Just engaged? Where to begin with wedding planning?

Rhoda Louisa Floral Events 1st Blog- Where to begin with planning your wedding top tips for less stressful wedding planning process...

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog post!

Firstly I want to say BIG Congratulations to recently engaged couples!

Perhaps like me writing this you maybe are both super excited and nervous or even stressed already, bit unsure how this works. I understand. I like you want to get it 100 % right and at the moment blogging all new to me much like planning a wedding day for you, as I am guess most of you haven’t done it before and even if you have, the world of weddings probably has changed so much in amazing the amount of choice to completely personalize your day. Like you too, maybe you have so many ideas too but just where to begin?

As I figure out this new blogging zone for me, I guess the thing from a wedding florist point of view the most helpful to my future couples is just just that- where to begin to help ensure you have the most wonderful day possible?

So as being a wedding florist isn’t new to me working, learning and growing my business around my young family since 2002, I hope to offer some helpful advice and just beg your patience if I am missing something with how to write a great blog post. As long as, the information is helpful to you, I will be over the moon to start and achieved my initial goal.

So from an experienced wedding florist point of view and the way I work, once you have selected and chosen your wedding date and fixed your venue, it isn’t too early to start a dialogue with me and other key wedding suppliers as especially in this situation 2021 & 2022 all things being well are going to be super busy. Just get in touch right away to see if your date is available. For the way I work I am only taking 15 weddings per year to provide the best possible service with the highest quality completely bespoke wedding flowers. I have taken a few at short notice weddings as long as the date as is free in my calendar, but I don’t like to disappoint anyone so the sooner really the better.

Florist note and exception to starting with your dream venue and their date available- if you love peonies and really want to have them part of your wedding, try to plan your date around Peony Season ideally mid-May/ early June. There are alternatives flowers options with soft romantic open blooms through the year, but peonies are one flower guided by the weather and best in May and June with a very limited season and not successfully grown in greenhouses.

by Jennifer Sinclair Photography

Step # 1 Wherever you can, it is very important to take time to plan to talk and get to know your wedding suppliers and especially I would say your wedding florist if your are looking for high quality tailored meaningful wedding flowers.

It can be along with your wedding planner or on a video call as needed but in person meeting is ideally far better. I know it takes more than a few minutes to shoot off a few emails with lists and rough guidelines and few pictures of what you are thinking you may like to have flower-wise. I understand price range from the beginning is important and you want to know you are getting the very best for your money. I will come back to pricing though in just a little bit. I wouldn’t not go with though with the least price wedding vendor ideally as you don’t know what you are getting really and I know clique but you get mostly what you pay for. I would advise highly for your benefit first to get a feeling that wedding supplier really understands what you want and then you can trust that on the day, you know they will go out of their way to make their role in your perfect day beyond extraordinary. This is impossible to translate in an email exchange with just pricing. Weddings are such a rare day, if something goes not quite right, you really can’t make up for or do it again so using suppliers you feel you can trust is key. Although I do find most of my couples fairly relaxed, who wouldn’t be at least a little nervous on such a big life milestone event with the highest hope that everything goes to plan as much as possible and then some. To feel relaxed and enjoy your wedding day , one that both you have been waiting so long for and that you invested so much time and effort on, my top tip has to be to get to know your suppliers and know you are in good highly experienced hand confident they will do a completely amazing job for you. This trust and understanding you can get a glimmer in reputation, recommendations, testimonials and reviews all help, but really I find one of the best things, besides their dream flowers that I offer by clients is that relaxed feeling knowing they can trust me, by getting to know each other in person offers. You wont regret investing that meeting time. On a side note, if think you would be a little nervous on the day, I have some little tips to help on the day and I find since I am quite calm and relaxed by nature, that helps add calm atmosphere to the beginning of your day too. When planning my own wedding over 20 years ago, I would not have known to look for these key aspects.

I clearly remember though not liking my photographer who really didn't listen to my brief about capturing more nature moments of the day than posed ones. His personality was quite rushed and pushy. I didn't get to meet him ahead of time planning my wedding from abroad, So though I treasure my wedding pictures they were not exactly what I hoped nor did I feel relaxed. Sadly my husband isn't quite as keen lover of weddings like me with the idea of renewing our vows, plus we have other priorities with the kids.

Step #2 You don’t need to decide and know every detail to start.

You may not have chosen your bridesmaid dresses even which are often a key influence on colour or know exactly which flowers or names of all the ones you love the most. That’s all OK. I am happy to follow your lead or gently guide you about flowers and with ideas. It is normally a journey or like a puzzle that all the pieces come together to form that perfect picture you envision for your wedding day. My initial meetings are relaxed over a cup of coffee, tea & cake, generally at my home in Sandhurst Berkshire ideally in my garden weather permitting. I like to ask things where you met, what you liked about your selected wedding venue and just little favourite things to understand your style that the flowers will then reflect and tell your story. My pug, Hugo will often want to become your new best friend too which I have been very lucky all my couple seem to love him so far.

You can ask me as many questions as you like and just see if I am the right florist for you and meetings are generally about an hour long.

Step #3 About Booking as soon as possible and pricing....

For me, I take all the things we talk about in our initial meeting and put together a mood board as a visual starting place along with an an initial quote with three all inclusive options which starts with our bespoke all-inclusive package from £1999 including everything you need for your bridal party flowers, ceremony flower, reception flowers, thank you flowers along with delivery, set-up time and collection within 20 miles of my location just on the border of Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey in Sandhurst. I am setting this out to firstly be clear and transparent before we meet and also previously no matter the budget I always provided the highest quality stems and highest level service which has become more and more stressful with flower prices ever rising on my side not willing to sacrifice quality for profit to achieve wedding flowers I am incredibly proud to put my name and reputation on and want to work with couples that love to fill their wedding day full of beautiful flowers like I do. My highest hope and know that I will not have repeat wedding clients, but my clients joy and complete satisfaction in my service. I always feel very honored to have such an important role in such a happy and significant day my couple’s lives where nothing, but the absolute best is what they should receive. So, if you are happy with the quote and excited to work with me, all you need to do is pay a small deposit to confirm your wedding date in my diary. We will stay in touch along the way and I love to meet at least one more time before the wedding to review everything.

I am happy to and could talk in length about pricing, the auction flower market and why certain flowers are more expensive and not all flowers are equal quality. As well about buying from flower farms and becoming more Eco-friendly with less impact on our environment, but generally the bigger price range for flowers you have to a wedding florist like me, will give you more stems (with bonus able to buy in larger quantities gives better value) the flower heads will have larger blooms, higher quality superior blooms (in terms of strength and also freshness) to create larger designs with more impact. All will be highly personalized and bespoke to your wishes as all weddings are very unique. Here at Rhoda Louisa Floral events I am aiming to always exceed your expectations filling your day with the most beautiful flowers and wish all wedding suppliers had this ethos for you.

I understand in these uncertain times you may feel unsure about booking far ahead so just read my terms and conditions fully. I would always recommend taking out wedding insurance firstly, but also want to reassure you that your deposit is safe with me should the very unexpected happen like the current Covid-19 virus impact on weddings or if something random happened to your wedding venue, I will go out of my way to work with you re-booking your date and be fair. The other helpful part of my service is the final full payment is only due 4-6 weeks before your wedding date unless we agree I am purchasing non-stock sundries for specific to your wedding further in advance.

So key things do get to know your wedding florist and wedding suppliers as much as possible. It will save you a lot of stress especially on your wedding day. If you can work with suppliers you meet where highest quality and reputation for the best is clear. This way I am sure you will have the most perfect wedding day, not only enjoy the day but also the planning journey with wedding vendors like me. Most important then have wonderful happy memories of the day to go back in time to relive always.

Step #4 Once your suppliers are all set keep in good communication with them about any changes along the way with finer details like number of guests, the plan for logistics on the day and then ideally just them relax and enjoy one of the most wonderful days in your life so far.

Really hope helpful and very much looking forward to hear from you if my service sounds right for you. Just message me your date as soon as possible and return my little questionnaire and let planning your perfect day with Rhoda Louisa Floral Events begin.

All the very best always,

your personal floral designer to be,