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Choosing your wedding flowers

Choosing your flowers is often a very exciting part of wedding planning as most of us girls adore flowers and you want your wedding flowers to be perfect. After all, many of your wedding photos will have at least your bouquet in, so you want them to be just how you imagine.

Most people hire a florist to take care of the wedding flowers; it is possible to do it yourself but isn't something that should be taken on lightly as it takes a lot of time and skill to get professional looking arrangements.

Once you've got a few florists' names (from friends' recommendations, directories, wedding fairs etc), it's best to give them a call and discuss your ideas, and find out what sort of prices they charge. Like everything, you will find that quotes vary greatly so it's a good idea to find out what their typical charges are for bouquets, buttonholes etc. You can even visit the shops to look at examples of their work, before making a decision.

Popular florists may be booked over a year in advance so it's a good idea to get a firm booking made sooner rather than later if you want a particular florist to do your flowers or if your choice of florists is limited.

If you've got at least a year before your wedding, check out what flowers are in season at the time of year that you'll be getting married. Seasonal flowers are usually cheaper than out of season blooms as they shouldn't need to be imported.

Visiting your florist

Before your first visit, prepare some ideas so you can give the florist some idea of the 'look' you're aiming for. Photographs of arrangements you've seen in magazines or at other weddings are very useful. If you've got yours and your bridesmaids' dresses organised, you can take a swatch of the fabric so the florist knows what colours she is working with.

Alternatively, if you haven't got a mental picture of what flowers you'd like, your florist should be able to give you inspiration with photos of different weddings they have worked on, and ideas of arrangements to suit all budgets.

A florist should also be able to recommend a suitable style of bouquet for all shapes and styles of wedding dress as well as colours and types of flowers to suit you.

Other points to consider are:

• Will they deliver the flowers to where you're staying, or will you need to pick them up on the morning?
• Are you going to leave the final choice of flowers in the arrangements to your florist's discretion or do you want to know the exact combination of flowers beforehand? You can be as precise or vague as you like, as long as you trust your florist! You can give them a photograph to copy, or just brief them with ideas of colours and flower types.
• Are the flowers of your choice suitable for the purpose that you want them for? For example, some flowers will wilt faster than others which is something to consider if you are getting married on a hot day.
• Who is in charge of the church flowers? You may find that there is a church flower arranger who can adjust their weekly flowers to suit your colour scheme. Also consider if there are any other couples getting married at your church on the same day: you may be able to split the cost of church flowers between you.

Your florist should cover all the above points but it's worth making a list of questions in case you forget something important on your visit.






Budgeting and how to save money
Hand-tied posies cost around £45, whereas wired 'teardrop' shape bouquets can cost£100+.

Can you do it yourself?
What arrangements to have (church, buttonholes, bouquets, presents, table decorations etc)?
Choosing your bouquet
Symbolic meaning of flowers here and here
What the different colours mean here