with a quick and easy way of contacting you.

ETA- Do you have any local wedding venues that you could try and contact and maybe try advertise through them as a lot of venue brochures advertise local flowers, photographers etc. The lady we chose regularly works with our venue so she knows it well which I think helps.

Good luck.

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same here hun as a florist i too did my own flowers in fresh flowers and was up til ablut 4am on the weding morning LOL- we must be mad- glad to hear i am not the only one that made her own wedding flowers though. as for business, its normally either WOM- or bridal fayres, but these can range form £80 to over £100 plus flowers so are not cheap- it is worth thining about hun.

What makes you choose a particular florist?...... Someone who understands the look that I'm going for, and helps to provide ideas

What do you look for in a website? I didn't really look online much

Do you feel obligated by a free,no obligation consultation? Nope - if I didn't feel that I liked the florist then I wouldn't book them

Are wedding fayres useful? It's where I met mine, I liked being able to see the displays and have an informal chat

I chose a florist based on if they actually listened to me! I went to one woman who just tried to upsell and show me more expensive flowers that I didn't want. I also hated the fact that most websites had no idea of cost on them. Even some examples would be good.

Price is a huge factor though, alot of places charged a huge amount for delivery and set up. A small amount is fine though.

In the end I found a florist that was lovely and really reasonable but then my wedding planner at the venue offered to do them for me and match the price. The venue has alot of flowers in the gardens and she used some of these in the arrangements. Thought it was a nice idea and one less supplier to worry about.

We only saw 2 florists before deciding on the one we did. Both of them were reccommended to us by our venue.

The first one we saw was considerably more expensive. We told her what budget we had, and what we definately didn't want (roses). She spent the whole hour flicking through magazines with us, and on each page, saying, how about this? She must have said that about 150 times. She also tried pushing roses on us time and time again, we said no thanks, not interested in roses. Yet she still pestered us to have roses. We were very much of the idea that as she was the professional florist, she should be telling us what works well and what would look good, not how we thought a certain picture looked. We also felt she was just 'showing off' with what she coudl do, not listening to us when we said we just wanted simple, no fuss flowers. We didn't trust her not to go a bit mad with the flowers and done what she wanted had we booked her.

Second lady was a breath of fresh air. She was much more in our budget range, and was constantly coming up with ideas and showing us things. She must have cut off a good £50 worth of flowers from her shop just to show us what she thought would look good with the very few ideas we had of our own. She suggested cheaper options that still looked good. Needless to say, we booked her up on the spot. Since working with her, and telling her our budget, we have come in about £50 under budget.

We by no means felt obligated by our free consultation with the first lady. In a website I'd be looking for a basic price guide and lots of pictures of other weddings you'd done. Never been to a wedding fayre so couldn't comment on those.

Overall, I would say that you should try to get some recommendations from venues you work with on a regular basis. Be receptive to a client's ideas if they have any, but if not then showcase your creativity, but within the bounds of what they have already told you.

ETA - oops, that turned into a bit of a rant, but also wanted to add that the first lady, after an hour of flicking through magazines, told us to come back when we had some more ideas of what we wanted. No love, I don't know what i want, I'm not a florist - you are. You need to tell me what ideas you have for us, otherwise I'm not coming back.

Ok, I'm done now ?

Silkexuberance,

I have just booked my first bridal fayre and it was 170.00 plus 10.00 for food! Then as you say i have to display lots of samples so they are not cheap(i did have quotes of 400.00- 169.00 per sq meter!)

Glad we are both martyrs to the cause hun (with regards to our wedding flowers) lol!

xx

Had you thought about artificial flowers? You can keep these afterwards and they do look really realistic nowadays hun........

You can get 'country' looking flowers and berries and grasses etc..........it might be worth thinking about.

I could give you an idea of price and send you a sample of a flower if you want me too( no obligation lol) xx

Thank you all so much for your feedback!!!!

There are some great hints and tips and i will make a mental note!!!

Hope everyone has a fantastic day xxx

I chose my dad, because he wants to grow all the flowers for me as a gift, which I love the idea of.

He's got heaters and special lights and stuff growing them all winter for me ;-)

Thats really lovely! Its nice that he can do that for you, its sweet . Most Dads are not bothered about getting involved x