Bride-to-be Blogger Leslie: Finding a Florist

Photograph by Brett Thomas. Bouquet by Moda Botanica, Philadelphia.

This past week, my mom and I set off on an important mission: Find a florist! We have been in touch with a few in the area, and wanted to meet with one in person to make sure she had the right floral vision for my Big Day.

The majority of my research for deciding on my floral selections for the Big Day has been going through an endless pile of wedding magazines and ripping out pictures I like and putting them in a pile. I have been on the hunt for fun uses of color and different ways to display the flowers throughout the reception. I feel that our ceremony at the Villanova Chapel and our reception at Greystone Hall will be very classic, so I want to use the flowers in a different and modern way to decorate. I want the flowers to pop and be a little different from your typical bouquets on the reception tables. So far, I believe the florist we might be working with has an exciting vision and I am pleased with her ideas!

I am still finalizing my colors for the wedding, but I think it is going to be a combination of periwinkle blues, light purples and white. For the bridal bouquet, we are thinking about doing a beautiful clutch of blue hydrangea, white ranunculus, white peonies, a few blue delphinium, green hypericum berries and white stephanotis flowers with pearl centers. I would like the stems wrapped in either pale blue satin ribbon with a lace band held in place with pearl studs, or ivory satin ribbon with lace accent. Before our meeting, though, I didn’t even know what half of those flowers looked like, so it was helpful that the florist had a book for me to look through!

An important tip that I’ve gathered for when it comes to your flowers is to use flowers that are in season, because they’re much less expensive! It’s also a good idea to compare costs, creativity and take a look at some different florist’s work. When first discussing flower arrangements, a good place to start is with the bride’s and bridesmaid’s bouquet, and then work with those colors and flower types to create your centerpieces, and other floral decor. I also think that the more information you give your florist, the better they will understand what you want. I am going to keep researching what I would like more in detail to ensure I will get exactly what I want from our florist on the Big Day!

Do you have any florist tips to share? What are your thoughts on picking flowers — and colors! — for the Big Day?

For more information on my wedding planning and healthy living for brides, please check out my other blog, And Her Little Dog Too.

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