Please tell me it ain’t so!
I recently published an article warning against having do-it-yourself flowers for your wedding. I gave a number of reasons not to do the flowers yourself and those same reasons, for the most part, go to anyone who is involved with the successful operation of the wedding on the day of the wedding. This includes the wedding planner!
Far too often people consider the work of a florist to be just to take a handful of flowers and drop them in a vase with some water in it and that is it. If you watch a florist at work making an arrangement it may even appear that way from the speed at which a trained professional florist and whip up an arrangement or make an extra corsage when needed. This is something that goes along with experience and training. Proper floral design is not something that anyone can do and should not be attempted to save or make a little money.
I can understand the bride that is on a tight budget and tries to save a few dollars by doing her own flowers or having a friend do them for her; but, the results are never the best and sadly sometime they are actually disastrous. To help with the budgeting for wedding flowers Delaware Floral Design has place on their website at http://www.delawarefloraldesign.org/Wedding-tips.htmla FREE wedding flower cost calculator and information on who is actually responsible for the cost of specific floral items for the wedding. Not all of the wedding flowers are to be a cost to the bride’s side.
I have however seen a new trend developing of late in which the paid wedding planners are starting to branch out to also become the paid florist for the weddings they plan. Wedding planners know that there is good money in all areas of wedding work; gowns, rentals for the reception, cake, etc., and wedding flowers. And those same wedding planner see the wedding flowers to be the area that they can easily take over to make a little more money off the wedding.
As I previously said most people do not value the work and skills of a florist, they believe that anyone can throw a few flowers in a vase and be done with it. To that end these wedding planners have no concern also turning into becoming the wedding florist too. After all, the wedding planner should be able to direct you to the type of things that the wedding planner can do. For example a wedding planner who knows how to do a simple hand tied bouquet will recommend this style to the bride. There is no problem until the wedding planner/florist runs into a bride who wants a cascading bouquet and is not willing to change, or a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley like the one used in the recent royal wedding in England.
It is not unusual for me to get an email for help from one of these wedding planners/florists about twice a month. I recently received an email from a wedding planner attempting to additionally fill the role of wedding florist; “Dear Support staff, I am currently designing some wedding center piece arrangements and the bride has requested a certain design. How and what kind of leaves would slightly curl. The stems must be at least 11/2 inches at the largest curse. I thought that flax leaves would work but I have never tried working with them before. Thank you for any input.”
This wedding planner could not talk her bride into a design that she knew how to do and was stuck with producing the design that the bride wanted. Obviously this was beyond the ability of the wedding planner that was pretending to also know floral design. She probably didn’t tell me the name of the design that the bride had requested because she didn’t know. She more than likely had a picture and was told the bride wanted that design copies for her wedding.
This is why you want to deal with a real florist rather than a wedding planner that figures she can drop a few flowers in a vase just like anyone else, call it a wedding arrangement and get extra pay for it.
I really however haven’t mentioned my real concern over having the wedding planner also serving as the floral designer for the wedding. My concern is not the apparent double dipping; that is a concern for the bride who has employed employing the wedding planner.
My concern again goes back to the day of the wedding and the fact that most wedding flowers are done the day of the wedding. During the day of the wedding I want my wedding planner with me, taking care of my last minute needs.
Quite often when the wedding is actually being conducted, the wedding florist is at work over at the reception area working on the last minute touches and placement of flowers. How can your wedding planner be in 2 places at once?
Simply put your wedding planner should just be your wedding planner and if your wedding planner does not agree with that then you definately need a new wedding planner!
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For more information on local floral design courses in Delaware and additional floral design information, kindly visit www.DelawareFloralDesign.org
If you have questions, suggestions or just want to contact me you can do so through email to; examiner@DelawareFloralDesign.org
