The Planner-Florist-Photographer Connection

Okay, I’ll say it. I am a wedding planner’s biggest fan, if I were to change avenues in this industry, I think I’d try my hand at planning. The amount of time and effort they put into your wedding day is unmatched by any other vendor. But maybe, just because I have some bias towards my section of the wedding world, your florist comes in second. Planners and florists put so much effort into planning your event, months, and sometimes even a year, away from the date. With this in mind, you know that the two vendors who put their entire heart and soul into the beautification of your event HAVE to work well together for the vision to be executed perfectly.

Take me and my planner bestie for instance. We LOVE creating. Get us and our bestie photographer (behind the camera of course) together? There’s nothing that can stand in our way of making absolute magic happen.

Ashtyn with Artistry in Bloom, Nicole with AP Event Co, and Elissa Purdin Photo

Because I live in a world where art is the main focus, no, I don’t think that does it enough justice. Art is everything. When you’re navigating a world through the lens of an artist, you start to appreciate more of the finer details. You begin to notice the paintings in the coffee shop, the colors on a plant’s leaf, the texture of a building. And that right there? That act of noticing, is where inspiration lives. I am able to respect the work of the artists around me, and vise-versa. You see, artistic concepts don’t exist in a vacuum, they come from little moments of noticing. In todays day and age, inspiration often comes from something you saw while scrolling mindlessly, but that almost can be more beautiful. Stay with me here. People can mindlessly scroll for hours upon hours, not retaining any information at all. I used to be that person, wasting away my days watching videos of people I didn’t care about, about topics I didn’t care about. Somewhere along the way, I stopped consuming and started creating. And it was all because of one video. I don’t remember much, but it was enough to cut through the noise. it was a stick figure stop motion drawing of a person in bed, on their phone and a clock spinning around. I felt like that little stick figure guy. Days passing me by without noticing them. But that one video has stuck with me, it was art that got me out of that cycle. Art has the power to cut through the unless noise and inspire someone to take action.

But how does this connect with the planner-florist-photographer connection? Well, we are all artists, we all can take inspiration from the same viral videos, and occasionally a niche idea comes to life. When creatives get together they are collaborating every experience they’ve had coming up to this point. Those experiences shape the way the work comes to life. I believe everyone is born a creative, we all colored, drew, even sometimes built. Somewhere along the way, we stopped nurturing our creative side, stopped believing in the impossible, wild, and weird. I think of this in the “Nature vs. Nurture” concept. Some of us nurtured the creativity we had as children, I believe those are the few who found themselves in an industry such as this. My belief in the fantastical, shapes the way I approach my medium. Was I born with the belief of faeries and elves and magic, or did I learn through stories and movies? Creatives have let themselves out of the box of seeing only what’s right in front of them, and looking deeper into the details.

Being a florist, I am in the business of right now. I work with perishable products, so by the time anyone gets a professional picture back of the creation, it doesn’t exist anymore. Or, I guess it does, just in a mushy, buggy, pile of gross. Anyways, the whole concept of my work is to appreciate what you have in the moment. But! This is where the photographer comes in! The entire reason you can see my work is because some lovely photographer has captured a moment in time. Captured the exact moment when those flowers existed, where each stem was. It’s pretty magical really. The thing I find the most incredible about photography is that each photographer has their own style. No two people see the picture the same way, and that’s what makes their art so beautiful to me. I keep getting off on tangents, sorry, I just get so passionate about the arts. I truly believe that a good wedding day starts with the right vendors. My thoughts? Planner first, venue next, florist and then photographer. Not exactly in a step-by-step list. More like; planner-venue, florist-photography, altogether, all at once.

There’s a reason flowers have been part of major celebrations for centuries, they carry meaning. Floriography isn’t an exact science, I can look up the meaning of a poppy right now and get five different answers. But, the precise meaning of each flower is not the point, not to me anyway, the point is that someone decided to gift or have flowers for a reason only known to them. Maybe the color connects to the shirt color they wore on the first date with their partner. Flowers on a wedding day are a deeply personal decoration, yes they’re beautiful, yes they smell good, but they are living art. I’ll get more into the reason for flowers on wedding days in another blog because I find it incredibly fascinating.

When you have a planner, so much stress goes away, all of the finer details are no longer your responsibility. They can curate a vision so personal to you, that it cannot be replicated. They know vendors who have the vibe you’re looking for already, so you don’t have to search for people without knowing if they’d truly fit. Get the planner, know your vision, find the venue. All the pieces will fill in from there. Your planner already has vendors they love, such genuine friendships form between and outside of business, so on the wedding day we are all excited not only for you, but for the chance to work with people they love. That’s a feeling that carries through the day. As a florist, I’m always happy to learn that couples have a planner I’ve worked with before, or one that I’ve heard great things about. The planner can make or break your day, so when I know I can trust your planner to tell me their fully detailed, minute-by-minute timeline, I know it’ll be a wedding day I can enjoy along with you.

Of course, there is a reason why good photographers are held onto. A planner can curate a vibe all they want, and I can make a beautiful floral installation any day, but it’s almost all for nothing if we don’t have a good picture of it. I’ve always said, you can tell when a photographer like your work, because they just have a way of making it stand out. Sure, I have my phone, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the work done by a professional camera and the artist behind. I make friends with the artists behind the planner and photography businesses, because I know that when you find people you love, you hold on tight. A centerpiece without a taplescape is just pretty flowers, a tablescape without flowers just hurts my heart, but a tablescape without any pictures might as well not exist. Your vendors have your back, and these three can make or break the whole atmosphere of the day, so choose them wisely.

Ashtyn, Artistry in Bloom