Lee Bouras, from award-winning Wyld Orchids, runs her thriving floral online consultation and design service from her flower studio in Adelaide, South Australia.

Wyld Orchids creates bespoke and artistic wedding flower arrangements to enhance and embellish the look and feel of an entire wedding; from churches to civil ceremonies, receptions and all types of bridal flowers.

In Lee's 2nd post for Unbridely, she talks about how hiring an experienced, talented and personable florist can make all the difference to your big day -

saving you undue stress, time AND money.

Thanks again, Lee!

Being a wedding florist is a specialist occupation.

All I do, week in and week out, is plan, create and design wedding flowers. Then on the weekend, I'm delivering, setting up, styling and overseeing it all come together.

It's my passion and I love my job!

But there is also a lot of consulting work done behind the scenes, that not many couples are aware of, which separates the people who work with flowers as a hobby from the professionals.

The experience that a wonderful florist gains from designing and preparing flowers for hundreds of weddings before yours is well worth every cent because:

1) You need them to get it right the FIRST time (there are no second chances).

My process begins with the client completing a discovery questionnaire and I follow up with a phone call to confirm their requirements and my availability.

Then a floral consultation is scheduled, when the client provides me with their ideas for arrangements, the bridal bouquet, bridesmaids’ bouquets and centerpieces. I have a collection of thousands of floral photos that I use to help clarify the direction that we are going in and there is a lot of sharing of ideas, designs and style boards.

Once the designs are decided, I begin to break them down into the various elements, including which flowers and foliage to order, what type and how many vases to buy, when to pick up the flowers and when to drop them off at the venue and everything else that is needed to translate the idea into reality.

The next step is to start the process of negotiating with my growers and suppliers to confirm availability, communicate with the church and/or other wedding venues, plan the logistics, calculate overhead costs, time the bloom of flowers perfectly, considering the duration of the event and accounting for the climate at the venue/s and a dozen other details.

All this takes time.

And it costs money.

Pre-orders have to be made for every single flower that will be a part of the wedding. Brides frequently have set ideas on which flowers they want for their wedding and, more often than not, these tend to be the ones that are the most gorgeous and most expensive.

A great florist has to juggle many different (and sometimes conflicting) priorities and the payment you make covers all of it.

In the end, the execution of this comes down to the expertise and experience of the florist.

As with any industry, you generally get what you pay for.

2) Your flowers are going to be in most of your wedding photos, so you want them to look good.

I have seen so many images where the flowers are poorly made, broken or wilting and don't look good in photos (let alone in real life).

Designing flowers may look simple but it's not.

Years of training, experience and expertise go into creating amazing wedding flowers.

3) You need to connect and feel comfortable with your florist during the planning process.

A great relationship between you and your florist means that your communication (frequently dozens of phone calls or emails over the duration of the planning and execution process) is quicker and easier.

This saves you time and reduces undue stress and also means that you are more likely to end up with what you want (saving you money).

Look at a potential florist's designs to see if they have the experience and skill to transform your vision into reality. But also make sure you feel comfortable chatting with them; book a florist you connect with and can relate to.

A florist who is experienced and talented, but not personable or good at communicating, may not be good enough.

**4) Your bouquet is as important as your wedding dress (okay, I'm a wedding florist so I may be a little biased).**

But it is certainly preferable to have your flowers enhance the style and design of your dress rather than detract from it.

Having a beautiful dress and then seeing a poorly designed/too big or small/bad DIY bouquet next to it just makes me sad.

5) Flowers bring your wedding to life!

When you look at photos of beautiful weddings, the flowers are everything. Remove those flowers and the images (and the feeling they evoke in real life) are simply not the same.

Hanging floral and foliage installations, stand-alone arrangements and embellishments on chairs are trending in 2016/2017 and can create an atmosphere of refined, yet relaxed elegance.

Thank you to Lee Bouras from Wyld Orchids for her words and images. Thank you to Mel Boulden Photography, BCaptured, Now And Then Photography & Essence Studios for their photos.

We'd love to hear what you think the most important aspects of choosing a wedding florist is. Let us know in the comments below.