Florist consultation

I met with close to a dozen florists and got quotes from about 20 altogether.


At the consultation, we discussed my vision, aesthetics/vibe, what pieces I needed and all the details regarding my wedding— decor, venue, wedding party, attire, etc.
We also went over budget to make sure my expectations were realistic to what my budget could afford.
I knew my florist was the one I was going to choose for my wedding about 10 minutes into the wedding and we started brainstorming on things.
A lot of the pictures for inspo on my Pinterest board were actually weddings she did (I didn’t know this until she told me) so we had the same vibe and my style was right up her wheelhouse.
She did installations for me (ground and hanging), flower crowns, elevated and low centerpieces, etc. She foraged doe bougainvilleas (the only flower request my husband hand lol) and her team spray painted florals. They rocked it even in the pouring rain that morning and had to make design changes to fit the new ceremony space.
I paid $11K for all our florals and our wedding was in San Diego County (California), but our florist was based out of Orange County (about 2 hours away). I paid a higher delivery fee (around $700) because of the travel.

I’m definitely in the minority here but I just had a florist do my bouquet 😂 my mom and I went literally 2 weeks before the wedding. It was just so low on my list of priorities lol. Spent about 20 mins there, picked out the flowers and ordered it. My bouquet was $70. And we DIYd the bridesmaid bouquets with grocery store flowers.

View Quoted Comment Okay true. I live in a much cheaper area, but I’ve had some florists say they charge for consultations which I don’t want to do. I just find it weird. But that seems like a good price for everything because I pretty much only want centerpieces, ceremony back drop, and arch decor for the entrance.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, it’s all going to depend on how crazy you want to go with your centerpieces and arches/ceremony florals.


Where are you located and what’s your budget for florals?
I definitely had to scale back or my husband would have had a heart attack. Though even after our wedding and he saw how much we spent on flowers. he agreed it was worth it. And this is as coming from a man who thought a single flower on each table would be sufficient. 😂

I think it's helpful to present your florist with a vision/inspiration board that includes ideas and colors that you like when you first begin communicating with them. That helps them SO much with presenting you with ideas that match your aesthetic.You don't need to necessarily meet with them all of them at the start to consult, just email them your vision board, venue, and event details and see what they come up with!

Another thing to note is that many florists are not just flowers, they help you with event design and rentals, a real bang for your buck! Our florist was the second most expensive vendor besides our caterer. To give perspective, our florist was $4,500 and our overall total budget for our wedding was $20,000.

View Quoted Comment I’m from lexington SC, and we are planning on about 2500 dollars for florals just for centerpieces, my bouquet, and some arch decor for the entrance and ceremony backdrop. I just know floral arrangements can be really expensive

View Quoted Comment Oh yeah, it might be less expensive! California is just stupid expensive. 🥺

Our floral consultation was slightly different as we are having our wedding (and all vendors) in NC and we live in VA. However, we had a phone call consultation which lasted about an hour, then we worked out details such as down payment and payment schedule. We had a face to face meeting last November which lasted about 2 hours. We have been in communication via e-mail at least once every few months, recently more as we postponed our wedding from June to December of this year. We will be going back to our venue location in October/November time frame to finalize everything with our vendors where we will have another floral meeting. If your florist is local (and you don't change seasons in the last half) you shouldn't have too many meetings or tons of time to worry about meeting with them. We also are spending somewhere around $3500-4k on our floral's in NC but this includes 85% of our floral for the entire event.

Prior to the in-person consultation I provided Pinterest boards for inspo, discussed the colors and vision so that when we met we had some direction and she was able to pull real flowers and photos of different flowers and foliage I would like. Know what your vision, colors and theme are for the day going in and how many attendants (I.e. bouquets, boutonnières, corsages), centerpieces, etc that you will need.

Like the previous posts, I consulted with at least 7 florists. They all have a different price range and I notice the one that has a fancier office charges way more. There's one that shows me all the available vases options, pictures of her past work. Another one promised to create a display after I sign the contract. What I did was:

1) Looked at the photographers' pictures' credit for florist

2) Asked my friends after I attended their wedding

3) Browsed all the florists' social media in my area

The florist I ended up choosing actually invited me to the wedding she was working on. I got to see another's couple's reception of how she decorated everything. Her price was also at least $3000 cheaper compared to the other ones I asked. The downsize was I don't get to select which vase to use as she only has glass vases, which was my preference anyway.

Because of things being shut down due to covid I did my consultations over the phone. I only did 3 and clicked with the 3rd person. I have to say over the phone was very difficult. It was alot of sending pics back and forth while chatting and took about an hr to hr and half. She gathered ideas of what I was style and design I was looking for and my budget. She suggested certain flower types and told me to look them up to see if I liked. My price was 3500 with delivery and set up plus tax. That includes centerpieces, two alter/sweetheart table arrangements and petals for aisle and flower girls and all wedding party and family arrangements.