by Susan Hibberd

Created on: November 21, 2009

When you are planning a meeting with the florist who will be doing your wedding flowers, you need to plan ahead. The time together will fly by, and you need to make sure you cover all the things you want to talk about.

Make a list of the things you want to discuss, and remember to take it with you! Write your notes into a little notebook, which will look neat and efficient, and you can add to them as you go through the meeting.

Before you go, make a note of the budget for your wedding flowers, and how much contingency there is, timings for the wedding day itself, and notes about which flowers you will be wanting. It is also a good idea to take along any swatches of fabric you are using, eg wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses, napkins for the reception.

If you have a wedding planner, take them along to this meeting with you.

These are some of the things you will want to discuss with your florist:

Budget

Start by laying your cards on the table and letting your florist know what your budget it. If you get to the end of the meeting and find that you cannot afford what you have agreed, it will all have been a waste of time.

Let the florist know if the budget is set in stone, or whether there is a contingency amount available. A good florist will be able to work to any budget and still make your day beautiful.

How Many Flowers

Talk to your florist about how many flowers you will need on the day. A florist will expect to do a bouquet for the bride and buttonhole flowers for the wedding party. You will need to specify any other flowers, for example, rose petals for a flower girl, posies for the bridesmaids, a bouquet for your mother before the ceremony or at the reception to thank her for her help, church flowers, flowers in the car, arrangements on the tables at the reception and on the tables where the cake and presents will be displayed.

Talk to your florist about which of these flowers will be needed, or whether someone else will do these, for example the church flowers might be done by the church florist, or they might have flowers from a previous event (for example, brides getting married at Easter can often benefit from the Easter flower arrangements).

Discuss the size of each arrangement as well as the colors. Take cuttings from magazines if you have them and ask to see photos of other weddings the florist has done.

Theme

You will have chosen your theme by the time you visit your florist, so discuss this with them. Talk about the

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