Wedding Florist Consultation Checklist

What to bring to a florist consultation

Florist appointments go wrong in a predictable way: the couple arrives with a phone full of fifty saved images, the florist nods politely at all of them, and everyone leaves without agreeing on a direction. The Wedding Florist Consultation Checklist builds a short, personalised list of what to bring, what to ask and what to confirm in writing, adjusted for your wedding month, your style and your floral budget.

Bring fewer pictures than you think. Three to five inspiration photos produce a coherent direction; twenty produce a florist trying to satisfy incompatible ideas and quoting defensively to cover the uncertainty.

What to bring

Three to five inspiration photos that agree with each other, rather than a mood board of contradictions.

Your wedding colour palette as physical swatches or clear phone photographs. Colour described in words is ambiguous; colour shown is not.

A photo of your dress neckline and silhouette. Bouquet scale and shape are chosen against the dress, not in isolation, and a florist who cannot see the gown is guessing.

Venue photographs, inside and out, in the actual lighting. Not the venue's own marketing images, which are shot to flatter. Your centrepieces have to work in the room as it really is.

Your wedding aesthetic in three words. Constraint is what makes the brief usable.

If you are doing part of the florals yourself, bring a written list of which items you are handling. Without it, the quote and your own plans overlap, and you pay twice for the same arrangements.

What to ask

Which flowers are in season for my wedding month? This is the single highest-value question in the room, because working within the season can reduce a floral budget by twenty to forty percent compared with specifying blooms flown in out of season.

What would you substitute if my chosen flowers are unavailable? Substitutions happen, especially with imported varieties, and the answer tells you whether you will be consulted or informed afterwards.

What does your delivery and setup fee include? And separately, is there a pickup or breakdown charge after the reception? These are two different line items and both are commonly assumed to be included.

What is your minimum floral spend for weddings? Some studios will not take a wedding below a threshold, and finding that out at the end of a long consultation wastes everyone's afternoon.

Can I see photographs from a wedding at my venue, or at a comparable one? A florist who has worked your room knows its light and its sightlines.

How do you handle last-minute availability problems? The answer should describe a process, not a reassurance.

If your budget is at the lower end, add one more: which items could be simplified to hold the number, for example greenery-forward centrepieces rather than dense blooms. Florists answer this well when asked directly, and badly when the question is implied.

What to confirm in writing

An itemised quote rather than a lump sum. A single figure tells you the total and nothing about what produced it, which makes comparison impossible and substitutions invisible. Ask for each arrangement, each quantity and each rental listed separately.

The substitution policy, confirmed in writing. What happens when a specific bloom is unavailable, at what point you are consulted, and what the price difference is.

Delivery, setup and breakdown times. Your venue needs to know when the florist arrives, and your other vendors need the room clear before the florist is finished. Arrangements do not install themselves.

Responsibility for returning any rental items — vases, arches, stands, candle holders. This is the clause that generates more small disputes than any other, because it only becomes a problem after everyone has gone home.

Why the season question changes your budget

Flowers have a season, and specifying against it is the most expensive habit in wedding florals. Blooms in their natural window are abundant, cheaper to source and better travelled. The same flower out of season is flown in, priced accordingly, and more likely to arrive in poor condition. Working within the season can reduce a floral budget by twenty to forty percent compared with a specification built around out-of-season varieties.

That is why the checklist asks for your wedding month first. The seasonal note it returns at the end of your list tells you what is naturally available when you marry, and it is the most practical lever you have before the conversation even starts.

The one reason to leave

If a florist cannot show you photographs from full weddings rather than styled single arrangements, treat that as a reason to keep looking. Close-up images of one beautiful centrepiece are easy to borrow, commission or buy. A complete wedding gallery shows how the work holds up across an entire room, in real light, for eight hours.

Frequently asked questions

How many florists should I meet?

Two or three is enough, provided you bring the same brief to each. Comparing quotes built from different briefs tells you nothing, and the checklist exists partly to keep the brief consistent.

Is there a minimum spend I should expect?

Many studios set one for weddings, because delivery and setup have a fixed cost regardless of order size. Ask early, ideally when you request the appointment rather than at the end of it.

Should I do some florals myself?

It works well for low-risk items and badly for high-visibility ones. Bring a written list of what you plan to handle so the quote covers exactly the rest, and be realistic about how much time setup will take on the morning itself.

What should I do if the quote comes back far above budget?

Ask which items to simplify rather than which to remove. Reducing density, swapping premium blooms for in-season equivalents and reusing ceremony arrangements at the reception usually recovers a significant amount without changing how the room reads.

Do I need to book the florist as early as other vendors?

Florists generally sit behind venues and photographers in the queue. The Booking Window Checker shows how urgent yours is for your date, which for a peak-season Saturday is earlier than most couples expect.

Can the floral quote change after I sign?

It should not, and a price lock clause is what prevents it. Wholesale flower costs move, so ask whether the figures are guaranteed and get the answer in writing before you pay a retainer.

Related planning tools

Check what is naturally available in your month with the Flower Season Checker and price the whole thing with the Floral Budget Estimator. Match the blooms to your scheme using the Color Palette & Flower Matcher, get the bouquet proportions right with the Bouquet Size Calculator, and lock the terms with the Contract Clause Library.