Flowers

You trust that they will do what you want. Your paying for them to order the flowers and compile them and if they do that for a "sample", then they are wasting money making the same thing twice. I suppose if your really picky you could pay them twice?

I gave my florist my colors and general idea of what I want, and they plan on doing a sample so we can see and adjust

When you say sample, are you meaning like showing you one of each flower? That's different than making an entire bouquet.

I think it depends. My florist would do a free sample for people who were spending more than $4000, which I wasn't so I just trusted her. We met twice and looked at inspiration I liked from Pinterest and work she had done previously. We looked at pictures of various flowers she planned to include and talked through what I wanted. I trusted her work and she did an amazing job.

I used Pinterest to piece together the flowers I wanted so I could get a sense of the colors together. My florist did a mock up for me of my bouquet and centerpieces before the wedding.

Thanks for your help. It doesn't have to be a perfect centerpiece. She can just put them together in a bunch for me so I can see what the flowers actually look like together. unless I can find a flower market and just do it myself...

I recommend making up a collage of the style centerpiece you want and the flowers and colours you want together and she can tell you if she can do it and if she'd recommend that flower combination or have other suggestions for you.

I would ask for his or her opinion. The reason is you may love those flowers individually, but a professional can recommend fillers, etc that are most complementary to the ones you've chosen. Maybe pick 2 or 3 flowers you'd love to see incorporated, give them a color scheme, show them an inspiration picture, and ask what they recommend. Ask if they'll do a mockup...some florists do it, some don't.

I found a few centerpieces that I liked on Pinterest and showed them to the florist and let them do their professional work. It turned out great.