My Florist

Choosing My Flowers

Flowers are a very personal part of a wedding. We all have different tastes and everyone has their own particular favourites. And if you’re anything like me, you don’t know the names of flowers.

I started looking through flower magazines and finding arrangements that I liked.

It’s all about your personal taste. I cut out all the arrangements that caught my eye from the magazines and made a collage in  my wedding folder.

Once I knew what I wanted, I went to wedding fayres armed with my wedding folder knowing roughly what I wanted. I got spoke to florists and started to book some appointments.

The first florist we saw was Lynne at Fine Flowers. I booked an appointment for Lynne to come to us to show us her portfolios. Her flowers were absolutely breath taking! She talked to us in a lot of detail about the flowers we wanted, what sort of arrangements we were after, who would be carrying the flowers, delivery and set up. My h2b was bored to bits! He was fidgety all the way through and eventually asked me if I minded if he went to do something else. Then my dad showed up, a gardener! That sorted everything out! I wrote down everything Lynne said so that I could compare it to other quotes.

The next florist we spoke to was recommended by our venue, Annie Hayes. We met her at the venue and chatted about what she could offer. Dad came with me, I’d learnt my lesson about asking h2b to come. (Flowers aren’t really my h2b’s thing, unless he’s buying me some, then I think he’s an expert.)

I would definitely recommend asking a friend who has some expertise in an area to help you book a supplier. You might have a friend who is into fashion who could help you with wedding dresses, you might have a friend who’s really into music to help you choose a DJ. My dad has been gardening and allotment-ing for longer than I’ve been alive so I took him as my flower expert.

Annie really knew her stuff and she gave us a lot of really good ideas. Chatting to florists really opens your eyes to the possibilities for your wedding, and they are endless! They are only limited by your budget. We spent a few hours with Annie and we found out a lot about her two very cute dogs.

The next florist we went to see was Floral Fantasies by Lorraine Voss. Lorraine was the  most expensive florist of the ones that I spoke to but she was also one of the best. She really talked about our options and gave us a really good idea of what was available. It helped me to solidify my ideas for flowers and I was able to get a very succinct idea of what I want.

The more I spoke to the different florists, the more I was able to gather my ideas for flowers. They offered cheaper alternatives to the flowers I wanted, different flowers that were the same colours that I wanted and alternative arrangements that I hadn’t even thought of.

The last florist we saw was Flowers by Andrew. By the time we went to see him we had a really good idea of what we wanted. We described what we wanted and took a quote away to look at. I got a good feeling talking to Andrew and I felt that he was someone that we could really work with. We went back a few weeks later to leave a deposit.

I think I chose my florist based on my gut feeling. I liked all the florists and I think they each had some really lovely flowers, that’s why we arranged to have an appointment with them in the first place.

Flowers are very personal, I chose orchids because my name in Chinese uses the word ‘orchid’ and my h2b is Chinese. It was just a little personal touch; I will have orchids in my bouquet and my h2b will have an orchid buttonhole. Plus, I like orchids. The rest of the gents will be matching the bridesmaids and be wearing tulip buttonholes because my bridesmaids will have tulip bouquets.

I think it’s important to use flowers that mean something to you.Tulips and gerberas are my favourites… actually, a lot of flowers are my favourites. But I do like gerberas and tulips, so I chose tulips as they’re a Spring flower and I’m getting married in Spring. It’s all about what you want and what you can afford.