This weeks wedding was nothing less than a dream. From a dream venue and dream center pieces, I wanted to be a guest at this wedding! After two weeks working with Floriography, I have a better idea of the process a florist takes for a wedding. Each week we get Monday off to recover from the weekend. We start on Tuesday morning picking up flowers from a floral wholesaler. Mrs. Emily went into the wholesaler with a general idea of the color pallet, but was not set on which flowers. She had me grab a cart and then pulled various flowers on the cart, after a couple stacks, we sat back and looked at the flowers next to each other to see if we liked what we saw. We put some flowers back and went through this process multiple times during our shop. After getting all the flowers, Mrs. Emily sends me on errands to get various materials we need for the wedding such as wire, ribbon and general flower products such as cages. When I arrive back, we process all the flowers and then put them in the fridge. The rest of the day is spent cleaning up from the previous weddings and various office support communicating what the weekend will require.
This week was a little different, the bride ordered cactus escort cards (the cutest escort cards ever) and 13 tall center pieces. On Tuesday we started spray painting the tall center pieces gold, and touching up the escort wall, cleaning it down and spray painting it white. The rest of the week was left for designing. We had a rehearsal dinner on Friday and two weddings on Saturday, luckily one bride picked her flowers up morning of. I had never thought about the charge of set up and delivery. Mrs. Emily told me a large part of a bride's floral budget is the delivery which unfortunately takes away from the actual flower budget. For example, this weekend we had to drive to Santa Fe, rent 3 vans and, stay at an Air b&b for one night which was all covered by the bride. On Friday after the arrangements were completed, we started packing everything up. Our rule is to pack the flowers to be able to be moved by the number of people there the morning of to deliver them. We compact them in boxes and paper to prevent the vases from cracking.
The cactus escort cards were definitely my favorite part of this week. Escort cards are used for a reception that has guests names and table numbers on them, so the guests know what table they will be sitting at the reception. Mrs. Emily provided the cactus and the calligraphy of the guest names and table numbers were done by @ashleyrosehandlettering. Once we received the cactus back, we took bronze wire and poked them through the top and then curled it around the top to give it a rustic look to hang on the escort wall.
This wedding set up was pretty crazy because we first had to set up the ceremony in the groom's parent's lovely backyard, and then race to the reception venue of Gerald Peters Gallery. An important lesson I learned was to always come with back up materials. While putting a large flower center piece on a tree, Mrs. Emily accidentally dropped it, breaking the cage and essentially ruining the arrangement. None of us could show emotion as the groom's parents were inside watching our every move. Luckily, Mrs. Emily packed extra flower cages in water and a "bonus bucket" with various extra flowers from the arrangements. We took both and Mrs. Emily made the entire arrangement again on spot.
I realized just how many people it took to put on a wedding and event in general. Vendors were fighting for space and comparing their rentals. There was no time to stop. As a florist, I learned it is crucial to get the flower center pieces on the table before the plates and silver-wear is placed, because it is very hard to reach over the table and flower bits ball on the table and in the cups. Fun fact, the paintings in the gallery were still wet! We had to be intentional about set up and be respectful to the venue. After completing set up of the reception, we had to leave to take down the ceremony. It was so much easier than set up because we just threw everything in boxes and back in the vans. After a dinner break, we went to the Air b&b for a 3 hour nap. We all woke up at 11:30 PM to "strike the wedding", aka just clean up. It was late and many of the guests were beginning to leave. We had to be careful to mind our own business to not make the guests feel like the party was ending. Striking took about 1 1/2 hours. Something I was surprised about was how kind and helpful the employees of the venue were. They helped us pack all of our stuff and even moved our massive escort walls! It is so important to keep a positive attitude because everyone is very tense, and you will stand out if you're positive and are confident with what you're doing. After striking, we finally went back to the Air b&b to sleep for the night, it was a long day but nothing short of magical. I loved every minute!
Below of photos of the ceremony.
Below are photos from the reception at Gerald Peters Gallery.