Choosing your wedding florist is a very important decision you will be making on your way to the altar. Truly no other vendor will have has as much impact on the beauty of your day. In the past few years with the surge of social media and all of the fabulous wedding blogs, most savvy brides are starting to understand the importance of having beautiful and quality designs at their wedding.

I often ask myself what makes our studio so successful, here is a list of things we do or try to exude. Also reviews and references are really important so always use your Wedding Wire review system to check out your vendors. If your vendor does not have reviews on wedding wire something may be fishy.

1. Your florist should truly care about your wedding or be very passionate about design. You will want the florist to execute your exact wishes or be creative enough to come up with a design that was crafted just for you. If you sense that the florist is uninterested in your wedding and only interested in getting the job. Pack up your wedding folders and move on. A truly caring and passionate designer is waiting for you.

2. Study the florists in your area. You can judge a book by its cover. Is their website current, do they participate in social media. If so they are working hard to stay current and with trend!!

3. At the consult make certain you are shown original photographs of the florists work and not stock photos or catalogs about wedding design. Look at the pictures carefully and see if you like the composition of the design. The colors can be tailored to your liking. Do you see blemishes on the flowers or gaps and holes that needed more flowers? Is the design cleanly and precisely created?

4. Does the studio have several sources for flowers? I have found that this is crucial, there is a serious flower shortage and a good designer needs to have lots of resources. Unfortunately the size and stature of the studio does matter. The more the studio buys the more likely they are to get first quality flowers and first pick at the yummy product. This is not to say that smaller studios are not a good option but studios that produce regularly have stronger buying power.

5. Make certain you understand the terms of your flower contract or invoice. You need to know if you will be allowed to change your invoice or reduce the order before you sign on the dotted line. Most studios do not allow reductions below 10 percent of the order once the invoice has been approved and this is a completely fair and realistic request of the designer.

6. How the studio will service your wedding the day of the event is a huge and important factor. I think many brides are taught to ask “how many weddings do you do in a day?’ That is not the question to ask, you need to know if you will have designers on your job or just delivery boys. Every wedding we do has a lead designer attached to the event. This ensures that if something is broken in transfer or needs to be slightly changed there is someone capable to help. A good studio will place all of the florals and service the wedding. A labor and delivery charge most likely will be charged for this service but it’s worth every penny. Arriving to the church or reception to find your flowers stacked against the wall waiting to be placed would be mighty scary on your wedding day!!

7. Most importantly go with your gut, your bridal intuition can trump all of my suggestions. I do believe in giving new designers a chance to provide flowers for your wedding, Many new designers simply need a chance to develop their portfolio. If you are working with a new designer perhaps you could ask to work with them more closely.  I do believe if you sense a true passion and devotion from your florist or any other wedding vendor you are seriously on the right path!!!!!

One last fun tip or piece of advice, those florists that are fast to return a fancy contract are probably not spending a lot of time in the design studio. Be patient with your floral designers many of them truly focus on the craft at hand, and not the selling, trust me this is a good thing!!!

All photographs taken by photographer and stylist Vicki Grafton.