Florist - how soon to book?

For June 2012, you probably need to be thinking within the next couple of months to be sure of getting the florist you want. June is very popular for weddings and I'm already pretty full for June next year as are a lot of my florist friends too. You won't need to be finalising colours or styles at this early stage but the main thing is to book your date and everything is usually finalised about 3/4 months before the wedding. If you are having fresh flowers, it's worth bearing in mind that most fresh florists will only do one or two small weddings per weekend so they get booked up way in advance.

I'm May 2012 and booked my florist about two months ago. May, June, July is prime time, and some florists don't commit to more than one wedding per day. I would get booking now.

I'm getting married in March 2012, I booked my florist March 2011 and i was lucky then because she already had a wedding booked in that day but it was only a small wedding and i didn't require many flowers. Def book it asap if you have a particular florist in mind.

I would agree with everyone else sooner the better.

Thanks everyone. I don't have a particular florist in mind but contacted a few possible florists yesterday.

Whats the typical deposit required by the florist? We will be having fresh flowers.

Michelle

Varies around the country to be honest. Some charge £50 others ask for 50% of the assumed total. Personally, I feel 50% of the total at the early stage is too much because that's a lot of money for people to lose if they have to cancel due to losing their job etc. I feel a fairer way (the one I use when needed) is loss of deposit (in my case £30 although all mine are artificial flowers) if it's at the early stage because if the florist is fully booked, they are probably turning work away even at the early stages. Then nearer the time, 50% if it's within a couple of months before the wedding.

When you decide to book, you should get a copy of their Terms and Conditions so you know exactly what's what if you did cancel for any reason. Hope that helps.

But once you meet someone who you click with, you will be really disappointed if they are already booked so best to get it sorted soon. We aren't getting married until April 2013 and I already have mine booked (a mixture of needing to book a florist early to get your first choice, and me being a natural micro manager, so don't be too worried by this!!) and I am pleased as I visited about five, and she was the only person I would have wanted to work with, she was brilliant.

We had to pay a £200 deposit, and I got the feeling that this was a flat figure rather than percentage of our final cost. Other florists asked for £100, but it was never less than that.

Good luck!

Wow - £200 deposit is quite a lot. I'm not planning on spending vast sums on flowers.

The one florist who has replied to me says she cannot give me a confirmed price for the flowers as she cannot predict the cost of flowers next year. Is this typical?

Michelle

I think it is fairly typical, yes. Mine gave me a general estimate and costed in the expected increase in prices based on previous increases (apparently they went up an unusual amount last year, but she thinks this will stand as an anomaly). She tried to give me an estimate in a worst case scenario (as in, if the flowers go up dramatically) and then if they turn out to be cheaper, I will have the option to go for more flowers to take me up to the original quote cost (as we will have budgetted for it anyway) or simply pay less for the flowers I originally ordered.

I did spend over £1000 on flowers, so possibly were you to spend less then I am sure your deposit cost would reflect this - if your total cost wasn't £200 it would seem odd to charge you this as a deposit!

You will just have to have a few conversations with florists and see what you think. I think you should push to get a guideline costing though, as otherwise you won't know what to budget for and that's not very helpful to you really. Even if she just tells you what it would cost now and you add on 10% you will at least have some idea.

With fresh flowers, they can vary considerably from week to week so it is difficult to give an exact price but they should be able to give you today's prices plus a percentage as Gurzle says.