The Truth About What a Wedding Florist Actually Does

If you’ve ever wondered what a wedding florist actually does…like, really does – you’re not alone. Most people picture us arranging pretty flowers the morning of a wedding. And sure, that’s part of it. But the truth? What happens behind the scenes is so much more than that. From the very first consultation call all the way through late-night strike, the work that goes into your wedding flowers is extensive, physical, creative, and honestly a total labor of love.

We’re taking you on a full behind-the-scenes journey of what it actually looks like to be your florist. We think by the end of it, you’ll have a whole new appreciation for the blooms on your big day!

Photography by Reagan Wright

Today, we’re covering:

• The consultation process and what we’re really trying to learn about you
• What happens behind the scenes after your consultation (hint: the creative brain goes into overdrive)
• How and when flowers are ordered, and the tools we use to make it happen
• What a full design week looks like leading up to your wedding
• What your wedding day actually looks like for us (spoiler: 12,000+ steps😅)
• The biggest challenges no one talks about and what makes it all worth it

It Starts With Getting to Know YOU

The consultation process is honestly one of our favorite parts. We like for it to feel as natural and fun as possible! This isn’t a business meeting, it’s a conversation. Before we ever hop on a call, we have our couples fill out a questionnaire so we can get through all the basic logistics like quantities for everything. That way, when we actually talk, we can spend our time on the fun stuff.

What we’re really trying to do during that consultation is get to know the bride and groom. We want to understand their personalities so we can guide them to the best design ideas. Your flowers should feel like YOU. In order to make that happen, we need to understand your dream and vision for your big day. The logistics matter, but the personality behind the wedding? That’s what drives every design decision we make.

Photography by Reagan Wright

Then the Creative Brain Gets to Work

After the consultation is where things really start to come alive on our end. This is where the creative brain gets to work. We start playing with different color palette options and floral selections – mixing and matching to see what tones and colors feel right, while always staying true to the vibe the couple is going for.

We create a custom line item proposal for each client, as well as a design board with a full visual representation of what we’re presenting. This process can take anywhere from a week to two weeks. Sometimes it comes to us immediately and sometimes it takes a little longer to get the creative juices flowing. We never rush it, because this proposal sets the tone for everything.

Photography by Peony Photography

Ordering the Flowers: Timing Is Everything

Here’s something most people don’t realize – flowers aren’t ordered weeks and weeks in advance. We like to order flowers right at one month out from our clients’ wedding date. This gives our farms and wholesalers plenty of time to secure the highest quality blooms and also gives us time to pivot if needed when we can’t secure a specific variety.

A lot of the choices we make are dependent on season and color palette – and honestly, we think it’s a lot easier to find flowers that hit a specific color palette than to force certain florals to work in one. We use a program called EveryStem (that we LOVE!) which helps us build out recipes and price out our orders based on each single stem price. We’ll sometimes adjust numbers and stem counts to make sure we’re sticking to our profit margins while also keeping the client’s vision intact.

A Full Design Week in the Life of a Wedding Florist

On a wedding week, we typically receive our flowers on Tuesday. All of the florals come packed in boxes from the farms and wholesalers, so we spend most of that day opening and unpacking boxes and processing the flowers. Everything is typically in plastic wrap or paper – and has also been out of water for several days. So it’s important for us to give them all fresh cuts and fresh water to get them hydrated and ready to go for the week. We strip any extra greens and foliage that won’t be needed. Properly processing florals is a huge part of the flowers looking 100% on the wedding day.

We typically start designing on Wednesday, and here’s what the rest of the week looks like:

• Wednesday: Sorting buckets for onsite design, sorting stems for bouquets and centerpieces. We love to “sort” our bouquets early in the week so we reserve the very best stems for them.
• Thursday: Designing centerpieces. Anything in water or vases gets designed earlier in the week. Anything in floral foam gets pushed toward the end of the week to keep the foam saturated.
• Friday: Designing bouquets, personal florals, and any last-minute design pieces. Things like tropicals (orchids, anthuriums) and hydrangeas also get pushed to the end of the week. Tropicals don’t love being in the cooler too long, and hydrangeas need a ton of water and can be super sensitive.

Photography by Reagan Wright

Wedding Day: 12,000+ Steps and Counting

Wedding days are often the most physically demanding days of the week! Throughout the design week, we pack florals into our cooler trailer as we go – so come wedding day morning, the trailer is typically packed and ready to go with all the florals and tools we need. We typically pack up the hard goods like candles and rentals the morning of, and then we head out to the venue.

At the venue, everything gets unloaded, re-filled with water, double-checked for quality control, and fixed if anything broke or wilted during transport. The biggest thing about on-site work is the large installation (think arches and chandeliers) pieces that have to be designed directly on specific structures at the venue and simply can’t be transported. Those typically take the most time and effort.

On a typical wedding day, we are WELL over 12,000 steps. And that’s before we come back for late-night strike – which is cleaning up the venue and acquiring all of our rental items, and making sure every last stem of flowers is removed from the venue. Sometimes that means hauling 10-12 large bags of trash to the dumpster. It’s a full workout, every single time.

Photography by Tailor James

The Challenges No One Talks About

We wouldn’t trade this job for anything in the world, but we’d be lying if we said it was all pretty flowers and easy days! Being a wedding florist comes with so many challenges that no one talks about…especially when we are at venues that are outdoors. Wind and rain are always two of the biggest weather issues we run into. They can cause so many problems – linens flying off, arches falling over, petals getting blown away. If the tables and linens can’t be set up, we can’t set centerpieces and rentals, which throws off the whole timeline. If we have to move to a rain plan or plan B/C, that can make a huge difference in timing and logistics.

And then there’s what people don’t realize about the work itself: 80% of what we do is actually NOT designing flowers. There is SO much work that goes into planning your florals – hours of proposals and design boards, tons of sourcing the perfect blooms, and making sure we secure everything we need including containers, candles, and rentals. Actually designing is such a small piece of the big picture!

What Makes It All Worth It

With all of that said, we absolutely love what we do. A room reveal for the bride (and often her mom) always does it for us. Finally seeing everything come together and seeing the excitement on their faces? That’s it. That’s the moment. It’s always nerve-wracking, and we always stress about making sure they love everything. But when they do? It makes every single step, every late night, every box of flowers completely worth it.

Photography by Allison Jeffers

Ready to Work With a Wedding Florist Who Goes All In?

Now that you know what truly goes into your wedding florals, we hope you feel even more excited about the process, because we are! At Reiley + Rose, we bring this level of care, creativity, and hustle to every single wedding we’re a part of. We serve couples across the Texas Hill Country, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Austin, and beyond – and we would be so honored to be part of your big day.

If you’re currently planning your wedding and looking for a florist who will take your vision and take it a step further, we’d love to connect! Head over to our contact page to get in touch and let’s start dreaming up something truly YOURS.