The Last Minute Wedding
Your complete guide to your summer 2021 wedding floral order
Being mindful
of our deadlines is a huge help to our entire team and allows us to work with confidence
Whether you are pulling things together as a split decision or you have been planning for months and are tired of waiting, the last minute wedding is an incredibly stressful process. Getting all your vendors (old or new) on the same page, coordinating with family and friends and still being able to abide by the newest set of restrictions, is bound to cause some chaos. I am not an expert in the entire industry, but I would love to provide some background knowledge on the flower side of things.
Ordering Process
First let’s talk about the ordering process. Academy Florist does not have our own green house or gardens with unlimited stock to choose from. In the summer months we are delighted to work with local growers for beautiful blooms that do not have to stand the test of shipping and packaging. However, a shop of our size cannot rely solely on local product for the majority of the summer wedding season. We work with growers all over the world to get in your favourites such as peonies, garden roses, delphinium, and anemones. Getting the flowers from a farm in Ecuador to a small local shop in Winnipeg takes time.
In the past, we have operated with a six week schedule where all details were confirmed, the order was placed and final owing balances were collected that far in advance. With the new world we’re in, where things are changing on a weekly basis, we have been able to push the final confirmations to four weeks out. This means that our purchasing team is working really hard with very tight deadlines in order to get your desired flowers here on time. Being mindful of our deadlines is a huge help to our entire team and allows us to work with confidence.
So what happens when you place your floral order less than four weeks before your big day? Placing a special order with less than 4 weeks notice means that we have passed the deadline to order in anything specific for you. You must walk into your floral experience with little to no expectations, be open to our suggestions and trust us to make something spectacular. We still love and want to see inspiration photos to get a sense of the overall size and style you are looking for as well as your preferred colour palette. If you are looking for soft pastels, we would not include bright purples or vivid oranges. Our goal is always to create stunning arrangements for your wedding while being given the creative freedom to work with the products we have available. We will not be able to tell you exactly what you can expect in your bouquet until a couple days before your wedding when the shipment arrives and your items have been set aside. I highly recommend choosing a florist whose work and history you trust so that you can feel confident that you’re in good hands. A great way to get a feel for the florists overall vibe is to check out their instagram page and their online portfolios.
Changing your existing order
Let’s say you’ve already placed your order and now you need to make last minute changes to the guest count or location. Every shop will have different ways of handling situations like this. At Academy, our contract states that if you decrease your order after the four week mark, we work together to find new ways to repurpose the flowers from removed items. For example, let’s say you need to cut 2 bridesmaids bouquets. We can use those flowers to make your bouquet larger, create an additional centrepiece or arrangement for another area of the ceremony or reception. Having back up ideas for small additional pieces is very wise and will help in a pinch.
If the opposite happens and you need to add on additional pieces at the last second, we will do our best to re-write some recipes but it is really dependent on the stock levels we have in shop to match your wedding. To be efficient and cost effective, we write recipes for each piece and only order in what is needed with a small buffer, therefore it is unlikely that there will be excess peonies or ranunculus available in your colours. I recommend chatting with your florist as soon as you get wind of additional personal florals or décor needs to see what your options are.
At the end of the day, not only is it our job to create the florals of your dreams, it’s what we live for. Hearing the family gush about the flowers upon pick up or listening to venue coordinators discuss how stunning the arch piece looks really makes our day, but nothing beats hearing the bride say that they absolutely loved their wedding flowers. That is what we strive for and we will work really hard to make sure that any adjustments that need to be made, are done creatively and efficiently.
Altering the guest count
Everyone’s most frequently asked question over the past year in the event industry has been, “How many people am I allowed to have at my wedding?” This is something beyond any of our control and although my fingers are crossed that by the beginning of fall we are trending upwards, right now it is still so up in the air. With this being said, being overly prepared is only going to help you handle last minute changes more calmly. Having a plan for different levels of guest counts will take away the panic if or when new restrictions are announced. I recommend speaking with your vendors to coordinate a scenario with 10, 25, and 50 people. In terms of flowers, this means knowing who needs personal flowers, how this affects your tables and centrepieces and other details that might need adjusting. Although creating plans A-D sounds daunting, you will feel much more confident knowing that you are ready for whatever the government deems safe for the upcoming months.
Pricing & the flower shortage
It is no secret that flowers come at a cost. Add in the time and expertise it takes to create these one of a kind floral pieces and a respectful budget becomes a necessity. The flower industry is in a unique position right now for many reasons. We are seeing an increase of farms that have had to close due to the pandemic, lack of funding, lack of staff and some trouble with overseas shipping. You then have areas that have been negatively affected by harsh weather conditions, constant rain and little sunshine. These farmers are not able to meet the demand due to the lack of product they have been able to produce. Combine all these issues with the increase in flower sales on a global scale, and we are walking on unchartered territory, again.
So what does this mean for your wedding? We are working diligently and creatively to bring in our flowers. We have dealt with missing items from our shipments due to lack of availability, we are dealing with an increase in prices on not only flowers but also our supplies. It comes down to patience and understanding in all areas of our work. I know that our “pandemic brides” are stressed and overwhelmed and facing more obstacles than the couples in the years before them, so my advice is to try to remember that we are all human, there is only so much we can control but that your vendors are doing everything they can to support and help you.
Setups
Our wedding calendar is usually packed with setups and deliveries, but it is looking a little different this year. With the most current restrictions, we are not permitted to access your private property to set up backyard installments, which is the most common venue across the board for us in 2021. When planning things last minute, we strongly encourage you to base your decision off the current set of restrictions to avoid even more last-minute adjustments. We want to keep our clients and team as safe as can be and we cannot go against public health by acting against current government mandates. If you are wanting aisle arrangements, arch installations or other large floral based pieces, I recommend speaking with your florist to see the likelihood of being able to set up yourself and what supplies would be needed to complete the job.
If you have any further questions about how to best prepare for your wedding, reach out to your vendors! They are the ones who will have your best interests in mind and can help you navigate these crazy times. I promise that as a community, we want nothing more than to make sure our brides still have one of the best days of their lives and we will work with you until we get you there.
Brittany
Academy Florist Event & Wedding Coordinator