Wedding creatives work really hard, so I wrote a blog to prove it!
Me, working hard on a styled shoot! Image by the amazing photographer Mary W Thomas.
This last week the Internet went a bit mad for a recent blog post by Love My Dress and I wanted to write something in response to that article. This response is not written as a way of questioning what the writer had written, because I do agree with the sentiment, but more as a way to try and tell the other side of the story, to tell the story of what goes on behind the scenes in small businesses who are trying to capture the imagination of prospective couples in the wedding industry.
The article had a very valid point which was that we easily get carried away with looking at content and creating content that we hope resonates. We try to be impactful, dramatic, stylised and eye-catching and sometimes that comes at the expense of the smaller moments, the intimacy in the quieter moments, the moments that are what weddings are all about. So, whilst I completely agree with the author it got me thinking about my business and how I’m always striving to put forward images and inspiration that are eye-catching, impactful and grabs peoples attention, but there’s so much more going on behind the scenes, so many more delicate moments and conversations with couples that does do all the things that the author was saying she felt were lacking in the Industry.
So I thought it’d be a really good thing to write about this and to write about all the going’s on behind the scenes so you could learn a little more about what goes into creating each wedding. Some of these weddings do end up on the grid and are sometimes put out there as inspirational or aspirational. But, what is important to note is that doesn’t mean there wasn’t tender, beautiful moments going on, behind the polished images, on the inside and on the lead up to these special days.
It struck me that you often see only the finished product and even then we have to make it eye-catching or engaging in the first few seconds of a reel. Sometimes that can seem like we’re only working towards the goal of being seen, being followed or being re-shared but there is a lot more heart and soul in every small business that is not visible, that you might not be well aware of. So in this article I’m going to walk you through what a day looks like, what a week looks like, and what each year looks like this wedding florists’ point of view.
The initial contact
The process for each wedding doesn’t begin with the initial enquiry form email, there’s so much going on before we even get to that point. Part of that preparation is the creation of the content that you see on the Instagram or TikTok, it’s such a cyclical process so those finished images that you see can sometimes be the start of another couples journey. A prospective couple may see an image they like and think that’s something they’d like for their wedding and it begins their process. Now their process is a completely different process to the previous couples wedding. Each couple is different and we speak to each couple, we create a bond with each couple, to learn what that couple are looking for and to create something for that couple that’s unique to them. Before we even begin to discuss working with a new couple there’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to prepare for that- website design, writing blogs like these, researching new trends and ideas, all things that are going to make each wedding unique and different from the last. It’s really important to us that we work one on one with our clients, that we get an understanding of what they’re looking for so that we can create something original and unique to them. What we don’t do is copy things we’ve seen already- each of our designs are 100% original and one-off, they can’t be recreated because it wouldn’t have that heart and soul and it wouldn’t mean what it means if we just copied things.
One of the most important things to me is that my my work connects with my clients and that what they see if exclusively for them. This way of thinking means so much to us here at horseshoe flowers so that the way we put ourselves forward is about wanting to be seen by perspective couples as inspiring and innovative. So with their help of some amazing photographers who kindly let us use their images, we put some beautiful images on our website, work on our content for socials and create a mood that might inspire you. If that mood resonates then new couples find us through Instagram, through Google and through word-of-mouth. Once we receive an inquiry that’s when the one-on-one work starts so we’ll get back to our couples, we might research the venue if we haven’t worked there before, we will research their photographer so we can get a feel of kind of the style that they’re going for and then we will have a phone conversation to discuss all ideas.
Once we have a good understanding of the vibe our clients are looking for, we go away and put together a mood board, a colour palette and inspiration deck and will send images of previous work we’ve done that will give the couple an idea of of the kind of flowers we will create for them. One of the best things about working with dried flowers is that we can select the stems- the foliage and the flowers- that we will use for each couple and photograph them and show each couple exactly what they’re going to receive so there’s less surprises on their special day. After we create the mood board and quotes we will email to the clients who hopefully get inspired and excited by the concept that we have put together and hopefully they book in with us! This is when we take a breather until closer to a couples wedding.
Working with other creatives
We do a lot of work with other creatives within the industry which really helps Inspire us and make us feel excited about what we do. Creative people need to work with other creatives to bounce ideas and to suggest outlandish ideas that you might not do if it was just you working on your own. This gives you the confidence to kind of go a little bit further and push a bit more. Since we spend a lot of our time working on our own, it can be really amazing to work on collaborative concepts with other creatives. So. whilst there can be a bit of cynicism around styled shoots and how creating them is just a way of getting more visibility on the ‘gram, or proposing outlandish ideas that are not about real love or real commitment, as a wedding creative I find them really invaluable because it gives me a chance to push myself and push my ideas at work with other people who support me. It’s all about creative collaboration, so for me it’s more the process than the finished result, but obviously I love to receive a gallery from a really talented photographer that we worked with! Receiving those galleries is the most thrilling thing! Seeing the final result is how all your dreams come together, but the process is what’s important. Sometimes we do this through style shoots but sometimes we do we just meet up with other creatives to chat and to bounce ideas and to talk about weddings we have that we’re working on together. So yes, we do treat each wedding that we work with other creatives on as an inspiration, as a moment to be excited, and I think if your wedding creatives have chance to have these moments and to collaborate and get creative it creates a much more amazing wedding design at the end of the day. Hopefully this gives a couples even more joy and gives them little surprises on their wedding day. They can see the vision come to life and see it brought to life in a more amazing way than they ever imagined.
Creating mock ups
One of the best things about working with dried flowers is that we can practice things, we can play around with ideas and we can create the flowers and make changes. We’re not stuck with the floral order that we ordered. Sometimes when you order things from the suppliers they arrive and they’re not exactly as you anticipate, so we don’t have to work with things that we’re not sure about. It’s an amazing opportunity to create our designs and really finesse each design so we start with usually one of the bouquets, because I like to treat the main bouquet like a cornerstone of the design process. After we have made one of the bouquets, we send images and videos through to our couples who can then comment and make changes and make tweaks until they absolutely love what they see. We don’t often have many changes but it’s nice that a couple has that option. Our goal is to make our clients as happy as possible and if that means we tweak the design until it’s perfect for them that’s what we do.
One of the most creative things that we get to do is so funny to me, because it doesn’t sound that creative at all. It’s sitting on the computer looking at the flowers that we want to buy. I get so inspired when I sit down and lock in new flowers that I haven’t seen available before. Maybe it’s new colours that have just popped up that I haven’t seen before or new varieties. I just love that part of the process and since the flowers are dry and preserved, and they’re not going to wilt and die, we order things that we might not know how we’re going to use and it really pushes our design to be even more interesting. It makes our colour palettes more compelling because we can take a chance on a colour that we don’t know the outcome of when we buy it. So our studio is full of buckets of beautiful colours and different varieties and so we’re just surrounded by creativity every day and that’s a wonderful thing.
The hard graft
Being a florist is incredibly hard work. There’s lots of carrying, there’s lots of boxes- packing, unpacking… I’ve lost count of the number of splinters I’ve got in my hands! There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that’s quite a lot of manual labour. These are things that people don’t see when they just see the beautifully finished and polished look that we create. I spent hours on my feet every day standing and creating as well as carrying heavy boxes up and down flights of stairs.
The setup
One of the most thrilling parts of the job is seeing everything come together on the big day. Months of phone calls, emails, concept creation, research, looking for new flowers, new colours and creating colour stories and colour palettes, working with other creatives, pushing ideas further- they all come together on the morning of the wedding (or the day before if we are lucky and we are able to set up a little bit before- because remember we don’t have to worry about our flowers dying or wilting) in fact I’m writing this blog dictating it into my notes on my phone as I’m driving to do a wedding set up! Because this is the reality running a small business- there really isn’t time for all the things you need to do, so multitasking is key. I’m writing this blog, or dictating this blog, as I drive from Derbyshire down to Hertfordshire to set up the most beautiful wedding that I can’t wait to see in its all it’s glory, in its setting, so yes there’s nothing more thrilling than seeing your flowers in the setting that you envisaged amongst all of the bits and pieces that a couple have together created and gathered for their day. The name tags, number for the tables, the favours, their little ideas- the flip-flops, the blankets, colourful touches, their wedding signage! It’s amazing seeing everything come together and seeing the heart and the soul that each couple put into their special day. So whilst there can be criticism about how things are shown polished for instagram, we creatives see the real beauty behind every single wedding and the thought and the soul and the heart that goes into every one. It’s such a privilege and an amazing thing to be a part of and I absolutely love it.
So to summarise a couple of things- one, I hope this helps you see what goes on behind the scenes, how much each wedding means to us and how we care about every detail, making it perfect for you on your special day. But secondly, I hope this shows that there is love, there is beauty behind every single wedding that we work on- every wedding whether its an almost total DIY to fully managed and styled wedding- they’re all beautiful in their own way and wedding suppliers absolutely adore being part of each and every single one of them. We don’t just do it for the gram! We do it for the love stories, the joy and the beauty of those moments and each and every special day.