Expectations & Preparation for your Event Floral Consultation - Let's bust some myths shall we?

Your florist wants to get to know you, your color scheme, your vision for the wedding - or lack there of, totally fine and actually, pretty awesome because we can usually get the gist if you have some picture mash ups too! Also, how many pieces you need and the flower budget. Please make sure you have 75% of these things thought through or with you prior to your consultation.

Also it is helpful to have realistic budget that matches what you really can afford. Many brides have a romantic notion of flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere! Or maybe Greenery Galore! The truth is the more you have, the more money you will pay. A little known fact about these sweet bohemian brides with tons of greenery plastered all over Pinterest these days, easily have a $5,000.00 to $25,000.00 flower bill to go with those amazing flowers/greens. To give you a little help navigating your flower budget, I'll give you some quick and fast ways to figure out a rough budget.

How to budget for your flowers: Your wedding flowers should be anywhere from 10%-50% of your total wedding budget.

How do you know which end you will be on you wonder helplessly...

Well darling, I am here to help! Count up all of the people in your wedding party and extra pieces you want (for the wedding and reception venues) multiply that number by one of the following formulas to come to your magic range of your wedding flower budget.

~ $25-$40 for a minimilist wedding (think one rose per maid)

~ $45-$65 for a basic wedding (think carnations and filler)

~ $75-$100 for an average wedding (think roses, kind of what everyone had prior to Pinterest)

~ $125-$150 for an extraordinary wedding (think bohemian, with lots of greenery or Lilies, or dahlias)

~ $200-$400+ for a celebrity style wedding (Think flower walls and/or dripping with jewels)

Or you could do this backwards if you like... 20% of your budget is ___ divided by the number of pieces and people in your party. ***PRO TIP: anything below $25 is not enough and some sacrifices will need to be made... because I highly doubt you want a bridal bouquet with one or two flowers and a couple sprigs of greenery in it.

So the 'wedding tax' I've heard so much about. Let's talk about it. I'm not sure why this is a thing across the wedding industry, but I do know why event flowers are more expensive than an everyday arrangement. The thing about the flower industry is that we are subject to this fickle woman called Mother Nature. And while we do everything we can to get in the perfect blooms for each event and wedding ... there is no such luck. Of every bundle of blooms we receive, the true numbers of what we can use vary greatly due to inconsistency. Some blooms do not open fully, some come in crushed, some come in moldy, and others broken completely. So let us talk about roses, they come in a wholesale pack of 25. Of which anywhere from 2-5 (best case scenario) of those blooms will not make the cut into your fine bridal deck of flowers and will need to be thrown away. But that is best case scenario. Due to Mother Nature's fickle ways, I have had to overnight flowers from as far away as Japan to make a bride's dreams come true because a particular flower she had her heart SET on came in crushed and moldy. The bride had NO idea that there was any jeopardy to her dream. But overnighting flowers from Japan is costly... and I doubt she would have let me send her the bill after the ceremony or had I given her the option of paying extra she would have either 1. opted out and been upset or 2. Paid for it and been upset. Either way she would have been upset. So yes, there is a little percentage of risk factor built into every bloom for any and every event with fresh flowers.

Why? Because my dear bride, EVERY. SINGLE. BLOOM. can and will be memorialized in pictures forever. - Also this: You, My Dear Bride are worth getting the perfect blooms for, if it is within my power to do so! Sometimes, it is not, our industry has had some farms literally burn down to the ground... and the flowers that I had on order for 6 months perished in the flames. If something has been substituted from Bliss Floral Events... there's a REALLY good reason for it.

Preperation 2: Be OPEN & Be prepared to find out the worst possible thing that could evaaa happen during a wedding flower consultation. The type of flowers you want may not be available due to seasonality... OR the picture you are showing us is in fact a silk flower and may not come in that color at all... no Karen, fresh flowers DO NOT come in teal, because there are no flowers which grow that color. Sorry to break your heart... but a dyed flower is a disaster about to unfold on your beautiful WHITE wedding dress. And no, I will not allow it because they always, always, always can (and usually do) rub off or drip onto the dress. If a florist has not yet warned you of this... they have NO idea what they are doing. We CAN use ribbons and pearls to bring in your perfect color or find some colors to make that teal POP!