How to Stalk Your Wedding Venue for Floral Design Inspiration
There are several reasons you may want to do a deep-dive into a wedding venue for floral design inspiration, even as an experienced professional event florist.
Imagine a potential client fills out your inquiry form and they’re getting married at a venue you haven't done before. Or perhaps it's a venue you've done a handful of times and you'd like some fresh inspiration. Or maybe you have a consultation coming up and want to present the client with multiple ideas that would work in the space.
Whatever the reason, it's often helpful (and fun!) to see how other florists have decorated the space.
Here are fresh ways for finding photos and floral design ideas for wedding venues through an online search or a venue visit. Just keep in mind that you’re looking for pictures and ideas to inspire your designs, not to copy them.
Scroll Through Instagram
Check out the venue's Instagram account. Most have them, and it's a great place to be inspired. You can see what works, what doesn't, and what might be overdone.
Scroll through and use the flag symbol to save your favorites or screenshot them. (You can view your saved posts in your settings.)
There are four additional places to look for venue photos on Instagram:
Tagged
Hashtags
Location searches
Stories
These are often less-curated groupings as anyone—including wedding guests and other vendors—can tag them in photos. In the venue's Instagram profile, see pictures they are tagged in under their bio.
Next, use the search bar to find a hashtag or geo-location associated with the venue. There are often lots of photos in these locations, and on the weekends, there are usually stories from that day's wedding both on the venue's page and on the venue's location and hashtag pages.
If you want to really go down the rabbit hole, some photos may include that particular wedding's hashtag, which you can follow to see images that may not have been tagged with the venue.
Instagram is an excellent resource for inspiration, and by using the flag to save inspiration to a collection, it's easy to collect photos and stay organized.
When you find an image you like, simply do the following:
Tap the flag symbol below the picture on the right side.
Tap “Save to Collection” and start a folder for the venue.
To access these saved Instagram posts:
Go to your profile page.
Tap the three lines in the upper right-hand corner,
Then tap the flag symbol “Saved.”
And all your saved posts will be stored right there for future use!
Search Google and Pinterest
Of course, you can also do a Pinterest or Google Image search for the venue. Try different combinations of the venue's name and wedding, ceremony, reception, etc.
Sometimes you'll get good search results if you get very specific (for example: “Fireplace at Liriodendron Mansion”).
Another way to find images is through photographer blogs. To do so, search the name of the venue + "wedding photographer." Or the name of the venue + "wedding blog."
Photographers often blog wedding galleries and are great about tagging the venue, so it shouldn't be difficult to find these. There are usually loads of photos of the ceremony, reception, personal flowers, and details from different angles.
You can save these images directly from their blog to your Pinterest page or save them to a folder on your computer for easy organization. In addition to the photos, photographers often mention details from the wedding and any unique features of the venue—a great place for ideas and inspiration.
Research Specific Venue Elements
If the venue has a unique feature, you can do a generalized search for that feature to find ideas. For example, if they have a great ladder over the bar. Try searching for “greenery ladder wedding” on Google and Pinterest for inspiration pics. You can also search for venue elements in Instagram hashtags.
Do a Walkthrough
If possible, do a walkthrough of the venue and snap pictures. In-person, you'll often see elements in a fresh way and areas you may want to highlight or incorporate into your design.
Features such as a stained glass window, a beautiful tree in the ceremony space, or a rose garden on the property might be something you want to highlight. This is also a great time to check out structural elements if you are doing any installations.
Look Outside of the Floral Industry
Fashion, architecture, travel, films, music, art, and nature are great places to look for inspiration and fresh ideas. Look for unique elements of the venue and then search outside of the floral industry for inspiration.
If the venue is a winery with an Italian vibe, you could do an image search for vineyards in Italy and watch the films Under the Tuscan Sun or Room With a View. Nature is perhaps the best inspiration. In a venue with a rose garden, you could mimic the growing roses and cluster patterns in the ceremony pieces. Ivy crawling up a brick wall could be interpreted with jasmine vine in the bridal bouquet.
Now that you have put your sleuthing skills to good practice and collected loads of photos from Instagram, Google, and Pinterest, visited the venue, and looked for ideas outside of the industry, it's time to start putting your ideas and design together!
All photos by Love to the Core Photography.
