Your wedding day is one of the most spectacular days of your life.

It’s filled with love, joy, hope, and beauty. Although you’ll of course be the most spectacular sight at the wedding, your wedding flowers should come in at a close second! After the bride, the flowers are generally the most commented on aspect of a wedding, as they really do have the power to make or break the atmosphere in a room. Which way that goes comes down to the decision on who should create them for you.

Employing a Wedding Florist

When it comes to your wedding day, you want every single detail to be absolutely perfect. It’s not just about ensuring the bride and groom are ready to go, but it’s also about the venue. With venue prep comes colour coordination, furniture set up, and yes, even the flower arrangements.

Here are a few key strengths of a wedding florist that your friends will find hard to compete with: 

Access to premium bloom suppliers

Florists buy and sell many thousands of dollars worth of flowers every day. When they turn up at the market they bring both significant buying power, and strength of relationships. They know who to go to for what, and how to pull the occasional favour to get something special for their brides and grooms.

Since they have access to this at the market or through growers, you have access by proxy. You want to ensure your flowers are flawless and hiring a florist is a way you can be confident you will receive that.

Experience with the particular venue (making it look it’s best)

Many florists also have ties to, and considerable experience with particular venues. This means that they already know what kind of arrangements will look best in that given space. This is a significant advantage as you want floral arrangements that won’t be overbearing but also won’t blend in and disappear. You want the arrangements to be the perfect combination and fit to your venue to make it look its absolute best!

Friend/s can enjoy the day

Let’s be honest, as nice as it can seem to have a friend offer their services, you want them to enjoy the special day alongside you. The thing about floral arrangements is that they have to be set up the day and often within strict confines that the venue sets. Your friends should be preparing for this special moment themselves, not sweating and stressing over which arrangements should go where. Even if they say they want to, and they probably do, they should be enjoying the day with you!

Feedback/advice on other supplier options

There’s not much a florist with a decade or two of experience hasn’t seen or heard in the industry. They know all the good suppliers, and more importantly, the ones to watch out for.

From cakes to photographers, they usually have a little back book of the people you can trust.

Employing a Friend

Employing a friend to do your wedding flowers is by no means a bad thing. In fact, it can be quite a bonding experience. However, employing a friend comes with more risks in comparison to hiring a florist. There are pros and cons so let’s discuss!

Risk friendship

Something everyone tries to overlook when hiring a friend in any circumstance is that you have the potential of ruining a friendship. Providing a friend with criticism and treating them as an employee can wreak havoc if done poorly. You may think you and your friend are beyond that, but sometimes you don’t know until it’s too late. This is something that needs to be heavily considered before allowing a friend to do your wedding flowers.

Can be a great bonding experience

On the flip side though, allowing your friend to do this for you can be an incredible bonding experience for the both of you. You’ll get to discuss colour schemes, compare photographs, and have a special memory that only you two share. That’s an incredible honour and if your friendship can withstand the employee-status for a bit, it’s worth considering

Lack of experience

This is particularly for friends who are not professional florists but rather just have a passion for it or are good at it. Unfortunately, being good at it doesn’t make them qualified to prepare an entire wedding venue full of arrangements. This lack of experience can cause a number of problems:

• It may take longer to plan

• The arrangements may not look exactly how you thought they would

• They may take creative control without telling you

• Risk not getting the desired flowers since they likely don’t know about proper time frames

• Miscommunication about design ideas

• May not be able to call in the right help on the day

• Job not taken seriously because they are not professionals

Pay higher price on flowers

Florists often get discounts and special prices on the flowers that they use in your arrangements. These deals are often passed on to you. When you hire through a friend, you’re likely going to be paying more as your friend isn’t aware of the best suppliers. They don’t get any special discounts or promotions. This can lead to you spending at least twice as much on flowers or having to cut back on your designs, leaving you close to what you would have paid a professional wedding florist in the first place. 

Final Thoughts

Although there are pros and cons to employing a friend to do your wedding flowers, it’s often not the preferred method. This is simply because friends are rarely wedding professionals. They have the best of intentions, but this is your big day, and you deserve to sleep peacefully knowing that everything is being handled professionally and will look as you expect on the big day.

Kate x