Wedding flowers and floral arrangements set the stage
with cultural symbolism
Wedding flowers are a global business and a key element of contemporary wedding design, expressing the culture and style of the couple getting married and setting the stage for their celebration. Today, wedding bouquets, floral arrangements, and other floral wedding decorations comprise 10-15% of average wedding cost and offer more options than ever for planning a wedding with style, including outdoor weddings close to home and elaborate destination weddings in distant places. Seasonality and expense are significant factors, particularly for clients planning a modest budget wedding. In some cultures, white is an inappropriate choice for a wedding flower arrangement. In others, wedding flowers of every color and kind are used to create wedding bouquets for brides and bridesmaids, boutonnieres for groomsmen, floral arrangements for wedding reception centerpieces, and dramatic wedding decorations, including fresh floral embellishments for custom-designed wedding cakes. Whatever your client’s budget, culture, or wedding décor, seek guidance from a floral professional to select wedding flowers that enhance the theme, harmonize the setting, and are appropriate for the time and location of the wedding. This advice is especially important for a new wedding planner consultant working with clients in a multicultural community where the color and kind of wedding flower selected has cultural significance, or where a distant destination wedding location limits choices.
Use Wedding Flowers and Floral Wedding Decorations to Unify Wedding Theme
Like catering and cake selection, the choice of wedding flowers and floral arrangements for wedding decorations should be made only after the venue, time, and theme of the wedding are in place. Orders for floral arrangements and wedding bouquets can be placed online or in person with commercial florists almost anywhere. Orders for custom-designed floral arrangements themed with other wedding decorations can be placed in advance with local florist shops or independent floral designers, referred by the wedding planner, venue, or other vendors. But price, performance, and product quality vary widely within the wedding flower business. Professional wedding planners who understand the art and business of wedding flowers and wedding decorations have a big advantage, especially when starting a wedding planning business in a multicultural market. Like venue coordinators, caterers, and other vendors, many floral specialists diversify their skills through wedding planner training. Some seek wedding coordinator certification to build a wedding business that includes comprehensive wedding design, going on to full-service wedding planning careers.
Course Video Tutorial: 'A Floral Designer Teaches Wedding Flowers and Wedding Decorations' (27:31)
Young Kwon, the owner of De Young Floral Events, is just such a wedding coordinator. A successful wedding and floral designer serving an ethnically diverse West Coast market with a high percentage of destination weddings, she and her staff of seven create simple wedding bouquets for elopements at city hall, appropriate floral arrangements for seasonal outdoor weddings and church wedding ceremonies, and spectacular floral environments for large Hindu and Jewish weddings held at boutique hotels and major wineries throughout California wine country. Having learned how to be a wedding consultant by taking wedding planner classes, Young has leveraged her wedding flower enterprise to build a comprehensive wedding design business in a highly competitive market. In this course video tutorial, Young shares with Members secrets of the wedding flower business, tips on choosing culturally and seasonally appropriate wedding flowers, and ideas for colorful wedding decorations that harmonize every element of wedding ceremony and reception design. She also conducts live demonstrations as she and her staff prepare, deliver, and install floral arrangements and wedding decorations for a 500-guest Hindu wedding with a stunning sunrise-to-sunset theme.
Learn 12 essential elements of wedding flowers, wedding decorations, and the wedding floral business:
- The difference between a commercial florist and an artistic floral designer
- Using wedding expos, referrals, and the Internet to identify the ideal source
- Selecting the wedding venue and theme before choosing wedding flowers and decorations
- Establishing a wedding budget percentage for flowers before scheduling the initial consultation
- The importance of personal chemistry, frequent communication, and flexibility
- Pricing structures, billing practices, and seasonal factors that affect cost
- How a creative floral designer can clarify a client's vision for the wedding
- How wedding flowers harmonize wedding venues and complement catering colors
- Asian, European, and 'hybrid' floral concepts for a unique wedding design
- The secret of planning a 'simple but elegant' wedding with flowers
- Floral arrangements that can be eaten, recycled, and taken home
- How to become a wedding planner to diversify your existing business
