The 4 Crucial Decisions To Make Before You Start Thinking About Wedding Flowers

So, your betrothed got down on bended knee and asked for your hand in marriage. You of course quickly said, “Yes!” and have been in a tailspin, creating Pinterst boards filled with your favorite dresses, hairstyle ideas and honeymoon trends. And your sweetheart just popped the question yesterday! The next thing to do is decide on your flowers, right? Wrong.  Whether you are going to hire a professional florist or design the flowers yourself, there are 4 crucial decisions that you should make before you start thinking about wedding flowers.

Taking these steps first is helpful to the florist or if your DIY, it will keep you organized, efficient and on budget.

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THE 4 CRUCIAL DECISIONS

Set The Date: Selecting and setting your wedding date is huge when it comes to making decisions on flowers.  There are a lot of flowers available year-round (I will cover those in a later Blog post) and just as many that are not.  It doesn’t do any good to fall in love with blush-colored peonies (only available mid May-late June) if you end up picking a date in late August. There are SO many options for wedding flowers it can be overwhelming.  Think of it as a blessing, that you can eliminate 75% of the noise and focus on the beautiful selection during your season.

Select A Venue(s): Setting the date and selecting the venue sometimes go hand-in-hand. A lot of times people are “sold” on the venue and have to select a date from the ones the property still has available.  Knowing the venue(s) before you think about your wedding flowers will help determine 2 key things. The where and how.  Where are the best places to put flowers at this venue? Does the vineyard you chose have a large wooden pergola that would look amazing if it was decorated with a rustic floral swag? Does the hotel ballroom have a grande staircase that could be enhanced with a fresh garland draping along the banister?  How will you attach the flowers to a structure that the venue has given you permission to do so, but has advised that you can’t use nails, staples or adhesive (answer: zip ties!)?  How will you transport large vased arrangements from the church to Aunt So-and-So’s farm?

Perhaps while you are exploring the chosen venue, you are finding it has some bare or ugly places that need to be dressed up with flowers. More than you had anticipated. With this new information you might have to approach the flowers in way that will give you the volume that you need while staying in line with your budget. On the flip side, maybe you selected a venue that is visually stunning and doesn’t really need anything more than the table centerpieces. This would give you the opportunity to splurge more on expensive varieties of flowers.

It is also a good idea to find out if the venue(s) has any rules that need to be followed. For example, finding out from the church that they don’t allow you to remove the decor and flowers they have in place during the Easter season would be good to know beforehand.

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Guest Count/Table Layout: The most expensive part of a floral budget is generally the guest centerpieces. Figuring the amount of people that will be invited first, will help you have a more realistic idea of the floral budget needed for this area. For example, let's say you are planning to invite 150 people to your wedding. Most likely your guests will be seated at round tables that accommodate 8 to 10 people per table, which equates to 15-19 guest tables total. That also means you would need 15-19 centerpieces.  That’s a lot of flowers!  I always suggest to brides to assume that everyone you are inviting will attend, to get a better idea of how expensive it could be. Then when the replys come in and the guest numbers start to go down, you can either keep that savings or apply that money into the remaining centerpieces.

This decision also includes, how many people will be in your bridal party? Are you having 2 bridesmaids or 6? That detail alone will significantly impact the quantity of flowers needed and your budget.

Knowing the guest count also helps you plan for the aisle decor as well.  If you were planning to have flowers on every other chair down each side of the aisle, knowing the guest count would help you determine how many rows there will be in total. Therefore, telling you how many chairs will have flowers and how many will not.

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Color Palette: The color combinations are endless that you could use in your wedding and your wedding flowers.  There of course is classic white and blush pink or the rich fall tones of burnt orange, chocolate brown, garnet red and velvety plum. What about doing something with the current trend, like corals and turquoise? All of these and the countless other combinations are all wonderful and would make great color palettes for any wedding. Just settle on it first, otherwise you will drive yourself batty looking at every flower in every color available.  It gets to be information overload. Even go as far as selecting the bridesmaid’s dresses and your table linens.


When I first sit down with a bride and groom to discuss their vision, I always ask them these 4 questions right off the bat. It would be hard to know the amount of flowers you would need, which in turn tells you how much you are spending, without solidifying these 4 areas first.  Thus, wasting a bunch of time. Now go on and get crackin’! Once you are solid on these 4 decisions, choosing the flowers will be a piece of “wedding” cake!

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