Part 2: Initial Contact and Narrowing the Search.

In the first part of this series, I talked about how to research florists. Now, let’s say you have a handful of florists that you’re interested in working with. What next?  Give the florist a call or shoot them an email to find out a few important details.*

A few good questions to start with:

1.  Is the florist available for your wedding date?
First things first, right? Most florists can only take a limited number of weddings each weekend. For us, that’s 1-3 weddings, depending on the size of the weddings we have on the books and their logistics. If we book one big one early on, we’ll consider ourselves fully booked for that weekend. If we get interest from couples with weddings that are on the smaller side, on different days of the weekend, or have easy logistics, we can take up to three weddings. OK, sometimes four if it’s a three-day weekend.

2.  Does the florist service your wedding location?
I’ve received inquiries for Indiana and SW Michigan. We don’t go there. Don’t get me wrong… for the right price, we could make it happen. But most florists will have a service area they generally stick to. For us, that’s usually Chicago. We do travel to the suburbs, but we have a higher minimum order for suburban weddings, because it is unlikely we’ll be able to deliver two wedding on the same day if one of them is in the burbs.

3.  Does the florist have a minimum order requirement?
Some florists have a minimum order requirement (some apply only during wedding season), because they can only take a limited number of weddings each weekend or because their niche is more elaborate weddings requiring higher budgets. Your budget and the minimum order requirement may not match up.

4.  Are they the right fit for what you’re looking for?
Do a quick fit check. Describe what you’re looking for a little bit to find out if they’re be the right fit. For example, I got a call yesterday from someone who, with a little digging, I found out is looking for balls of roses for their flowers. That just isn’t our thing, so we aren’t the best fit for that person. Or you may want a florist who can serve multiple functions (more of an event designer) to help with things like lighting and linen selection, but some florists (like us) just stick to focusing on the flowers.

Once you have these answers, you might be ready for the next step, which is to set up an appointment. I say you might be ready, because you should do some prep work before meeting with a florist to get the most out of your consultation. We’ll cover that in the next post.

*Most of our inquiries come in via our website, but I totally get why some people prefer to call over email for the first inquiry.  If you want to make me really happy, if you call to get initial info, offer to send in an inquiry via the website to follow up.  This will put you into my system and make your wedding information consistent with my process.