A wedding florist provides a variety of services, some of which might not be obvious at first.
Consultation: Your wedding florist will meet with you to discuss your vision for your wedding—your venue, your wedding style, your desired color palette, and the types of flowers you like and dislike. Your florist will then create a proposal which will describe the arrangements he or she will create as well as the prices.
Samples: After you’ve signed a contract and shortly before your wedding, your florist may also provide sample arrangements to ensure that you’re on the same page about how your wedding-day flowers will look.
Flowers: A big part of your wedding flower budget will go to the actual purchasing of the flowers. It actually takes several hours for a florist to put a flower order together—and the flowers your florist will receive from his or her wholesaler or grower are far better quality than the ones you can buy at your local grocery store. They’re grown especially to be featured at events and are hand-selected for their quality.
Flower processing and storage: Once your flowers arrive to your florist, he or she will take several hours (often a whole day!) to process your flowers (taking thorns off of roses, counting the flowers, etc.) and storing them in a refrigerated space to ensure they look amazing on your wedding day.
Labor and production: Now, it’s time for your florist to create those beautiful arrangements! Each arrangement takes time to design (probably more than you would think!), so it’s quite a long process.
Delivery and set up: Your florist and his/her team will then bring your arrangements to your venue. A good amount of work needs to be done on premises to make sure that your ceremony and reception looks picture-perfect, from the altar to the reception table arrangements.
Cleanup: After your wedding, your florist and his/her team will go to your venue to remove all of the arrangements and vessels, and assist with cleanup.