Eight years in the floral and event world means eight years of weddings, hundreds of bouquets and centerpieces, large-scale floral installations, room flips, loading docks, timelines, last-minute pivots, and some truly unforgettable celebrations.
Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of designing weddings throughout Philadelphia and the Main Line, across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and beyond. From iconic city venues and luxury hotels to historic estates, museums, private homes, gardens, and waterfront celebrations, every wedding and every venue has taught me something new about flowers, design, and creating an unforgettable experience.
When I first entered this industry, I thought wedding flowers were primarily about making things beautiful. Eight years later, I know they are about so much more.
Wedding floral design is about understanding a space, creating an experience, collaborating with talented people, knowing when to embrace a trend and when to ignore it, and most importantly, creating a wedding that feels unmistakably like the couple we are designing for.
In honor of eight years, here are eight things I’ve learned about weddings, flowers, venues, and this wonderfully creative industry.
1. The venue should inspire the design, not dictate it.
We’ve had the opportunity to create wedding flowers in some extraordinary venues throughout Philadelphia, the Main Line, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and New York.
One of the first things we consider when designing a wedding is the venue itself … but that’s just the beginning.
The best floral designs don’t compete with a space. They respond to it.
We look at the architecture, scale, color, natural light, ceiling height, sightlines, and even how guests will move through the venue. A grand ballroom may call for dramatic height and scale. A historic estate might inspire something romantic and layered. A modern space may lend itself to a more sculptural or unexpected approach.
Sometimes the room calls for a statement. Sometimes restraint is far more powerful.
The goal is always to make the flowers feel as though they belong there.
2. Beautiful Wedding Flowers Don’t Have to Be Everywhere
More flowers don’t necessarily create more impact.
One breathtaking ceremony installation, dramatic staircase, floral entry moment, or statement reception design can have far greater impact than spreading the floral budget across dozens of smaller elements.
When creating luxury wedding floral designs, we encourage our couples to think about where their guests’ eyes will naturally go.
Where is the first impression? What will guests see when they enter the ceremony? What is the focal point of the reception? Where will the most important photographs happen?
Great wedding design is about knowing where to create the moment.
3. Your Wedding Should Look Like You, Not Your Pinterest Board
Pinterest and Instagram are wonderful tools for wedding inspiration. We use them too.
But they should be a starting point, not a blueprint.
Our job as wedding floral designers isn’t to recreate another couple’s wedding. It’s to understand what you’re responding to in those images and translate that inspiration into something personal.
Maybe it’s the color palette. Maybe it’s the movement of the flowers, the layering of textures, the abundance, or even the simplicity.
The weddings I remember most aren’t necessarily the trendiest ones.
They’re the ones where I walk into the finished room and immediately think, This feels exactly like them.
4. The Best Weddings Are Collaborative
Wedding design is never created in a vacuum.
Some of our favorite work has come from collaborating with incredibly talented wedding planners, venues, photographers, caterers, rental companies, lighting teams, stationers, and other creative partners throughout the region. WIPA Philadelphia has been a wonderful community of talented vendors with whom we have collaborated extensively.
Each creative partner sees the wedding through a slightly different lens.
When the planner, florist, venue, rental team, lighting designer, and other vendors understand the overall vision and bring their expertise to the table, the entire celebration feels cohesive.
Whether we’re designing a wedding in Philadelphia, the Main Line, New Jersey, Delaware, or New York, that collaboration is one of my favorite parts of the process and of this industry.
5. Trust Your Wedding Florist and Creative Team
There comes a point when you’ve chosen your wedding vendors, shared your inspiration, discussed your priorities, and communicated what matters to you.
Then comes the hard part.
Letting go.
Flowers are natural materials. Seasons change. Colors vary. A flower variety we discussed months ago may arrive slightly differently than expected, while something extraordinary we didn’t anticipate may become available.
Some of our most beautiful Seven Blooms weddings have happened because a couple trusted us to interpret their vision rather than replicate an exact photograph.
When you hire an experienced wedding florist, give them room to create.
That trust can lead to something even better than the original inspiration.
6. Wedding Trends Should Inspire You, Not Define You
Over the years, we’ve watched wedding flower trends come and go. We’ve seen changing color palettes, floral varieties, ceremony structures, floral meadows, monochromatic designs, fruit incorporated into tablescapes, bows, bud vases, statement installations, and so much more.
We love a good trend.
But the question we always ask is, Does it make sense for this wedding?
Timeless doesn’t have to mean traditional, and current doesn’t have to mean trendy.
Our goal at Seven Blooms is to create wedding floral designs that feel fresh and relevant, while still feeling beautiful and personal when our couples look at their photographs years from now.
7. Your Guests Will Remember How Your Wedding Felt
Of course, we want the wedding flowers to be spectacular.
But ultimately, a wedding isn’t a photo shoot. It’s an experience.
Your guests remember walking into a room and being surprised. They remember candlelight, music, conversation, incredible food, thoughtful details, and that feeling when the doors open to a beautifully transformed reception.
Flowers help create that feeling.
That’s why our approach to wedding floral design goes beyond individual bouquets and centerpieces.
We think about the entire guest experience, from the first impression at the ceremony to cocktail hour and finally that moment when guests enter the reception.
The flowers should help tell the story from beginning to end.
8. There Is Still Nothing Quite Like Wedding Day
After eight years, countless weddings and more early mornings and late-night breakdowns than I could possibly count, I still love the moment when everything comes together.
The candles are lit. The tables are set. The last flower is placed. The room is quiet for just a moment before the guests arrive.
Then you step back and see an idea that began months ago as a conversation, a color palette and a collection of inspiration become real.
That never gets old.
I’m incredibly grateful to the couples who have trusted us with such an important day, the venues that welcome us through their doors, and the planners and creative partners who make this work so rewarding.
Eight years later, I’m still inspired by this industry, still excited by the possibilities of flowers and design, and still convinced that no two weddings should ever feel exactly alike.
Here’s to the celebrations we’ve been lucky enough to be part of and all the beautiful ones still to come.
