What do you look for in a florist?

While people may not remember your bouquet, it will be in a lot of your pictures.


Elaborate arches, reception decor, etc. can certainly elevate or change the mood of a space, but that just wasn’t a priority for us. You have to decide how much of a priority flowers are for you.

We decided to go with real flowers, but scaled back — only bouquets, boutonnières, corsages, flower girl stuff (petals & crown), and a few for the cake. No ceremony, arch, or table flowers — just some greenery. Very happy with our decision!
The only thing I regret is not looking into bouquet preservation sooner!

We looked at nearly a dozen florists, so I definitely understand what you're going through in the decision making process. At the end of the day, we went with the florist whose proposal most closely matched our vision. While we loved the portfolios of several florists we looked at, there was one florist in particular whose proposal (which included detailed photos) was just so spot on in matching everything I described to her. That was the one we went with, and we couldn't have been happier!

Agreed with PP! Most people will forget about your flowers, but they're in all of your pictures. It's really up to your decor style, in my opinion. For us, we're not really interested in candles, lanterns, etc, so flowers are the main decor and we splurged a bit ($4,000).

If you plan on having other decor, I would skip the super elaborate flowers everywhere. I would try going to the florists you actually like to see how many/what kind of arrangements they can provide within your budget. Often times they can substitute flowers from their more expensive arrangements to make them cheaper. Be sure to send pictures of your vision and don't base your decision solely off a price list. And definitely consider the type of flowers used and size of your pieces when talking to florists. Small changes can dramatically increase/decrease the price.

I also don't really remember the flowers or decor in general from weddings I've attended and that really influenced my decisions when it came to decor for my wedding. I couldn't bring myself to pay thousands for something that most people won't remember or really care about AND will die shortly after! I don't consider myself a florist by any means so I booked a reasonably priced one to do bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages and will do the rest myself - I bought bud vases from various stores and will order bulk flowers from FiftyFlowers.com to arrange centerpieces, aisle decor, etc. and maybe some garland from Costco too. Fingers crossed it all turns out alright!

I agree- can’t picture spending so much for something that will die in a few days. Our venue has an all inclusive package which includes a $400 budget for flowers. Using it for my bouquet, sweetheart table centerpiece & flowers for the cake. I bought wrist corsages for my stepmom & FMIL from Amazon ($13 for 2). I bought flowers & ribbon for my bridesmaids from Hobby Lobby ($25).

No, I personally dont think it's worth it to splurge on flowers

It just really depends on the person (and location) on what a splurge really is. You can always do a small amount of flowers like for your bouquets and then decorate with different decor that don't require or feel like flowers need to be added. If you haven't already, you can also check Bark and Thumbtack. Sometimes there are people/businesses that are on there who have amazing pricing.

It’s worth it to us to have one less thing to worry about. Our florist has worked with our venue before and will set everything up the day of the wedding. It was also more affordable than we had anticipated, so that was a huge deciding factor. In addition to cost, the thing that really helped me pick my florist was feeling heard. He truly took the time to understand what we wanted, didn’t push for more expensive options, gave great ideas, and overall just seemed like he cared about making our vision come to life. With all vendors, being heard is something I really look for. I don’t want to give money to people we don’t connect with.