From Consultation To Wedding Day – Your Wedding Flower Journey


How to go about arranging your wedding flowers and what happens on the day is a bit of an unknown for most, So, we thought we would share how it all works from start to finish and all the in-between!

 So from your initial email to your big day, Here’s the journey…

The initial email or phone call – A brief chat to check the date of your wedding , checking our availability and then hopefully arranging a face to face meeting for a full consultation, where we can chat through all the finer details over coffee and cake. Consultations can be held at our studio or at a nearby location of your choice, If you are finding it difficult to arrange a face to face consultation, then we can of course liaise fully via email or telephone. Preparing for your consultation – Before you come along perhaps try to find some inspirational photos of wedding flowers, Pinterest is fab, this will give Jane a clearer idea on what your wedding flowers personality is and what size/style you have in mind. It’s also super helpful if you if you have a vague budget set for your wedding flowers, although we know this is sometimes tricky if not impossible.

The consultation – Jane absolutely loves to chat weddings, she’s filled to the brim with amazing ideas for wedding flowers at St. Audries, we’re there most weeks and it’s a real home away from home for us! It may feel daunting to come and chat about what you would like, and you may think that you have no idea, but that’s what we’re here for. With some clever questioning and lots of chatting we begin to build a picture and it evolves from there. We’ll discuss what type of feel/theme you envision for your wedding flowers. Whether you love a loose and natural style that’s not too formal with oodles of foliage or whether you’re the complete opposite and love your flowers all neat and luxurious, or even somewhere in-between. We’ll explore your colour scheme options; the Bridesmaids dresses have a huge impact on your colour scheme, and the season of your wedding will pay a big part too. We’ll then delve into where the main focus will be at St. Audries during your wedding day and where best to decorate for maximum impact for your budget. Jane will be scribbling and sketching away during the whole process and sharing all the options available.

Designing your flowers – With the information gathered at the consultation we develop a mood board; your inspiration pictures, flower/foliage varieties, colour swatches, accessories, etc… this will build a picture of the overall aesthetics. We’ll then research the available flower/foliage varieties for the perfect combination of colour & appearance that fit in with the season and your budget. We then calculate how many of each flower will be needed in each design. Flowers can come in wraps of 10’s, 20’s or even 50’s so we ensure to share these amongst the designs to avoid wastage and extra costs to you. The prices we quote include more than just the flowers, there’s the time involved throughout the process, from the designing, the ordering, the conditioning, the constructing, all the sundries etc. We also factor in a cost for the time it takes to deliver and set up your flowers on the day.

The quotation – We design an email quotation which will include all your details, the colour scheme, what flowers/foliages we will be using, delivery details etc.   We’ll then list each item discussed with a full description and an individual price per item. We include a confirmation form and T&C’s along with a request for a booking fee to book our services for your wedding day. Finalising details – There’s no rush, and changes can be made up to approximately one month before. We will email or arrange a chat over the phone or in the studio, if we haven’t heard from you, 3-4 weeks before your big day. We’ll run through the details on the quote, finalise numbers, make any tweaks and arrange delivery. After which we will send a final invoice for the final balance which needs to be paid 2 weeks prior to your wedding day.

Ordering your wedding flowers – about 1-2 weeks before we will order your flowers, knowing when to get flowers in is an art in itself, they will need to be perfectly in bloom for your wedding day, tight shut flowers don’t have the same impact and fading blooms won’t last the day!

The week of the wedding – Once your flowers arrive to us we carefully condition and care for each bloom according to its specific requirements so they are in perfect condition for the big day.  We then start preparing all the containers and sundries for our designs, double checking accessories and hire items, preparing as much as we can in advance.

Then comes the really fun part of creating all the bouquets and arrangements a day or so before the day, with all delicate designs made as late as possible and final details added on the morning of the wedding.

The morning of the wedding – We add all the personal and delicate finishing touches to the designs before carefully packaging and loading them into our van.  Firstly, we deliver all the bridal party flowers (bouquets, buttonholes, corsages, flower crowns etc) to you, whether you are getting ready at the venue, at home or perhaps at accommodation nearby. We then set-up the flowers for the ceremony as needed and arrange with your planner/you if any installations need to be moved and reused (e.g. if you have flowers for the ceremony table that are then moved across to the top table or elsewhere after the ceremony, etc).After the ceremony we decorate the reception with the table designs, liaise with the cake designer and add finishing touches to the venue. For all our flower designs we endeavour to create as much at our studio and then transport for a quick, efficient and clean set up at the venue. We will arrange the dismantling and collection of hire items with you and the venue.

And that’s it! Afterwards we’ll treat ourselves to a well-earned cup of coffee and pop across an email a few weeks later,  just to congratulate you on married life and thank you for choosing us to be part of your most special day.