Our wedding came and went in a blink of an eye, and I have to admit, I couldn’t be more relieved to put wedding planning behind us. Outside of marrying Dave and having all of my nearest and dearest with me all weekend, one part I really loved was planning our floral design!
Flowers were the one area that people told me over and over not to spend too much of our budget on because guests “never remember the flowers,” but I disagreed for a few reasons. 1. I LOVE flowers. I grew up with an appreciation of gardens thanks to my green thumb mother. I wanted an ode to the garden I grew up to her tending, I will never forget her Roses and Lupines, and all of the amazing colors and textures. 2. Just because guests may not remember the flowers doesn’t mean the photos of them don’t last forever! A good floral design has dramatically elevated every wedding photo to me.
All of that being said, flowers were the one area I really could be true to myself, whereas the rest of the wedding I really wanted to focus on our family and friends and making sure we made it worth while to make the trip to watch us get married.
Here are the photos of my wedding floral design, and my advice on how to smoothly plan and create your own.
I. Ceremony Site Floral Design:
- I decided to do all white for the ceremony site because it’s classic, and it would compliment without taking away from the natural beauty of the vista and grape vines.
- I wanted to flowers to “climb” up the trellis but not go over the top of the trellis to preserve of the view of Lake Chelan and hills across the lake as much as possible.
- I loved the height and texture of Lupines, however Delphinium ending up being the best flower (plus we could get it in white), so we did white roses, white delphinium, and mixed greenery
- The aisle floral design complimented the grape vines in the background perfectly, that wasn’t planned but I am so happy it worked out so nicely.
II. Floral Accessories:
- Bridal and Bridesmaid bouquets I just asked for a complimentary design to our ceremony design but adding some David Austin Roses and Peonies.
- A flower collar for Minnie – she was such a good sport!
- White Ranunculus for Groom/Groomsmen boutonnieres
- Small white roses for Mother of the Bride/Mother of the Groom boutonnieres
- Colorful ranunculus and garden roses for the cake
III. Dinner Reception Design:
- I wanted to have all of the same types of flowers, but in color! Like they were ready for a party!
- We did a greenery garland with assorted garden roses, delphinium, peonies, and other seasonal flowers in coral, light blue, orange, and yellow.
A big thank you to Lynn at Fleur De Lis Floral and Event Design in Lake Chelan – she made my vision come to life, we recommend her 1000 times over.
My Floral Design Advice:
1. Find Inspiration:
I found that Pinterest was helpful in some ways, but it definitely doesn’t have the most current trends and styles so I found more inspiration looking at recent Real Wedding Posts on:
2. Nail Down Flower Types
I didn’t use this website to actually purchase flowers but found it to be an amazing resource for actually finding what types of flowers I wanted to use. Most people I know aren’t 100% familiar with every type of flower you could use so this is a great educational resource.
3. Create a Vision Board
- Using inspiration photos and descriptions of what you like about each photo, what you would change, and exact flower types and colors for each category of flowers:
- Ceremony Design
- Trellis/Alter Design
- Aisle/Guest Seating Design
- Misc. Ceremony Arrangements
- Floral Accessories
- Bridal Bouquet
- Bridesmaid Bouquets
- Groomsmen/Father of the Bride/Father of the Groom/Usher/Ring Bearer boutonnieres
- Mother of the Bride/Mother of the Groom boutonnieres
- Flower Girl Flowers (petals)/Flower Crown
- Flowers for Cake
- Bouquet for Tossing (if you don’t want to destroy your bridal bouquet, we skipped the tossing entirely)
- Dinner Table Design
- Centerpieces/Garland for Head Table
- Centerpieces/Garland for Guest Tables
- Miscellaneous Design
- Dessert table Flowers
- Guest Table Flowers
- Buffet Table Flowers
- Cocktail Hour Flowers
- Get Away Car Flowers
- Ceremony Design
I just used GoogleDocs to create this.
4. Find a Florist
- Once you have your style and flower types in mind look for a florist that looks capable of what you are trying to accomplish.
- Local florists are usually the most economical option, unless you can’t find one that can create the look you want. Luckily in Chelan there weren’t a ton of options so I just needed to compare the frequency and quality of work of about 3 florists.
- Reach out and give them your vision board to get an accurate quote and start the conversation. A lot of my flower requests were not seasonal, not available, so it took 15-20 emails to really solidify how everything would be designed.
5. Secure and Sign Contracts
- The Floral Design contract is to protect the florist and to protect the Bride and Groom. Make sure it is very descriptive of what will be entailed for your floral design and that a date and time has been secured.
Are you planning a wedding? Good luck! Tell me what your floral design plan is!
You can also see my thoughts on the different wedding venues in Lake Chelan that we toured, and some easy to make Bridesmaid Proposal Boxes.
xx Kylie
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