Your Surrey Wedding- December 2021/January 2022 (Issue 92)

Meet Elaine Davis from Flowers by Elaine 01306 883 511 | www.flowersbyelaine.co.uk Tell us about your company? We are proud to be the appointed florist for Wotton House, Denbies Wine Estate and The Burford Bridge. We work closely with their wedding teams and recommended suppliers to ensure that your wedding day is the day of your dreams. We are also a recommended florist for Hartsfield Manor and Guildford Manor Hotel & Spa, as well as working at other local hotels, churches and venues. What should couples expect when booking your services? Wedding flowers are a huge part of your day, and our team of friendly and highly experienced florists will provide a professional and personal service to help you choose the perfect blooms. From a small intimate affair to a large formal occasion, from bouquets and buttonholes to church and venue decorations, we will ensure that your flowers enhance your day. We also have a large selection of items available to hire, including vases, candelabra, artificial blossom trees and bay trees. How long before the wedding should couples book? We recommend that you book your consultation around six months to a year before your wedding, as we do get booked up quickly. If you come and see us at the same time of year as your wedding, it may give you a chance to see what seasonal flowers are around at the time. Contact us in advance to book your consultation as we have a lot of couples to meet, and obviously, Saturday appointments are most popular and get filled quickly! We offer appointments for weekday and Saturday afternoons, so, if possible, try and have a few possible dates in mind when you get in touch with us. Feel free to email us any of your ideas before your consultation, for example, photos, colour samples, dresses, pictures of the wedding venue etc. This will help give us a head start to build a picture of the day you want to create before we meet you. Try to limit the number of people you bring to your meeting with us. Not only do we have limited space, but often, having too many friends/family with you may lead to too many distractions and different opinions. We want your appointment to be stress-free and an enjoyable part of your wedding preparations! After your consultation, we will put an estimate together and email it to you. We aim to get this to you as soon as we can, but it can take up to a couple of weeks during particularly busy times. When booking with us, we take a deposit of £100 to hold the date and then require the balance to be settled two weeks before your wedding. Once booked, we will stay in touch via email and phone, and any alterations can be made to your estimate. You may want to book another appointment to come and meet with us again to have a final catch up and confirm all the details. We would like your order confirmed two weeks before so we can plan our flower list and place our order with suppliers. Do you have any top tips for couples looking for a florist? Most couples have a budget for their wedding flowers, so prioritise which flowers are most important to you for the day. We recommend focusing on the flowers that will be most photographed, so we would advise not to scrimp on your bridal bouquet. When working with a budget, there are often ways to reuse flowers throughout the day, and we can discuss different ideas with you. Large arrangements can be moved to different areas, and there may be an option for using flowers from your ceremony as your table centrepieces afterwards. If you have a lot of bridesmaids, a great idea is to have vases on the top table to display their bouquets in to save spending on other flowers. Don’t worry if your knowledge of flowers isn’t great, we are here to guide you through the process and make choosing your blooms one of the highlights of the planning process! www.sobellephotography.com www.hayleybray.com FLOWERS 59

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