Weddingbee PRO

Who makes My Wedding Hero list? It is a collection of individuals that run beyond just wedding vendors and professionals. I’ll unveil a few each month. Some are trailbrazers while others are guardian angels. Many are just thoughtful and nurturing individuals who are selfless, generous, and the best people in the business. No matter- simply put - all of them are people I admire and respect.
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After taking some time off, I’m finally feeling like my old self again. Nothing like a little r & r to refresh and replenish the soul.

So, I’m turning the big 4-0! To me, it’s a defining point in my life. When you know you are almost at the half way point, isn’t it natural to want to reexamine the key and focal pieces of your daily existence? My life is my brand, my work, my family, my faith, my fans, my clients, my buddies, my circle of industry friends - all comingling.

Being able to write this blog is my therapy - a gift, a reward, a joy. In keeping with this declaration, I’m adding two new series.

Part One is called W.I.L.L.(Why I Love Life… as a Floral Designer). Each post will feature one reason why I absolutely am passionate about what I do. Of course there are days where I might pull my hair out, but through it all (the stress, the issues, the challenges, the criticism, the mistakes), I’ve got to find reasons why I do what I do. Anyone who does this day after day must find the motivation behind the actions.

The second series is called My Wedding Heroes. My Wedding Heroes will be stories and interviews with wedding professionals, floral designers, growers - anybody I encounter that help make the wedding day, inspire people, and make a difference. People behind the scenes, unsung heroes, professionals who aren’t afraid to help others through sharing great tips or going out of their way. It can be anyone that is making a positive difference in our industry. Some may even be trail blazers.

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This month I was a bit late getting this to you because I was in Cabo. Bad excuse!

I hope many of you will still find the information useful when planning your wedding. Many of these flowers/foliage come in select colors and don’t always last throughout August, so please check with your floral wholesaler and distributor. I’ll try my best to note it so that you can plan accordingly.

Black Eyed Susan - This golden yellow flower with a black brown center is warm and friendly. For a wonderful country, rustic wedding - what could be more charming! Use them in centerpieces and bouquets. Not a great boutonniere flower because the thin petals often droop in heavy heat. You should see them through early September.

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A couple weeks ago, we made this wonderful bed of flowers for our bride, Lindsey. On top of this 6 ft x 2 ft bed of flowers, roughly 120 place cards were lined perfectly.

Here’s my ingredient list for this bed of flowers:

• 750 white standard carnations
• 750 toothpicks
• 2 4 inch by 24 inch by 36 inch styrofoam boards
• 3 straight picks (wired removed)

Hope this may inspire you! Enjoy!

Last week, Danny Lai shared Part 1 of “What to Ask the Florist?”.  Today, Danny expands on not just what to ask but also what to look for. Hope you enjoy!

Inspiration

When interviewing your floral designer, you should provide keywords describing your floral vision, and leave it up to the floral designer to show you ways to represent it visually. For instance, we used words such as “minimalist, slightly Asian, and not pink” to describe our wedding, and left it up to Nancy, to show us how she would design the layout and arrangements.

Usually, a florist will show photographs of past work, or perhaps simple sketches or drawings. This consultation is sometimes complimentary, and if the floral designer is good, you will discover new and interesting ideas to incorporate into your vision. Remember to try and take notes and make suggestions to these proposals and sketches your floral designer comes up with.

Collaboration

Your wedding is a symphony of artists –photographers, videographers, floral designers, etc. As such, each artist has worked with many other artists.

Find out which wedding planners and photographers the floral designer has enjoyed working with in the past, and see if the names match those of the vendors you have chosen. There’s something to be said for the peace of mind in knowing that your floral designer has enjoyed working with your other vendors.

When all of your vendors get along and play off of each other’s vision and ideas, each vendor (including the floral designer) is much more willing to go the extra bit for your wedding.

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In the continuing Real Groom series by Danny Lai, I am grateful that Danny is tackling a very helpful subject - flowers and the florist selection process.

Danny gives his male perspective on what he feels are great questions to ask a florist and what to look for. For a change, it’s nice to have a client tell me what they want to know instead of me telling all of you what I think. You’ll be surprised to find out that Danny and I share many of the same insights.

I can’t thank Danny enough for his frank and candid post. Hope you enjoy!

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Floral arrangements play a major role in unifying any wedding theme, as you see them everywhere at a wedding — on the wedding party, altar, seats, and on the reception tables. When choosing a floral designer, it’s important to choose someone who understands your style and vision (Nancy interjects….”amen to that”), and can make it real while keeping within your budget. When interviewing your prospective floral designer, make sure you’ve covered the following points:

Budget

Ask the difficult questions first. Ask your floral designer about his/her past weddings of similar size and venue, and get a rough estimate of the floral costs for those weddings. This should give you a ballpark range for your expected floral costs. Some floral designers produce unforgettable art using only the most expensive elements, while others produce art across a broader spectrum of elements and prices. Make sure your potential floral designer has worked within your budget before.

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I’m a big supporter of those starting out in the floral and wedding business. A curious person by nature, I’m fascinated by people who want to enter into the wedding floral business because it just isn’t for the faint of heart or for those who do it for the money. It’s often a thankless, laborious business where change is constant, things are unpredictable, and emotions can run rampant. Because of this, I admire people who dive into it with such passion, courage, and of course - a great attitude.

Kelly Kaufman from Southern California has some wedding advice to share. Kelly is an avid follower of my blog, and she loves flowers and floral design as much as I do. Let’s give a big welcome to Kelly of Florette Floral Design.

Hi! I am very excited to share my first wedding project with you! The lessons I learned from my first experience goes beyond just the floral part. I learned so much about wedding planning. This wedding is very dear and special to my heart because it is my very own wedding.

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A weeks ago, I had the pleasure of working with Chenin Boutwell of Boutwell Studio and Alice Grisez (I’m a big fan!) on a wedding at the Fairmont Hotel that was held on July 4th.

I wanted to share one image by the talented Chenin. You can seem more of the gorgeous images from Lindsey and Chris’ wedding on Chenin’s amazing blog (love her soft romantic and fresh style).

Lindsey is holding an all peonies bouquet. Before everyone starts planning on peonies for July, please be warned -we treated these peonies with kid gloves. Lindsey’s original bouquet was an all David Austen garden rose bouquet in a soft cream. I had planned to go with the all rose bouquet knowing that the chance of an all white peonies bouquet was very slim.

However, during our wedding planning process Lindsey told me how much she loved peonies and had her heart set on them but knew that the chance of getting peonies the week of her wedding was very unlikely. Never once did I let on that I secretly had an idea….

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All photography by Lisa Lefkowitz

Many months ago, I posted images from Noriko and John’s wedding at B.R. Cohn Winery in Sonoma, and I’ve been meaning to show you more of the details.

When John and Noriko came to see us last fall, I was thrilled with the idea of their intimate, vineyard wedding. Noriko was quite open to many ideas and wanted me to have fun with their project, which I did. Both John and Noriko are very warm people. Neither had a must-have list of flowers, so while I was shopping at the floral market, I picked up flowers, plants and foliage that felt right for their mood. It was a dream project!

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Hi Nancy,

I have a question for you. I recently moved, and I’m not as familiar with the vendors in my new area. I really am trying to get a small wedding and event floral business going, and I was curious what advice you have for getting to know other vendors in the area, whether it’s coordinators, caterers, photographers, etc. I know that referrals are such a big part of the this industry, and I would love to get my name out there, but want to do it in a really classy way.

Thanks in advance for you help,
Starting Small

I applaud you for your bold and sincere question. Weddingbee PROs and all other vendors -I think you all could really help Starting Small. If you have any feedback please comment.

The first thing I would say is this…

1) Ask yourself -what is your target market? Do you want to do high end, medium end, country club or society events?

2) Once you figure out what target market you’d like to serve, find like vendors. What I mean by that is, find vendors who have similar style, taste, design concepts, and market savvy. Call or email them. Take them out to lunch or meet with them. See if you can make a connection. Find the vendors in your area who do consistently great work. Read, research, and do some online investigative work. If you can’t figure this out, start by meeting with venue managers.

I’ll give you an example.

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