When you dream of your wedding day and all the decor, you may be one of the many who dream in florals.

Don’t lie. I want you to go to that secret wedding Pinterest board of yours and look through the pins. Did you think I could guess that a majority of them have some sort of floral element to them? You better not be deleting stuff to prove me wrong. I already know!

However, the problem with Pinterest is that you’re not using it right. Florals are expensive. (And for good reason!) While Pinterest is a great tool for inspiration, it should never be used to demand exact replication. You probably won’t be able to stay on budget that way. Like you will see below, florals require highly skilled labor to make your wedding day perfect. Giving your florist some creative leeway with your design just might land you your own Pinterest worthy wedding. (On budget, too!)

Let’s keep it real.

It’s no secret that my approach to wedding planning is simple and authentic. I prefer to tell it like it is, and I know I’m not the only one. There’s a lot that goes into the planning of a couple’s big day. From the outside looking in, being a wedding professional can sound like a glamorous job. However, there’s a lot of hard work that goes into making your wedding day the best it can be.

You may be sitting here and remembering that I’ve done this kind of post in the past with wedding photography and wedding advice. Needless to say, they were huge a hit! With floral being a huge part of the day for many brides, I thought I’d continue the series with asking wedding florists from all over the country about what they wish their clients knew about wedding floral and their wedding. Grab some coffee and sit back, they got extra real for you. (In a good, educational way!)

What Your Wedding Florist Wishes You Knew

“It is best when my client knows what their floor plan is prior to our meeting. This saves a lot of time.” – Sarah of Intrigue Designs (Annapolis, Maryland)

“Please understand that a whole team of people have spent days processing and building your wedding flowers, and that’s even before the day-of installation. It’s highly skilled labor and it doesn’t come cheap; neither does high quality product. Those factors (and a couple of others) are what make wedding florals expensive!” – Robin of Rhapsody in Blooms (Atlanta, Georgia)

“If you can, hire a planner to help with setting a realistic budget including florals. Too many couples do not understand the true cost of the flowers as well as labor involved. Brides should at least see if a local planner will sit (for a fee of course) to help them set a budget.” – Eilena of Event Loft (Jenkintown, Pennsylvania)

“It’s important to remember that Pinterest is for inspiration! I can’t guarantee an exact replica of your pin.” – Leneille of Leneille Moon Events (Alpharetta, Georgia)

“How to make a realistic budget for what they want. Most people don’t often buy florals on a large scale so they just pick a number without considering how many items they are asking for and how large they are.” – Michelle of Live. Love. Flowers (Bettendorf, Iowa)

“Please know that your Pinterest inspirations cost so much more than you think! Very few of them are actually ‘affordable’ or ‘diy’. Be flexible with your vision and know that florists want to bring it to life just as much as you do. Lastly, florists are creatives. Give us a little leeway to stretch our creative legs and more often than not, we will exceed your expectations! 🙂 ” – Laura of Flaura Botanica (Atlanta, Georgia)

“You can’t blame your florist when your bouquets wilt when you’ve been doing photos before the wedding with your bouquets for an hour or so outside in the heat. Heat and flowers out of water don’t mix!” – Malachi of Shell Creek Photography (Schuyler, Nebraska)

My sweet friend, Kim, isn’t a florist. But, I loved what she had to say about prioritizing with your wedding. 

“Realize what’s important to you. I knew I wanted a Picasso calilily for my hair and my misters jacket. I paid good money for those. The rest were Sim roses that my friends did for the wedding party and church. We didn’t have a huge budget so we wanted to prioritize.” – Kim of kcreatives (Augusta, Georgia)

“Hydrangeas kinda of suck to work with. They are very finicky out of water- so if your dream is an arch of hydrangeas, it might not be as simple and cost effective as you’d like it to be.” – Lisa of The Flower Kitten (Detroit, Michigan)

“There’s so much I’d want to share with them! Seasonality of flowers (curse you, beautiful Pinterest photos of winter tulips with summer dahlias!) crazy high wholesale prices (peonies cost me eight bucks a stem, whether they open or not!), and the fact that bouquets without filler greenery will fall apart before your wedding is over! Not to mention, that cool free gathered look that’s so popular takes a lot of structural work and an insane amount of flowers!

I always start with a two hour consultation, make some recommendations, draw up some specs. I’ve done some silk work within fresh arrangements for brides who wanted specific flowers to honor someone or something. There’s always a solution, but it takes flexibility on both sides!

Oh, and wedding cake flowers! I will trim them and treat them, but I am not altering your baker’s art without consulting with them first at the very least! I prefer to deliver cake flowers directly to the baker a couple of days in advance.

Outside of those few things, sometimes my clients don’t realize the time commitment. For delicate flowers like Orchids or stephanotis, or outdoor weddings, I pick up my flowers at three am the day before their wedding to ensure freshness. There’s not much room for error. For a standard wedding, I work about twenty hours straight for the bouquets, lapel flowers, aisle runners and table pieces. That doesn’t include build heavy things like arches or floral crowns. I’m a one man show, and When I’m setting up your wedding, I’ve not slept in maybe 40 hours. That’s part of the reason it’s so important to get with your planner very early in the process about day of responsibilities. 🙂 ” – Sarah of Fort Worth, Texas (No Business Name)