Your Best Wedding Flowers in Indianapolis

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! I’m Linda of Accent Floral Design LLC. I am the owner/ lead designer and pretty much everything else for my company. I’ve been a floral designer for over 30 years- with a strong background in tropical floral design. Quite by accident, I fell into floral design while I lived in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. The flower shop was located within a beautiful large beachfront hotel, where there were endless opportunities to create large showy hotel lobby arrangements on a weekly basis. The perfect learning environment to design on a large scale! I know I was incredibly lucky to have that time!

That entry into flower shop design work was just a taste of what weddings would be like on the mainland. After I left Hawaii, I continued floral designing on a different scale in a California flower shop, they had need of a floral designer who would focus in on their wedding clients and design. The traditional type of mainland weddings was quite a bit different than what they had been in Hawaii. This was a great opportunity to bring my knowledge of tropical floral design and blend it with the fresh flowers available on the west coast. Eventually, my husband's job brought us to the Midwest and we settled in the Indianapolis area. It was fun to be part of a smaller community and all aspects of floral design related to our areas of needs. I had never really considered going out on my own florally - until my until the flower shop was sold. That was the push I needed to take the plunge and start my own exclusive wedding floral company. I started Accent Floral Design in 2010.

Your wedding flowers can truly make quite a memorable impact your big day! The colors, textures and scents all help to complete your wedding day vision. Accent Floral Design has been entrusted to create for hundreds of weddings - each one unique in its own way- Choosing your wedding day flowers doesn’t have to be overwhelming- it can actually be fun! For more information on our services and company, you can visit us on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

What do you like the most about your job?

I chose to specialize in weddings and event floral design as my main focus due to the great satisfaction I get in helping my clients build their own personal vision. The planning and collaboration with clients is such a fun creative outlet for me. Getting to know my clients and helping them to visualize the big day is the BEST part of our consultation time. Putting the flowers and décor together on the wedding day for my clients and seeing their face as they get their first look at THE REAL THING coming together is the BEST! Happy tears and squeals of delight make it all worth every crazy late night spent putting on the final touches!

How to choose wedding flowers?

There are SO many beautiful wedding flowers to pour over on social media, and quite often a Bride will fall in love with a certain look she finds on a site like Pinterest (this is a GREAT tool for gathering inspiration on what we will put together for the wedding day).

First of all, reaching out to a professional florist is the first step!

When I first meet with our clients, I take great care in listening to what their vision is for their big day, always asking first if they have a themed style or “look” they are going for. Quite often there is a general palette of color and mood that seems to be the right fit. Knowing if perhaps these clients want a modern clean simplistic look will typically mean there will be less emphasis on greenery or multiple varieties of flowers. If the Bride has been leaning towards wanting a softer palette with a lush romantic flow, perhaps more of an English garden appeal of large open bloom garden roses, hydrangeas, and peonies are the flowers that fill that look.

I typically dial in on what the bride is wanting to carry in her bouquet and how that design will come together with her bridesmaids’ bouquets. The wedding flowers always fall into place after that selection has been established.

Why should I hire a wedding florist?

Fresh flowers are obviously a perishable product, there is no second chance to get it right on the wedding day. We are prepared to deal with all the nuances of dealing with a delicate, temperature sensitive, living product. Would you want to entrust the specifics on ordering the correct quantity, processing, conditioning, designing, storage, delivery and installation of specific flowers into the care of a non-professional?

In the past, I have taken last minute weddings from clients in a panic, who found out how much work it truly was to get their wedding flowers put together. They thought a family member or friend was “going to help them put the wedding flowers together” and that help never materialized. This is often a recipe for disaster, I have seen my share of “DIY” clients who come to me figuring they would save money on their big day by doing SOME of their own ceremony or reception flowers or the bride who decided she wanted to have fun with her bridesmaids and put together all their bouquets the night before the wedding. Needless to say, these great “cost-saving ideas” for DIY often simply just never have time to get completed or they backfire so badly it creates a very stressful situation for everyone involved. Other times there are the classic cases of the flowers are left unattended somewhere too hot and they wilt or placed somewhere too cold and freeze! There are so many sad stories that wedding professionals can tell about clients who opted to save a few dollars by cutting corners on areas that truly did need experienced hands taking care of these details.

Professional wedding florists have so many connections with our floral wholesalers, we order flowers in from around the globe. We know what is in season, we know what can be substituted if our primary flower isn’t available. Our wholesalers are often like family to us, and know exactly the colors and sizes we are needing. I cannot stress enough how IMPORTANT our floral vendors are to us! They have pulled together SO many wonderful alternatives on last-minute situations due to weather-related or delayed shipment situations for us! Getting flowers shipped overnight from California or Florida is nothing new for us!

We also take great pride in our strong commitment to being a team player with our other wedding day professionals. Wedding day timelines and coordination with our vendors are crucial. It's our goal to get all deliveries, installations made, final details addressed while making our couples day flow seamlessly.

What are some tips to save money on wedding flowers?

Most all weddings have a floral budget and it sometimes happens that the desired wedding vision and the budget don’t quite meet.

• One of the first rules of thumb is to choose flowers that are in season. If you LOVE peonies, then perhaps plan a springtime wedding! If Dahlias are a favorite flower, that’s more of a mid-summer to a mid-autumn season for them. It's not always impossible to get a flower that is out of season, but there is indeed a higher cost for that beauty!
• Colors! This may not make sense right away but think about trying to match colors and getting caught up with too many tones of the palette. In order to keep that cohesive look throughout the wedding day, you may need to bring in MORE stems to blend all those colors. Sometimes you just need to dial it back a bit. And always remember, a classic all-white wedding will NEVER go out of style!
• Another easy way of cutting some costs are to repurpose ceremony floral décor into the reception for placements. Garlands or floral accents along the aisle pews or chairs might have a place along the head table at the reception. Altar arrangements might look great flanking the stage or dance floor. Bridal and bridesmaid bouquets always look pretty placed in their vases along the front or center of the head table. I would change a few things on altar arrangements from the church, perhaps adding in more draping greens and large blooms and popped them onto completely different stands and placed them on the Head Table at the reception. No one would know unless you tell them!
• Having a variety of few different floral design styles on the reception guest tables can help lower your costs. Not all the tables need to have a tall showy floral arrangement. It typically looks better to have varied heights across the reception space anyhow. Choosing to accent some tables with a stronger variety of greenery, a lighter touch of open blooms and a clustering of candles in different heights can be a budget saver. I also like to stress that having less expensive flowers in larger arrangements can add the right pops of color without them being a focal point. Football mums are such a great texture and often just the right pop of color for a large tall centerpiece as well as a cluster of burgundy carnations tucked in together next to a hydrangea or cluster of roses. The texture and colors blending with the greenery do not show that you are “saving” by using a less exotic bloom.
• Florists typically have rentals that give a showy impact. This can give a guest table or ceremony space that added a pop of drama. Flowers can dial back a bit when you choose to incorporate a rental. There is no need to go purchase large numbers of containers. Candelabras, carriage lanterns, mercury glass, clear and colored glass in varies shapes can all accommodate floral accents. Live plants, pedestals, mirrors, votive candles, draping fabrics, arches, pillar candles, glass or decorative candlesticks are some of the items a florist will typically have to add that extra flair to your wedding day. Rentals are handled with care on the delivery and installation (and post-event pick up) it’s nice to have those options available. You can create a look, blending some of these rentals together without breaking the bank.

What are the different styles of flower bouquets?

For bridal or bridesmaid bouquets

Typically, these days the hands down style desired is the “hand-tied” bouquet. Floral stems and greenery that are gathered loosely or tightly together, stems are wrapped with a decorative ribbon and the ends are cut off entirely even at the base of the bouquet (giving it the ability to stand up in a vase).

The current trend of a hand-tied is having the bouquet incorporate greenery throughout, but in such a way that there is an airy and open naturally growing effect to the clustering when the blooms are introduced. If I describe the look to a bride and say “you wanted that look as if you just walked through the garden and gathered it effortlessly by yourself” she will light up immediately having that vision confirmed! Draping greenery on these hand tied styles is also a big trend these days.

Hand-tieds come in many styles these days as well:

• “Nosegay”: this look is typically in a hand-tied style, fully rounded type, where it’s all open blooms, evenly distributed into a ball shape. Hydrangeas, roses, peonies, etc. are all good flowers for this shape.
• Trending “Hand-Tied Greenery”: along the with the trend of airy loose hand-tied bouquets, is the trend of varieties of greenery blended together. Bridesmaids can carry this look while the bride has the open blooms in a larger yet similar shape.
• Mini Hand-Tied “Clutch”: simple gathering of a trio of large open blooms such as Garden Roses, with a light filler flower and greenery, just an accent to carry. Not all brides are about having to carry a big focal point in her hands. If the dress IS the statement, sometimes a small elegant clutch is the perfect accent.
• “Hi Style-Modern” Bouquet: keeping all flowers the same, with a sophisticated accent of greenery that is wrapped around or throughout the bouquet can give a sense of structured design with a bit of whimsy. All orchids, all calla lilies, blended shapes of tropical flowers, can all bring a stronger sense of a classic modern look.

Other more traditional Bridal Bouquet styles

• The “Cascade”: which is the long draping one-sided design. It was a very big style throughout the 50s-90s for being quite long and dramatic. Flowers were wired into place and typically didn’t have much if any of a water source to keep them hydrated for the day. This style is not a high trend at this time but on some styles of weddings, with the right wedding gown, they are a stunning accent to the bride’s ensemble. But I assure you, when I got married in the mid 90’s my cascade went to the floor!!!
• The “Teardrop” - (mini cascade): Also a one-sided bouquet, held in a plastic holder or wired together in the earlier days. It has a rounded shape at the top but trails off into a bit of a cascade at the base, the longer blooms and greenery are wired into place (again, there won't be a water source or those longer extensions of blooms) Hot weather isn’t kind to these types of bouquets on extended outdoor time. Sometimes if the bride is carrying a long cascade bouquet, she might like her attendants to carry small teardrop styled bouquets.

How much do wedding flowers typically cost?

The average cost of a wedding can vary greatly due to so many factors:

• What types of flowers are being incorporated in large numbers?
• How extravagant will the Bridal Bouquet be?
• How many Bridesmaids will there be carrying those bouquets?
• Does the ceremony site need a lot or little floral attention?
• Will there be a cocktail hour to decorate?
• What other special details are going to be incorporated?
• How many guests will be attending the reception? The guest table count is one of the largest factors on costs across the budgeting.

I know that weddings can also be very simple on flowers. Some couples may just want a few bouquets and boutonnieres. We no longer do the smaller scaled weddings of $500 to $1,500 due to the volume of higher-end weddings we book. But we certainly are aware there are plenty of couples who simply do not want or need to spend their budget on flowers. We totally understand that!

How much of a deposit is required to book your services?

• Balance is due 21 days out from the wedding.
• Policy on cancellation after the deposit is paid is a credit towards our services towards a future event (does not have to be a wedding).
• Depending on the amount of the deposit and situation there might be a partial refund.

Which portion of the process keeps you busy the most?

The front side of the wedding planning can definitely be time-consuming, from meeting with prospective clients (which typically takes approx. 1-2 hours) then putting together a detailed proposal for them within a week of that meeting. I am always willing to revise the proposal before booking the date too!

Finalizing the last wedding details 4 weeks out from the big day sets the wheels in motion on my side to get that VERY important final on the floral order put together. Getting the specifics on the exact number of stems needed, in the correct size and color, making sure I have enough to cover myself in case of additional needs is crucial! I stress again how VERY important relationship is with my floral wholesalers!

I would definitely say that one of the busiest time in the process is wedding week with all the hours that go into the receiving of the floral shipment. I typically receive my shipment 4 days before the wedding. Processing the stems into the water- conditioning the blooms into the stage where they are ready to be designed. Prepping all design containers and blooms for the designing and then getting all those details designed!

But the actual BUSIEST time is wedding day, due to keeping the timeline on all deliveries and installations seamless for the bride and groom, planner-coordinators, photographer/videographers, venues, caterers, etc. It's not unusual for the wedding day to be a very long 19 to 21-hour long day.

Typically, I get to my design studio early enough to wrap each handheld bouquet with their designated color/type of ribbon. Moving along I inspect every single centerpiece and floral accent on the order, making sure I have those very last minute delicate details completed, having all my rentals lined up in our loading area such as vases, candles, pedestals, arch, tool kits, ladders, and delivery carts ready to be loaded. I LIVE by my checklist that morning!

My delivery/ installation team will be arriving at this time and we get to work packing everything into our large van or VANS. It sometimes can be tricky loading with the weather too hot or too cold, we might have multiple destinations on drop-offs- so we have to load this very fragile cargo accordingly. I always bring extras on stems, glassware, candles, lighters, ribbons, etc., etc., you name it! BE PREPARED! My delivery/ install team is great! They also have a tool kit they can access when I can't be with them on a setup, they know the order of how I like to run the delivery/ set up installations. We try to be as quick and efficient as possible with minimal impact on our surrounding vendors.

Getting the flowers to the bride is my most favorite moment on the wedding day, the impact of those scented blooms SHE picked out, that are perishable and so REAL in her hands as she first holds her bouquet truly is such a special moment. I just LOVE that!!!

We move from delivering the personals to the bride and her attendants to the ceremony area and get that everything into place. Sometimes this can be a few arrangements or aisle accents, or it may be a Jewish wedding with a Chuppah and quite an extravagant amount of flowers adorning it. Every wedding we do is unique and tailored to each client’s vision.

As soon as the ceremony space is set we move along to where the cocktail hour and reception space will be. Sometimes it's within the same building, sometimes it may be across town! There are days when we play to beat the clock and I split up our team so that half can be setting up the reception as half of us are back at the church preparing to bring back the ceremony décor and get that into place during cocktail hour. Knowing good parking spots, shortcuts and the right access on elevators or staircases and having our delivery carts ready is always PRIORITY #!1 on the wedding day!

When we have gotten everything into place at the reception, I dismiss our team and plan our late night return to take everything down and bring back all our rentals. If the client wants to take the flowers home (without the rental containers, of course) we make sure we have boxes and have them ready to go as the families are leaving the venue. If a client wants to donate flowers to a repurpose type affiliation, they are more than welcome to arrange that.

For a slight delivery fee, I can also donate the flowers within the next few days to a local assisted elderly living facility. They love that!

Was there ever a time you had to improvise?

Oh yes! I’ve got a great floral friend out on the west coast who says he is the Captain of the baseball team and they deal with curveballs all the time! Wedding days are such a fluid thing with so many components coming together all at once. I think most florists could write a book or two about the situations we have been placed in. It's not always something to do with us, it might be the weather or another vendor did not come through with something in order.

I have been asked to please SAVE the wedding cake MANY times, it might have been knocked or dented during deliver (that’s so minor it’s no big deal and I’m always happy to help!).

I’ve learned over time to have those extra vases and candles on hand. For those times I wasn’t updated that an extra guest table was added the night before! I’ve been assisting other florists when I heard the shattering glass from a tall centerpiece where a waiter accidentally knocked into the guest table. “Plan B”, always having those extra flowers and container on hand for “just in case” has been beneficial more times than I can count. Simple issues are easy to deal with if you are prepared such as having the wedding planner come up to me with a worried look that someone unexpected showed up and needs a boutonniere or corsage (even though it was not on the order). We can fix that! Flowers might wilt in extreme heat, always have some extras on hand that are ready to roll JUST IN CASE.

I think the funniest things I’ve been asked to do, is to “hide” or help “enhance” the “family ugly” traditional token accent to the day with flowers. This has been from cake toppers, framed photo, toasting goblets, and one time a small “wishing well” for the guests to toss in the gift cards! I’m always happy to do what I can to help a client out!

Even in non-floral situations, people have so many times come to me and my trusty tool kit! I’ve used my stapler or adhesive glue dots more times than I can count, to mend torn wedding dress or veil. Stapled the back of a little ring bearers pants so that they wouldn’t keep falling off! Hemmed a few pants too. Duct Tape on a bridesmaids stuck dress zipper? NO problem! Got it! I recently had a large outdoor wedding where my tall floral arch was in danger of being blown over in big gusts of wind off a lake. But ALWAYS having the right type of wire and a flag pole conveniently located right next to the structure prevent that from happening. It was a great fix to what could have been a BIG ceremony disaster!