After the initial excitement, you’re ready to get started! We’re going through all the steps that we encourage newly engaged couples and our clients at Academy Florist to consider when they’re ready to begin wedding planning.

There are a few considerations to make before diving right into flowers. You more than likely have a few ideas already, but some important things you want to consider are: Choosing your date, picking your venue, your overall wedding budget, the priorities for your wedding, and the type of event you want to have (i.e are you hosting a traditional celebration, making it official at city hall with a party to follow, or having a micro-wedding?) These items will all be considered by us when you first reach out to begin planning your wedding florals.

We’ve broken it down into 3 main areas to consider when you begin thinking about your wedding florals: Choosing a Design Direction, Budgeting & Considerations, and Booking your Priority Vendors.

Deciding on your design direction and style is an important aspect of creating the overall feel you want your event to have. You or your guests may not remember every detail of the day, but they will remember the feeling that was created.

One of the first questions we ask our clients is “What do you envision for your wedding day?” as we look at more than just the colour palette and style of floral arrangements you prefer. While important, it’s the overall design of the day and how florals will work to enhance the spaces they’ll occupy that create the memories you’ll have for a lifetime.

Flowers help in building those stories by playing into the senses - their visual beauty, their scent, and the life they bring. This cultivates the memories and feelings that you’re creating for your day.

The vision for your wedding is something that you may have been considering long before getting engaged. It’s also something that can evolve throughout the planning process, but determining an overall design direction can be incredibly helpful to plan an event that is cohesive and intentional.

• Start with a palette or theme: It doesn’t have to be anything too literal, it can even just be a feeling or a word.
  
• Think about what you want to remember about your wedding day, or what best represents who you are as a couple, and consider the type of event you want to host. Is it a grand event or something intimate and understated? Is it classic, elegant, or contemporary? Wherever you’re gathering inspiration for your wedding, you should be keeping these choices top of mind.
  
• Begin researching, and once you start saving a few ideas take note of the similarities and the connecting themes in what stands out to you.
  
• Seek out local vendors that align with your ideas - more on this later!

If you’ve already determined a design direction for your wedding but don’t know what direction to take for your florals, don’t worry, we would love to help you! You don’t have to have a developed vision to start talking about wedding flowers. When you get in touch with us, we will encourage you to send any inspirational photos you have. It doesn't just need to be the flowers, it can be anything you're drawing inspiration from. We will use these photos to figure out the design style and atmosphere you want to create.

It's your day, you can do what you want with it! But you’ll need to consider where your priorities lie - Is it your budget? Is it your guest’s experience? Do you want to DIY anything, or do you want to have things fully taken care of?

What parts of the day are most important to you? Knowing this will help determine where we should focus when we discuss florals.

Weddings come in all forms, and not all of them have the same needs. Along with helping determine design direction, considering the type of wedding you’re hosting will also help narrow down the focus areas. A cocktail reception may not need a full centrepiece at each table, or a family style dinner might have less room on the tables so you may want to consider smaller stem vases.

We can help guide you in how to create the best experience and offer suggestions based on your priorities and the needs of your day. If budget is your top priority, then your second cousin doesn’t need a corsage or boutonniere (unless that is something you really want to do for them!)

For many clients, weddings are the only time they’ll interact with ordering flowers on this scale, so it’s completely normal to not have a full concept of what wedding florals can cost.

We recommend checking out our Pricing Guide to familiarize yourself with what to expect. It talks about where our pricing starts, the why, and can help you nail down what to consider. There is a lot that goes into pricing wedding florals and while sometimes pricing can vary between florists, we follow the industry standard to ensure we are pricing sustainably for the level of service we provide.

Budgeting for your wedding florals is one of the biggest factors we’ll look at. How you determine this is ultimately up to you and will depend on your priorities, but we do have a few tips on how to go about deciding what you want to spend your money on.

• The standard allocation for wedding florals is 10-15% of your overall budget - but this can of course vary depending on your priorities.
  
• Be flexible with your expectations - having a Pinterest board is a great tool to gather inspiration, but it’s not always realistic (especially in the age of AI!)  While we accommodate all budgets, we also need to do our due diligence of educating clients on the cost to create the images they’re sending us. Variation in styles will also have an impact on price. For example, fuller, more lush florals and minimal greenery will come at a higher price point.
  
• Consider which services you need from your florist. You’ll want to leave room for delivery, set up, and tear down costs if required. Some design choices may need on site set up to complete the vision, which could mean additional labour costs.

Ultimately, the best way to make your budget work to create your dream wedding is to trust your florist and other professional vendors.

Most clients will come to their florist once they’ve booked larger vendors such as the venue, a planner, and photographer. These vendors are who we will interact with the most throughout the design process.

Key dates in popular summer months fill up quickly so we recommend booking 6-12 months ahead of your wedding date to secure your date in our calendar. If flowers are your number one priority, absolutely feel free to reach out to us first. We can book your wedding day ahead of a consultation if you know you want us to be your florist. As long as you’ve determined if you’ll need delivery or set up services we are happy to get you in our calendar ahead of time, and we can get to the rest of the details when you have more information.

Finding the florist that is right for you will again bring you to consider your priorities and values. Consider your needs for your wedding day, assess the services they offer, their pricing, and if their portfolio aligns with the overall design direction you’re going for. We design in multiple styles but really excel in contemporary, garden inspired design. Our approach asks clients to consider the feel they’d like to create, the palette, and style that speaks to them. If that includes large scale design or only a few key elements, we are so excited to work with our clients to make their vision come to life.

The right vendor team can create the most beautiful, and memorable events. We have a wonderful community of wedding professionals, and can always make recommendations or referrals for you as well.

We know there are so many things to consider in wedding planning, and it can be overwhelming at times. Your wedding vendors all want to make this the smoothest process possible for you and ensure this is a great experience. Take some time, determine what is most important to you as a couple, what you want your day to be like, and then have fun with it!

For those planning with short timelines, we have our À La Carte option, which allows our designers to create a few key pieces for your special day without months of planning. 

If flowers are your top priority, you may find yourself looking at full-service design. This gives us time to meet with you, create a mood board, and discuss flower varieties that you want to see on your big day.

And if you are somewhere in-between, we have our semi-custom option. This is perfect for the couples wanting to include flowers but who may not need a full range of services to go along with it.

If you love flowers, we’re here for it and have services to fit all weddings. We've worked with so many wonderful clients with a wide range of budgets, and we can't wait to work with you too!

If you have any questions, please reach out at weddings@academyflorist.com or call us at 204-488-4822.
To book a complimentary wedding consult, click here.