Planning a wedding is such an exciting time. It;s our turn now, with our eldest daughter. Most of her friends are already married, and she has been involved in such a proprtion of their ceremonies. Because of this, she knws all to well the financial implications of a wedding and getting married. She has had to spend well over two hundred dollars at her friends wedding, just to be the bridesmaid! It's not just the dress, or the shoes, but it's also the gifts and the bachelorette parties. She is conscious to try and keep it low key and keep costs to a minimum for herself and her friends. We know that we'll have to help financially, but we are dead set on spending all that's necessary to get the right flowers for the day.

I have enjoyed a close relationship with my daughter since a very early age, and a particular interest we share is our passion for flowers. We spent so many hours together when she was younger looking after the flowers, water the plants and keeping the garden tidy. Whenever we go to weddings together, we always pay particular attention to the bridal flowers, and so we want to make sure that we get the bouquet just right for her wedding day.

I remembered from my wedding that there were large differences in price between different florists. We decided it would be a good idea to check with some local to the area. We were more interested to see examples of their work, and pictures of previous arrangements they had done so we could draw up a shortlist. Eventually, we decided to narrow it down to a choice of five.

The first one we went into had half a dozen albums filled with phots of bouquets and arrangements she had created previously. There were loads of photos of table top arrangements and corsages as well as the bridal bouquets, and she seemed to have an excellent eye for the main flower and a flair for creative design. Her pricing was top end, and she prepared a detailed estimate for the arrangements for the wedding, although highlighted this would be subject to availability.

Next, the second florist had a very unique style. He liked to use flowers with other materials to make very unorthodox, but still stylish bouquets, for a sort of new age look, although this was not to my daughter's (or my own) taste. The next florist we visit was the same florist responsible for my wedding bouquet all those years ago. She showed some previous examples and made recommendations based on our specifications and our budget, and she really helped to cut the costs dramatically. My daughter was completely bowled over, and decided to put in her order on the spot.

We were very satisfied with the service and results we received, and find it particularly handy that we avoided visiting the other florists on our list, which allowed us to dedicate more time to making the big day perfect.