Pandemic Bride Chronicles Part Two: The Impact of Floral Artists & Quality Design
This post is dedicated to floral artists but specifically Sarah Khan Event Styling. For making our intimate dream beautiful, thank you.
During our private engagement, I knew that I had to begin researching vendors because the social event marketplace is working more so than the corporate market. In our search of our vendors, we decided on businesses we believe would honor our privacy, celebrate our culture, and demonstrate excellence. Thanks to my years in the business, I knew some of the vendors from the onset but one of the hardest searches was in floral and design. As you begin your search, a search that is much more nuisance in a pandemic here are a few tips.
1. Do not be blinded by the term ‘award-winning’. Award winning vendors that do not provide proposals/email responses are not worth your time. I know this sounds harsh, but I reached out to a vendor that I love including following up to ask the status of the proposal and ultimately after 4 weeks they did not respond, as of this essay they never wrote back despite saying “I will have a response to you by Monday.” I think sometimes that ‘the lists’ is how many people source their vendors and yes, that is a good start but if a vendor is on a list but lacks follow through do not wait for them. Our vendor partner has represented excellence in floral design.
2. Invest in décor. Floral design is different that Trader Joes floral selection – As a non-florist let me say I am impressed by the lengths that floral designers have gone through to deliver quality weddings within this country. For our wedding we have two custom flowers that are being shipped from Holland. What does this mean? Do not expect that a lower guest count automatically means that your design will be cheaper, as a matter of fact you may pay more and frankly, paying for quality service I have found is not a bad thing. I am so pleased with our final decorator decision because in addition to her international contacts, she has already provided us with a detailed Plan B of what will happen if our florals do not arrive in time due to COVID. There are two main lessons I want you to remember:
Quality requires an investment.
Your floral decorator should be able to communicate a COVID contingency plan.
3. Look for creative collaboration. If your floral designer/decorator does not expand your mood board, move on. In searching for my floral decorator, there was one vendor who sent a proposal without inserting their ideas in the proposal instead they copied and pasted my images. Additionally, they highlighted that they were offering a cost-effective option even though we did not ask for one. For me there are two learnings:
If a vendor has already decided that you deserve cost effective without context, dismiss them immediately because they are working on a preconceived view of you and simply put, they are not willing to do the work to understand you.
Be specific in your expectations when they submit a proposal – As a fellow business owner, I realize what I am asking because I do not want to work on a proposal without winning the work or worse someone stealing my ideas. In this instance, I encourage you to schedule a call to get a better understanding of what is being offered.
Most importantly, I encourage all pandemic engaged couples not to shrink their vision because they can only have 8, 10 or 20 guests because you deserve to do it your way and absolutely make it pretty.
As of this essay, we are having 8 guests at our wedding with a trio, two vocalists, 4 course menu and more. Some may say “its over the top” and I will confidently respond “We did our way.”
p.s. Don’t forget to follow along with our journey via IG @belajoyful.
