What to Expect When You Book a Bay of Plenty Wedding Florist
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
If you've never booked a wedding florist before, you might be wondering how it actually works.
Do you need to know which flowers you want? When do you choose your colours? How early should you book? What happens if you change your mind? And how involved do you need to be?
The good news is, you don't need to have everything worked out before you enquire.
As a Bay of Plenty wedding florist, my job is to take the ideas you've been saving and turn them into flowers that work for your wedding, your venue and the time of year you're getting married.
Here's what you can expect when you work with Sweet Stems.
1. Start with what you're drawn to
You don't need to come to me with a list of flower names.
In fact, I'd much rather see your inspiration images.
Maybe you keep saving bright flowers and bold colours. Maybe everything on your Pinterest board is soft pastels. You might love white and green, big statement flowers, trailing bouquets or loose garden-style arrangements.
Send me what you're drawn to.
From those images, I can start to see the colours, shapes and overall look you like.
2. Send through your wedding details
When you enquire, I'll need some basic information about your wedding.
Things like:
Your wedding date
Your venue
Approximate guest numbers
How many people are in your wedding party
The areas you'd like flowers for
Your approximate flower budget
Your inspiration images
These details allow me to give you a much more realistic idea of what your wedding flowers are likely to cost.
Sweet Stems full-service weddings requiring delivery and setup begin from $3,000, with many full-service weddings sitting between $3,000 and $5,000. Larger or more flower-focused weddings may sit at $5,000–$7,500 and above.
3. I'll give you an estimate
Once I've looked through your wedding details and inspiration, I can put together an initial estimate.
At this stage, we don't need to have every flower decided.
The estimate is about working out the overall scale of your wedding flowers and making sure we're in the right ballpark before going any further.
If you've sent me an inspiration photo of a ceremony you love, for example, I can give you a realistic idea of what creating something similar would cost.
That means you can make an informed decision before committing.
4. We create a plan for your wedding flowers
Once you're ready to move forward, we start bringing everything together.
I'll look at the different areas of your wedding and how the flowers can work across the whole day — from your bouquets and ceremony through to your reception.
You might already know exactly what you want.
Or you might simply know that you love colourful flowers and want me to take it from there.
Both are completely fine.
Some couples like being involved in the details. Others would rather give me their inspiration, make a few decisions and leave the flowers with me.
I can work either way.
Old Forest School Wedding Waingarara Valley Wedding Private garden wedding Bay of Plenty
5. Your exact flowers aren't chosen months in advance
This is something couples don't always realise.
Flowers are seasonal, and availability can change.
Rather than promising an exact list of flower varieties months before your wedding, I work from your chosen colours and the overall look we're creating.
Your inspiration images guide the design, and I choose flowers that suit it and are looking beautiful around the time of your wedding.
If there's a particular flower that's really important to you, absolutely tell me. I'll always do my best to source it, but working with flowers naturally requires some flexibility.
It also means your wedding flowers don't need to be an exact copy of someone else's wedding.
They're created for yours.
6. We refine the details closer to the wedding
You don't need to know everything when you first book.
Wedding plans change.
Guest numbers become clearer. Bridesmaid dresses are chosen. Table layouts are confirmed. You might find another inspiration image you love.
Closer to your wedding, we'll confirm the finer details and make sure the flowers still suit what you're planning.
This is when everything becomes much more specific.
7. Then I take care of the flowers
In the days before your wedding, your flowers arrive at my studio.
They're unpacked, trimmed, conditioned and given time to drink before I begin making everything.
Then it's bouquets, buttonholes, ceremony flowers, table flowers and any larger arrangements we've planned.
For full-service weddings, everything is carefully packed and transported to your venue, where I take care of the floral setup.
Some larger arrangements are finished or completely built on site because they simply can't be transported already made.
Depending on your wedding, I may also return afterwards to pack down and collect hired items.
By this point, you shouldn't be worrying about flowers.
You get to be the bride and groom. I'll take care of the flowers.
Choosing a wedding florist in the Bay of Plenty
When you're looking for a wedding florist, have a good look through their previous work.
You don't need to find a wedding that's exactly what you want.
Instead, ask yourself:
Am I drawn to what this florist creates?
Look at their use of colour, the shapes of their bouquets, their ceremony flowers and how they style reception spaces.
If you keep coming back to their work, that's a pretty good starting point.
Sweet Stems creates wedding flowers throughout Whakatāne, Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty, with a studio based in Edgecumbe.
If you're drawn to my work and would like to know what your wedding flowers might cost, send through your wedding details and inspiration images through my enquiry form.
I'll give you a free initial estimate so you have a realistic idea of the investment before deciding whether you'd like to move forward.
Comments