How to Choose Your Wedding Flowers
A Wedding Floral Designers’ Guide
Late spring wedding at the beautiful Annapolis Maritime Museum Photo: Diana Galay Photo
Getting engaged and planning your wedding is such an exciting time - a moment to celebrate love, dream about the future, and plan a one-of-a-kind gathering with family and friends. And while it’s joyful, it can also feel a little overwhelming. With so many decisions to make, it’s easy to feel pressure to get everything “right” before you even know where to begin.
As a floral designer duo that has worked at venues throughout Maryland and Virginia for over a decade, we’ve outlined five key elements - vibe, venue, seasonality, budget, and team — to help you feel more confident and grounded as you begin your floral planning journey..
Vibe
Before you even think about flowers, let’s talk about feeling. Take a moment to consider the mood you’d like to convey. Do you dream of something soft and romantic? Organic and wild? Deeply personal? Or dramatic and moody? The emotional atmosphere of your wedding is the story you’re telling - and once that feeling is defined, it naturally guides many of the decisions that follow.
If narrowing down your vibe feels challenging, Pinterest can be a helpful starting point. Try a no-judgement “pin everything that draws your eye” session, then step away for a few days and return to see what themes begin to emerge. You can also explore our galleries and inspiration boards, or simply move on to the next section and let your venue help clarify your aesthetic.
Venue
Your venue plays a significant role in shaping the overall experience of your wedding, making it an essential part of defining both feeling and design. Florals interact differently with every space — the right approach can either enhance a venue’s existing beauty or create an international contrast for a fresh, unexpected result.
For example, the grand scale and industrial architecture of venues like the Butterfly Room offer a beautiful blank slate, lending themselves well to larger installations and a wide range of design styles. A setting such as Goodstone often benefits from a more restrained approach, allowing the surrounding gardens and landscape to take center stage. Meanwhile, venues like the Engineers Club naturally alight with classic, retro, or opulent aesthetics, though a modern twist can tell an entirely different story.
As you consider your venue, think about what draws you to the space. How does it feel? Is there something personal that connects you to it - or perhaps a design challenge you’re excited to reimagine?
We love designing with the space in mind, creating harmony between a venue’s existing features and the story our clients want to tell.
The minimal palette, undulating forms and emphasized roundness of this chic modern wedding play off the existing architecture and light installation of the BMA.
Photo: Phylicia Willis
Season
Although flowers can be sourced from around the world, availability is never guaranteed. Paying attention to your wedding season - and remaining open to nature’s guidance — often leads to the most beautiful results.
Here in the Maryland and Virginia area, we’re fortunate to have access to an abundance of local blooms throughout much of the year. In-season flowers tend to be the most resilient and expressive, with each season offering its own unique character.
A few seasonal considerations worth noting:
Spring: Soft, petal-forward blooms like peonies, tulips, and poppies create a fresh, romantic feel.
Summer: The most abundant season, full of texture and color — think wild grasses, echinacea, zinnias, hydrangea, solidago and cosmos.
Autumn: Rich, vibrant, and moody tones take center stage, with dahlias in abundance alongside earthy amaranthus and celosia.
Winter: Limited availability encourages more refined, intentional designs featuring sculptural blooms like amaryllis, hellebores, orchid and textural winter greens.
Budget
Approaching your floral budget with intention can be incredibly supportive to your overall vision. Full-service floral design is an investment in experience — and that experience can vary widely depending on scale, floral variety, installation needs, and the level of labor and logistics involved.
Rather than viewing budget as a limitation, it can be helpful to think of it as a design tool. Budget helps guide where florals will have the greatest impact — whether that’s a statement ceremony moment, an immersive reception space, or thoughtfully designed personal flowers. When approached collaboratively, it allows the focus to shift toward cohesion, scale, and experience rather than individual line items.
Thoughtful budgeting doesn’t mean doing less — it means designing with intention.
Thoughtful installation creates an immersive reception at the Winslow Photo: Megan Harris Photography
Team
Choosing the right floral designer is about more than selecting arrangements; it’s about finding a creative partner whose style and process align with your own.
While it can be tempting to focus on price lists, a designer’s portfolio often offers far more insight into what your experience will be like. Portfolios reveal not just aesthetic, but consistency — how a designer works with color, scale, seasonality, and space across many different weddings. Just as importantly, they reflect a process rooted in communication, trust, and thoughtful collaboration.
Wedding flowers are not static products; they are created in real time, shaped by your venue, the season, and the natural variations of each bloom. When style alignment and clear communication are in place, decisions feel easier and the final result feels cohesive, intentional, and deeply personal.
Choosing a designer whose work you trust allows you to step out of the details and into the experience — knowing your florals are being guided with care from start to finish.
Ceremony installation at Goodstone Inn, VA. Photo: January Skies
At the end of the day, wedding flowers should feel joyful, not stressful. When you work with a team you trust, the process becomes one of reassurance and clarity — giving you the peace of mind to be fully present for what matters most.
If you’re planning a wedding in Baltimore, Maryland, or Northern Virginia and are drawn to thoughtful, elevated floral design, we’d love to connect.
