Your Wedding Flower Questions, Answered

I thought I’d put together a little blog post answering some of the questions I get asked most often when we’re chatting about your wedding flowers.

I do have a FAQ section on my website, but there are always a few extra questions that come up during the quoting and booking process that I thought might be helpful to talk about in a little more detail.

So, grab a cuppa and let’s get into it.

How do I actually book you?

Once we’ve chatted through your quote and made any little tweaks you’d like, I’ll send everything through for you to officially accept.

To lock in your date, you’ll pay a $500 deposit and sign your service agreement.

Once those two things are done, your date is officially yours and you’re booked in with Cottage & Co.

The deposit is non-refundable, as it’s what secures your date with me.

And then we can all breathe a little sigh of relief because you’re officially on the flower list.

Can I change my quote after I’ve booked?

Yes. Absolutely.

This is probably one of the questions I get asked the most, and I really don’t expect you to have every single detail figured out when you book.

You might book me 12 months out and completely change your mind about the colour palette six months later. You might decide you suddenly need flowers on the cake. You might realise you’ve forgotten about the bar. It happens!

I’m more than happy to adjust your quote as we go.

The only little rule I have is that you can remove up to 10% of your original quote. So if your original quote was $2,000, you can remove up to $200 worth of flowers or styling.

You can add as much as you like.

Do you have a minimum spend?

I do.

My minimum wedding spend is $2,000.

This allows me to give your wedding the time and attention it needs and means I can provide the full Cottage & Co experience rather than trying to make a wedding work on a very small flower order.

What if I change my mind about the colours or style?

Also completely okay.

I know things change!

Your wedding might look one way on Pinterest when you book and a completely different way six months later. That's part of the fun.

I can generally accommodate colour and style changes up until around two weeks before your wedding.

This is when I need to have everything finalised and place my flower orders, so after this point I really need to stick with what we've agreed on.

If it’s something tiny, I’ll always do my best to help, but two weeks out is when I like to have everything set in stone.

When do I pay the rest?

Your final payment is due 60 days before your wedding date.

By then, we’ll have worked through all the important details together, so you’ll know exactly what you’re paying for.

Do you actually come and set everything up?

Yep!

I’m not going to leave you with a car full of flowers and wish you luck.

Cottage & Co is a full-service wedding florist, so I’ll deliver your flowers and set everything up on the day.

For smaller weddings, it might just be me running around with flowers in my hands. For larger weddings, I’ll bring along some extra helping hands to make sure everything gets done properly and on time.

Can I send you all my Pinterest and Instagram inspiration?

Please do.

I actually love seeing what you’ve been saving.

I use your inspiration photos as a mood board to get a feel for what you love. The colours, shapes, textures, flowers and overall feeling you’re drawn to.

But your flowers will always be created in the Cottage & Co style.

So while I’m absolutely taking inspiration from those beautiful images you’ve been saving at 11pm, I’m not going to copy another florist’s work exactly.

If you have a scroll through my Instagram, you’ll get a good idea of the way I naturally design and work with flowers. Your wedding will be completely yours, but it will still have that little Cottage & Co touch.

Can I have a particular flower?

Maybe!

This one is a little bit of a we’ll see what Mother Nature says situation.

Flower availability depends on the season, growing conditions, what's available at market and sometimes just plain old luck.

I never promise a specific flower variety, but if there’s something you really, really love, tell me.

I’ll always do my best to source it for you.

Will I know exactly which flowers I’m getting?

Generally, no.

I know this can sound a little strange when you’re spending money on flowers, but I don’t promise specific flower varieties in your quote.

Your mood board will give you a good idea of the types of flowers, colours, shapes and textures I’m working towards, but it’s a mood board rather than a shopping list.

Fresh flowers are seasonal and sometimes the flower I had in mind simply isn’t available or isn’t looking its best.

I’d much rather choose the most beautiful flowers available and create something that feels like your wedding than force a particular variety just because it was on the original mood board.

Do you hire anything other than flowers?

I do!

I can hire plinths, urns, signage, candles and a few basic styling pieces to help bring everything together.

One thing I don’t hire is an arbour.

They’re just a bit too big and bulky for me to be dragging around in the back of my car!

You’re more than welcome to organise one through another hire company and I can work with it when I’m setting up your flowers.

How far do you travel?

Pretty much anywhere if you’re happy to cover the travel costs.

I’m based around Newcastle and regularly travel for weddings throughout Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, Sydney and surrounding areas, but I’m certainly not going to say no to a destination wedding.

So if you’re planning something a little further away, just ask.

What if I have absolutely no idea what I want yet?

Honestly? That’s fine.

You don’t need to have your entire wedding planned before you enquire with me.

If you’re 100% certain that you want Cottage & Co to do your flowers, I can put together a rough quote based on what we know so far.

If you decide you’d like to book, you can go ahead and secure your date with your deposit and service agreement, and then we can work out the finer details as we get closer.

Sometimes it’s much easier to make those decisions when the rest of your wedding starts falling into place anyway.

Do we have a meeting closer to the wedding?

Yes!

Around three to four months before your wedding, I’ll pop into your inbox with some questions for you to fill out.

These help me get all the final details together. Things like logistics, styling, timings, changes and anything else we need to know.

Once you’ve filled those out, if you’d like to have a phone call and talk everything through, we absolutely can.

Or, if you’d rather keep it all over email, that’s completely fine too.

After this final planning stage, your final invoice will be due.

What happens if it rains?

This is something we’ll chat about as we get closer to the day.

When I send through your final questions, I’ll ask about your wet weather plan.

And if your plan is simply “we’re getting married in the rain anyway”, that’s okay too!

Rain isn’t the only thing we need to think about, though. Really strong winds and very high temperatures can also have an impact on fresh flowers and how we can safely set things up.

Sometimes we need to make a little pivot on the day.

I’ll always do my best to talk things through with you first, but sometimes the weather gets the final say.

Can you move my ceremony flowers to the reception?

Yes, and I’m a big fan of this.

I love repurposing flowers throughout your wedding wherever we can.

Ceremony flowers can often be moved to the bridal table, cake table, bar or somewhere else around the reception, depending on the design and how they’re looking after the ceremony.

I’ll always include a repurpose option in your quote when it makes sense.

There is just one little thing to keep in mind.

If your flowers have spent two hours sitting outside in 35-degree heat or being blown around in the wind, they might not be quite as happy as they were when I first put them there.

They were originally purchased for one job, and if we get to give them a second life somewhere else, that’s a lovely bonus.

What happens after I book?

This is probably the bit that surprises people.

Once you’ve accepted your quote, paid your $500 deposit and signed your service agreement, you’re officially booked in.

And then...

It gets a little bit quiet.

Not because I’ve forgotten about you!

There just isn’t much we need to do for a little while.

If you’ve booked me 12 months out, I promise you don’t need to hear from me every Tuesday about your flowers.

Around three to four months before your wedding, I’ll get back in touch and we’ll start working through all those final details.

We can chat over email, have a phone call, or a bit of both, whatever works best for you.

Around two weeks before your wedding, I’ll send through your wedding day schedule so you know what’s happening and when.

And then...

I’ll see you on your wedding morning.

Hopefully with a car absolutely bursting with flowers.

Still have a question?

There are probably about 47 other questions I could have put on this list, but hopefully this has answered some of the things you might be wondering about.

And if it hasn’t, just ask!

There really are no silly questions when it comes to your wedding flowers.

If you’re thinking about booking Cottage & Co and want to chat about your plans, you can get in touch here and we’ll take it from there.

Rachel x