canton - Garden by the Gate Floral Design

As a bride looking to line up your wedding vendors, you have certainly been cruising all the big wedding websites for information and advice. Quite a few of these sites have a list of questions for you to ask your florist. One site actually has 33 questions you should ask your wedding florist! I don’t think anyone wants a four-hour consultation! But some of these questions are important and The Knot has a list of ten questions. Okay, I can handle that! And to save time in your consultation, I’ll answer them for you right now!

Have you done many weddings? Yes, the Garden by the Gate has been in business for five years and we have done about 75 weddings. Weddings are almost all that we do; we also provide flowers for wedding showers, rehearsal dinners, and we have actually done flowers for a number of our previous brides’ baby showers! It’s almost like we’re part of the family.
Can I see photographs or live examples of your work? Of course! We have some photo albums of our work and lots of photos on our website and Pinterest boards and on our blog. It would be kind of hard to show you an actual wedding arrangement because when we are designing a wedding, we’re way too busy to do a consultation! We like to focus on one thing at a time and give you our full attention.
Have you done weddings at our ceremony or reception venue before? We may have worked at your site before, but if we haven’t, we love to take a road trip with you and check it out! We’ll look it over and together discuss what type of decoration it needs. Then we’ll talk to the venue manager and find out what is allowed, when we can begin, when things have to be removed, etc.
How many weddings are you handling on the same day or weekend as mine? Will you simply be dropping off flowers, or will you be helping set up too? We only do one wedding per weekend, because that’s the way we like it. We’ll concentrate on your event alone. Wedding florists who do several weddings per weekend do a great job, too, because they have the staff to do it.
Our prices always include delivery and set-up, unless you are more than 30 miles away from our studio, then there is a delivery charge.
How do you like to work with clients? We treat our clients like friends; we sit around the table and get to know you as a person and as a couple before we start talking about your wedding flowers. Then we want to know all of your thoughts and ideas. We even want to know what you don’t like! There is never a charge or limit on consultations. Before we meet the first time, we start a Pinterest board for you and start gathering ideas. We invite you to pin on it too! But we give it a secret name so it’s just between us and anyone you want to invite. After we find out what you want, we will send you a detailed proposal that includes a slide show with inspiration pictures and photos of the flowers we might use. An itemized quote shows the prices of the individual items. This is a working document that we work with until it is to your liking.
Are you willing to work within my budget? We can almost always come up with a proposal within your budget. Sometimes that means different flower choices or it might mean scaling down some aspect of the decor, such as having flowers only on every other table. The most important thing is to be open about why you want some changes in the proposal and we’ll work with you.
Will you be responsible for working with my venue to find out about any restrictions they may have in terms of décor and installation? Our first idea is to just ask you what the restrictions are; your venue will have given you a contract containing those rules, such as whether flame is allowed, or how things may be attached to venue property. If it is something more complex, we’ll be glad to talk directly to the venue manager.
What other services do you offer? We would LOVE for you to ask us this. We can provide many things besides flowers, such as table runners, rental of chalkboards, lanterns, candleholders, backdrops, cake stands, and more. We also can custom craft things like escort cards, table numbers, banners, or custom water bottles. Check out the rentals page.
Who will handle setup and delivery? What about breakdown? How long will you need for both, and what are the fees? We do all the setup and delivery for you. Breakdown the night of the wedding is an extra charge (you’ll feel it’s well worth it when your friends and family can walk away from it all at the end of the evening). Timing depends on the individual event, but if time is short, we’ll bring on extra helpers.
What happens to the flowers after the wedding? It’s really up to you, but it is something we need to talk about early on. If you want to send your centerpieces home with your guests, then we’ll need to include the cost of the containers in your price. If you are renting the containers, we’ll discuss the return timeline. We can also donate your flowers to our local assisted living home for the elderly or disabled. They love to see the beautiful flowers and it’s so much better than tossing them in the trash!

Have more questions? Check out our FAQ page, or shoot us an email at [email protected]. If you’d like to find out what we can do for you, start by filling out the wedding inquiry form.

Wedding Inquiry Form

Hi again!

I’m ready to continue last week’s post on the hottest wedding trends for 2018! Why should you care? You don’t have to care; if you know exactly how you want your wedding day to look and feel, and you’re not influenced by what everyone else is doing, then you have a strong sense of style and are confident in your choices. Go you! You might be coming up with the newest wedding trends we’ll be talking about in 2019, or you have very classic, traditional taste and you can’t go wrong with that.

For everyone else, here are some new trends you can incorporate into your day, just to give your guests a little surprise, something to talk about. I think it’s rather nice if your guests say, “Sweet, I haven’t seen that before!”

The 5 Latest Wedding Trends

#1 Color

To recap last week’s post, the top wedding trend for 2018 is new ways with color. You can keep your favorite color, but to set your wedding apart from last year’s crowd, don’t be afraid to use bold color. Bright, multi-colored palettes, moody palettes, and adding a pop of the Pantone Color of the Year, Ultra Violet, will wake up your color scheme.

#2 Hanging Flowers

Things are looking up! Up at the gorgeous hanging floral installations, floral chandeliers, and garland draped ceilings. These new trends in wedding flowers make a big splash whether your venue is a traditional white wedding tent, rustic barn, or modern gallery. These can be moderately priced when mostly greenery is used or the sky’s (literally) the limit with lush flowers abounding.

The hanging flower trend also includes hoops and wreaths. Flower accented hoops of brass or wood are used as hanging backdrops, ceremony decor, and even as bridesmaids bouquets. Wreaths are simply hoops that are completely covered with flowers or greenery and can be similarly used or can be hung horizontally to make the base of a fab floral chandelier.

#3 Transparency

You might not have ever been “ghosted” but your wedding can be with “ghost” chairs. That’s what they’re calling the completely see-through plexiglass chairs that will give a light look to your wedding reception. Also popular in transparency are clear hanging signs with white calligraphy for your seating chart, menu, or welcome signs. You can even rent a clear tent so that you can dance the night away under the stars.

Transparency has been popping up more and more for the bride’s attire as well. Gauzy chiffon skirts are layered over pants or a mini for modern style. Sheer, lacy skirts and bodices update a traditional gown. Sheer fabrics are also very popular in bridesmaids dresses on the bodice, as a capelet, or for a long-over-short look.

#4 Industrial Chic

The industrial chic look is the new rustic, and it takes its cue from new venues coming into use. The industrial venue is just what it sounds like, a place that used to be a manufacturing facility, warehouse, or 19th-century office space. You’ll know you’re in an industrial venue by the exposed brick walls, overhead steel beams and heating ducts, metal shaded light fixtures, and Edison bulbs. You can play up the look by using metals in your decor such as geometric flower stands, metal chairs, strands of bistro lights, and a neutral color scheme. Find uses for metal grates, pulleys, factory carts, or wooden pallets to complete the look. Add an industrial vibe to your bridal attire by tossing on a denim jacket in cool of the evening.

#5 Bohemian

The bohemian look began last year but is coming on even stronger. A bohemian wedding is an eclectic mix of styles, a carefree spirit, bright colors, unfussy, and most of all, dedicated to everyone having fun. Flowers are bright, arranged loosely, and used in unconventional ways, in the hair, as a hanging curtain, or even as jewelry. Textiles play a big part in the Boho wedding trend with bright colors, fringe, embroidery, velvet, or macrame showing up as chair covers, backdrops, or bridal party wear. Geometrics, metals, and crystals are often found in centerpieces and decor.

Which new wedding trends do you see for your own wedding?

You don’t have to try every new 2018 trend at once, but some trends really layer well. For example, moody color palettes, woodsy decor (moss!), and caped gowns all work together for a fairy tale theme. The transparent trend in decor calls for a clean and modern gown and florals that are light and bright.

Tell us more about your wedding ideas, be they traditional or trendy, by filling out the Wedding Flowers Inquiry form. We’d love to meet you and hear all about your dream wedding.

Tag: canton

Ten Questions to Ask your Wedding Florist