Megan | Scottsdale, AZ Florist & Event Designer | Fleur de Vie Studio
Most couples walk into a florist consultation asking about price and availability. Here are the questions that actually tell you whether you’re hiring the right person.
What should I ask a wedding florist in a consultation?
Ask what they would do with complete creative freedom for your wedding. Ask to see range in their portfolio not just highlights. Ask how they handle things going wrong on the day of. Ask what they need from you to do their best work. And always do a gut check after the call before you sign anything.
How do you know if a florist is right for you?
You leave the consultation feeling excited and like you just handed something important to someone you trust. A polite maybe means keep looking.
What is the difference between a florist and a floral designer?
A florist works from recipes and standard arrangements. A floral designer builds custom concepts from scratch around who you are as a couple, your venue, and the atmosphere you want to create. They are two different services and not every wedding needs a designer, but if you want something specific to you, you do.
Should a florist provide a mood board?
Yes. A floral designer should be able to show you a visual direction before anything gets built. If a florist can’t give you even a general sense of what they’re envisioning, that’s worth paying attention to.
Most couples walk into a florist consultation with a Pinterest board, a budget number, a wish list, and a general vibe they want to achieve. Which is a totally fine place to start. But the consultation itself, the actual conversation, that’s where you figure out whether you’re talking to the right person or just a person.
And most people don’t know what to ask beyond “how much does this cost” and “have you worked at my venue before.”
So here’s what I’d actually want you to ask. As someone who has been on the other side of a lot of these calls and can tell you pretty quickly what the answers reveal about who you’re hiring.
Start with the obvious one but listen for how they answer it
“Have you worked at my venue before?”
This is a fine question. Venue familiarity matters, load in windows, lighting, layout, which spaces have the most impact, all of that is useful to know. But the more interesting follow up is what do you love about it or what would you do differently there than anywhere else.
A florist who has worked a venue fifty times and never thought about it beyond logistics is giving you one answer. A designer who lights up talking about the stone columns or the way the light hits the ceremony space at 5pm or the interesting architectural detail they’ve been wanting to work with is giving you a completely different one.
The answer tells you whether they see venues as backdrops or as part of the design itself. Huge difference.
Ask them what they’d do with creative freedom
This is the one I mentioned before and I’ll say it again because it’s that useful.
“If I gave you complete creative freedom for my wedding, what would you do?”
A florist who works from recipes is going to ask you for more parameters. More photos. More direction. Because the work starts from your input and moves toward execution.
A designer is going to start talking about you. About the feeling they want to create. About what they want your guests to experience when they walk in. About something that didn’t exist before that conversation started.
Neither answer is wrong for everyone. But one of them is going to tell you very quickly whether you’re talking to someone who executes or someone who creates. Know which one you’re looking for before you walk in.
Ask to see range in their portfolio, not just highlights
Most florists show you their best work. Which makes sense. But best work that all looks the same tells you something. Best work that spans different aesthetics, different color stories, different scales and vibes and venues, that tells you something else entirely.
You want to see that they can flex. That the work they did for a moody jewel tone forest wedding looks completely different from the bright tropical installation they did for a brand activation, which looks completely different from the clean minimalist ceremony they did for a small intimate gathering.
If everything in their portfolio looks like it came from the same template, that’s the template you’re getting. Which is fine if that template is exactly your vibe. But if you want something specific to you, you need to see evidence that they’re capable of designing specifically.
Ask how they handle things going sideways
Not in a gotcha way. Just genuinely, what happens when something doesn’t go according to plan.
A flower variety doesn’t arrive. The rentals are two hours late. It starts raining sideways an hour before the ceremony. What do you do.
The answer you want is something like: we handle it before you find out about it. The answer that should give you pause is anything that involves passing the problem to you or the planner or just hoping it works out.
I’ve had a full order land in Kansas two days before an event. I’ve set up in torrential rain with gale force winds while rentals were two hours late and guests were arriving. You figure it out. You make calls, you drive across the valley, you grab chairs alongside the rental team because standing around waiting is not an option. That’s the energy you want in your corner on one of the most logistically complex days of your life.
Ask what they actually need from you to do their best work
This one most people don’t think to ask and it’s so useful.
Because the answer tells you what kind of client they work best with. And whether you’re that client.
What I need from my couples is trust and openness. I need them to be willing to hear a suggestion even if it’s different from what they came in expecting. I need them to do a gut check on a mood board instead of analyzing it to death. I need them to care about the flowers, not just need them.
If a florist’s answer is something like I just need your vendor list and a floor plan and we’re good, that’s a more transactional relationship. Not bad, just different. Know what kind of experience you want to have.
And one more, the one that filters everything
After the consultation, before you sign anything, check your gut.
Not your spreadsheet. Not your mom’s opinion. Your gut.
Did you leave that call feeling excited and a little like you just handed something important over to someone you trust? Or did you leave feeling like you got through it and now you need to compare quotes?
I operate on the mantra that if it’s not a f**k yes it’s a f**k no. In design, in business, in life. And I’d encourage you to apply the same thing to every vendor you hire for your wedding. The right florist, the right photographer, the right planner, those people don’t leave you feeling neutral. They leave you feeling like okay, that person gets it. That person gets me.
That feeling is what you’re actually looking for in a consultation. The questions just help you find it faster.
If you want to see what a consultation with me actually feels like, I’d love to connect. Come with your Pinterest board, your questions, and your gut. We’ll figure out the rest together.
Want to work together? Let’s connect.
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