Frequently Asked Questions
Here you’ll find answers to the things couples ask us most often.
If your question isn’t here? Ask us.
Flowers, Seasons & Style
How we turn your ideas, your season, and a whole lot of flower knowledge into something that feels like you.
Do I need to know anything about flowers before I reach out?
Not at all.
You do not need to know flower names, understand seasonality, or arrive with a perfectly curated Pinterest board. You can tell us what colors you love, how you want the wedding to feel, what you’re wearing, what the room looks like, what traditions matter to you, or even just what you absolutely do not want.
Our job is to translate all of that into flowers.
You bring the people, the place, the feeling, and the priorities. We bring the flower nerdery.
What does “seasonal” actually mean?
Seasonal means we design with the best flowers genuinely available around the time of your wedding rather than promising an exact shopping list a year in advance.
Flowers are living agricultural products. Weather changes. Crops change. A farmer may have something absolutely incredible that nobody could have predicted when we first started planning.
We build your design around palette, movement, texture, scale, mood, and overall aesthetic so that we have room to respond to what the season actually gives us.
That flexibility is not a compromise. It is a huge part of why seasonal flowers are so beautiful.
Are all of your flowers locally grown?
Local is always our first choice, but Western Pennsylvania does not produce abundant wedding flowers twelve months a year.
We use 100% American-grown flowers and source locally whenever the season allows. During colder months or when a specific material is not available nearby, we work with growers in other parts of the United States.
We would always rather buy the beautiful thing growing thirty miles away than the beautiful thing growing three thousand miles away. But we are also a year-round flower business in Pennsylvania, and reality gets a vote.
Can I request specific flowers?
Absolutely. Tell us what you love.
We just prefer to treat specific varieties as inspiration rather than guarantees unless we know they will be reliably available.
If your grandmother grew peonies and having peonies in your bouquet is deeply meaningful, tell us. That matters.
If you like a Pinterest bouquet because it feels airy, blue, romantic, and a little wild but don’t particularly care whether that exact flower is delphinium or tweedia, even better. That gives us room to create something beautiful using the season in front of us.
Does seasonal mean my flowers will look rustic or like wildflowers?
No.
Local and seasonal flowers can be lush, refined, romantic, modern, moody, delicate, exuberant, minimalist, painterly, weird, elegant, or wildly colorful.
“Local flowers” does not mean a bucket of sunflowers in a mason jar.
We use locally grown roses, dahlias, tulips, hellebores, ranunculus, sweet peas, grasses, herbs, branches, perennials, flowering shrubs, tiny textural flowers, and all sorts of beautiful botanical weirdos depending on the season.
What does “wildflower style” mean to you?
Usually, when couples say “wildflower,” they are describing movement and texture more than a literal wildflower field.
Think delicate stems, grasses, chamomile, sweet peas, tiny florets, airy flowers, and things that feel as though they might have been gathered along the edge of a meadow.
Actual wildflower fields are often much greener and less densely floral than wedding inspiration suggests.
We can absolutely create that loose meadow feeling without pretending every flower in the arrangement was literally picked from a field.
What is the difference between wildflower and garden-style flowers?
Wildflower-inspired designs tend to emphasize smaller, lighter, more delicate material and lots of movement.
Garden-style designs usually bring in larger, more substantial flowers too: roses, dahlias, iris, tulips, hellebores, lilies, flowering branches, and other things you might imagine growing in a gloriously unruly cottage garden.
Most Bramble & Blossom weddings live somewhere between the two.
Do wedding flowers have to match everything?
Please no.
They should belong in the same world as the wedding, but that does not mean every flower, linen, invitation, dress, candle, and napkin needs to be the exact same shade of mauve.
We love layered palettes.
A wedding can be cohesive without being matchy-matchy.
Often the most beautiful palettes include colors you would never have thought to request individually but that make the entire design feel richer.
Can you recreate a bouquet or installation from Pinterest?
We use inspiration images as a language, not a blueprint.
We want to know what you love about the image. Is it the palette? The looseness? The amount of negative space? The tiny flowers? The scale? The overall mood?
Then we translate those qualities into a design that belongs to your wedding, your venue, your budget, and your season.
We are much more interested in making something that feels unmistakably like you than reproducing somebody else’s wedding.
What if my Pinterest board has AI-generated images on it?
This happens all the time now.
AI can make extremely seductive flower images featuring plants that do not exist, flowers blooming simultaneously across incompatible seasons, or botanical structures that simply cannot happen in the physical world.
You do not need to become an AI detective before contacting us.
If you love an image, show us. We’ll identify what is actually drawing you to it and translate that feeling into something that can exist beautifully on planet Earth.
What Do We Actually Need?
Traditions are options, not assignments. Here’s what you can use, skip, rethink, or make entirely your own.
Do I need bouquets for my entire wedding party?
Nope.
Your wedding party is still your wedding party if nobody is carrying flowers.
If giving your attendants bouquets feels meaningful and beautiful, wonderful. If you’d rather put that money toward one dramatic ceremony installation, candlelight, dinner, photography, or something else you care about more, that is also a completely legitimate choice.
There is no Wedding Council waiting to revoke your license.
Do parents and grandparents need corsages and boutonnieres?
Only if you want them to have them.
We are big believers in giving flowers because the gesture means something, not because someone occupies a particular square on the family tree.
If presenting your grandmother with a corsage feels tender and meaningful, let’s do it.
If you are ordering twelve pieces of wearable floral design because a checklist told you that you are supposed to, we are very comfortable giving you permission to skip them.
Do you make corsages?
Yes.
Jessica would also like the record to show that she really really doesn't like them.
Do you make flower crowns?
Yes, and they are surprisingly labor-intensive little creatures. Our team of artists here at BB HQ loves to make flower crowns.
Can we skip wedding traditions?
If you want to, every single one.
We recommend only hanging onto those that mean something to you two.
Change the ones that almost fit.
Invent new ones.
Skip the rest.
Pricing, Budgets & Where the Money Goes
Wedding flowers are flowers, yes. They’re also design, skilled labor, logistics, equipment, transportation, and a surprising number of ladders.
Why do these floral designs cost this much?
Because what you see on the wedding day is only a fraction of the work.
Before a bouquet reaches your hands, somebody has designed it, sourced the flowers, ordered them, received them, processed them, hydrated them, cleaned the stems, revised the recipe based on what actually arrived, prepared the materials, arranged the bouquet, finished it, packed it, transported it, and made sure it reaches you looking beautiful.
Large installations also require structural mechanics, water systems, transportation, ladders, tools, staffing, setup time, and often a return trip after the wedding to dismantle everything.
You’re not simply buying stems.
You’re buying materials, skilled labor, logistics, design judgment, experience, and the ability to solve problems before you ever know there was a problem.
Why do you charge for setup and teardown?
This labor is separate from and very different from the labor accounted for in the cost of individual design pieces.
On your wedding day, our team may need to load vehicles, drive to several locations, unload, carry everything into the venue, build installations, place hundreds of small pieces, light candles, make last-minute adjustments, and coordinate around other vendors.
Then, after the wedding ends, we return.
We dismantle installations, collect rentals, clean up floral material, repack vehicles, prepare anything you're donating to leave safely and hydrated, remove our trash, and make sure the venue is not left dealing with our work.
Back in the studio, we unload the van, clean all the rental pieces and separate trash (like a spent votive candle) from compost or pieces to be reused.
I have a smaller floral budget. Can we still make something special?
Absolutely.
Our favorite strategy is to pick your battles.
Rather than spreading a modest budget across every possible surface, decide where flowers will create the most impact.
We might keep personal flowers simple, create one really beautiful ceremony moment, and use candlelight heavily at the reception.
A $2,000 floral plan does not need to pretend to be a $10,000 floral plan.
It can be a really excellent $2,000 floral plan.
Do you have a floral minimum?
Our Full Service minimums vary by date and season, particularly during peak wedding weekends.
À La Carte does not have the same minimum structure.
Our inquiry form will give you the most current information for your date.
Can you work within my budget?
We can design thoughtfully within many budgets, but the size and complexity of the plan need to correspond with the resources available.
We will never tell you that $2,000 can magically produce the same floral coverage as $10,000.
Instead, we help identify where your money can do the most meaningful work.
Sometimes editing the plan creates a much stronger wedding than trying to put a tiny amount of flowers everywhere.
Full Service, À La Carte & Planning
The practical stuff: how working together works, what happens when, and which kind of floral service makes sense for your wedding.
What is Full Service floral design?
Full Service is for couples who want us involved in the entire floral environment of the wedding.
That may include personal flowers, ceremony installations, reception flowers, candles, rental vessels and structures, delivery, on-site styling, repurposing, and post-event teardown.
We develop the design with you, create a visual direction, handle the logistical puzzle, and then make the whole thing happen.
What is À La Carte floral design?
À La Carte is our simpler option for couples who primarily need personal flowers and straightforward floral pieces without full on-site production.
You choose your palette and quantities, and we design with the best seasonal materials available.
It is intentionally more designer’s-choice and does not include the same level of custom installation, setup, teardown, or rental coordination as Full Service.
How far in advance should we book?
Peak-season Saturdays and Sundays can fill well in advance, particularly because we accept only one wedding per day.
If you know you would like to work with us, reaching out earlier gives you the best chance of securing the date.
That said, some of our favorite weddings have also come together on relatively short timelines. If the date is open, we are happy to talk.
What happens after we inquire?
We’ll review the information you share, including your venue, date, guest count, palette, priorities, overall aesthetic, and any inspiration images.
If it looks like we may be a good fit, the next step is usually a consultation.
From there we develop the visual direction and proposal.
We put a lot of thought into understanding the wedding as a whole rather than simply asking, “How many centerpieces do you need?”
Do we have to know exactly what we want before the consultation?
Please don’t.
That’s why you’re hiring a designer.
You are welcome to arrive with a sixteen-tab Pinterest board and deeply specific ideas.
You are equally welcome to say:
“We’re getting married in October. I love muddy pink and weird grasses. My partner hates orange. Help.”
Both are workable.
Will my proposal change after we book?
It can. Weddings evolve.
You may change linens, add tables, remove attendants, fall in love with an installation idea, or realize you no longer care about something that seemed essential nine months earlier.
We build check-ins into the planning process so the flowers can evolve with the wedding.
Our final recipes also remain responsive to seasonal availability while staying within the agreed design and budget.
Do you work at venues you’ve never been to before?
Yes.
We work at many Pittsburgh-area venues regularly, but we are also comfortable entering new spaces.
For complex installations or unfamiliar venues, we may request a walkthrough, floor plan, photographs, measurements, venue policies, or other logistical information.
The architecture matters to us. Flowers should belong to the room rather than simply be dropped into it.
Wedding-Day Logistics & Sustainability
When living flowers meet real buildings, real weather, real timelines, and real people, here’s how we handle all of it.
Can we repurpose ceremony flowers at the reception?
Often, yes. We love doing this when the logistics make sense.
An aisle arrangement might move to a bar. An arch installation might become sweetheart-table flowers. Urn arrangements may move into the reception.
But flowers do not teleport.
Somebody has to safely move them during a very short window, often while guests are moving through the same space.
We consider the design, distance, timing, weight, mechanics, venue access, and staffing before promising that anything can be repurposed.
Sometimes it is a brilliant use of the budget. Sometimes moving the piece would cost almost as much in labor as designing something specifically for the second location.
What happens if it rains?
We work with the plan the wedding actually has, not the weather everybody hoped for six months ago.
Outdoor weddings should always have a genuine rain plan.
Flowers themselves also respond to weather. Heat, wind, cold, humidity, and time out of water all matter.
We design accordingly and adjust when conditions change.
If weather or environmental conditions become unsafe for our team or guests, safety takes priority over blindly executing the original plan.
Can you guarantee that every flower will look perfect all day?
We can promise professional sourcing, conditioning, handling, design, and judgment.
We cannot promise that living flowers will behave like manufactured objects.
A peony can continue opening in the heat.
A delicate flower may move or soften over the course of the day.
Some flowers are glorious partly because they are ephemeral.
We choose appropriate materials and mechanics carefully, but occasionally physics wins.
What happens to the flowers after the wedding?
Whenever practical, we compost floral waste, reuse materials, reclaim rentals and mechanics, and look for opportunities to donate or repurpose flowers.
Some couples also choose to take arrangements home or offer them to guests.
We plan the end of the flowers’ life as deliberately as we plan the beginning.
Do you use floral foam?
Nope. Not ever.
We’ve been working without traditional floral foam for many years and use a constantly evolving collection of reusable and lower-waste mechanics instead.
It is nasty stuff and we don't recommend it at anyone's wedding table.
Is Bramble & Blossom a zero-waste business?
No, and we would be suspicious of claiming that.
Floristry uses water, refrigeration, vehicles, cleaning products, packaging, mechanics, and occasionally disposable materials.
Our goal is not to perform environmental perfection.
Our goal is to make responsible choices repeatedly: source locally first, use American-grown flowers, avoid floral foam, reuse materials, maintain an extensive rental inventory, compost, donate, reduce unnecessary waste, and keep looking critically at how we work.
Sustainability should survive contact with reality.
Are We Your Florist?
The flowers matter. So does finding people whose work, values, and way of doing things make sense to you.
What makes someone a great fit for Bramble & Blossom?
A love of handmade things.
A willingness to let living materials be living materials.
An appreciation for natural movement, texture, color, gardens, wildflowers, and designs that don’t look factory-produced.
And, more broadly, a desire for a wedding that feels like your actual relationship rather than somebody else’s idea of what a wedding should be.
You do not need to be an expert in flowers.
You do not need to be wildly nontraditional.
You do not need an enormous budget.
You just need to be interested in making choices that genuinely belong to you.
Are you LGBTQ+ inclusive?
Completely. We're here and queer and love all love. Even the word 'inclusive' doesn't quite get there, because we are more about celebrating and delighting in love than in making public expressions about it.
We care about the actual people getting married, their names, pronouns, relationships, traditions, and what matters to them.
Do you have opinions about weddings?
A few, yes.
We think candlelight is almost always worth it.
We think excellent DJs are underrated.
We think ceremonies deserve to feel important.
We think bridesmaids can survive without bouquets.
We think carnations deserve an apology from the general public.
We think you should not buy wedding cake if you don’t like cake.
And we think nobody gets a prize for following every wedding tradition correctly.