In short
- Flowers follow the venue: choose your florist right after confirming it.
- Between signing and the wedding there are three stages: site visit and design, details and sample, final numbers.
- In the final week, logistics matter most: timings, access, who moves what.
- The work ends with the breakdown and the return of hire items, not with the last dance.
Organising your wedding flowers is a sequence of steps, not a single decision. This wedding flowers timeline lays out the stages from your first meeting with the florist to the day after the wedding, with a table to keep at hand. Timings are indicative: they get shorter for a small wedding and longer for a destination wedding or for designs with structures.
The timeline at a glance
| When | What to do | Who is involved |
|---|---|---|
| 12-10 months before | Confirm the venue, ask florists about availability | You, venue |
| 10-8 months before | Choose the florist, sign, pay the deposit | You, florist |
| 8-6 months before | Site visit, mood board, outline design | Florist, venue, planner |
| 6-4 months before | Bouquet to match the outfit, ceremony and reception flowers | You, florist |
| 4-2 months before | Centrepiece sample or mock-up, choice of hire items | Florist, caterer |
| 2 months to 3 weeks before | Table plan, final numbers, wet-weather plan | You, planner, venue |
| Final 2 weeks | Running order, set-up times, contacts | All suppliers |
| Days before | Flowers arrive and are prepared | Florist |
| Wedding day | Set-up, bouquet delivery, moving arrangements | Florist, planner |
| End of party or next day | Breakdown, hire items collected, what happens to the flowers | Florist, venue |
Before signing
12-10 months before: venue and first enquiries
Step one is the venue, because flowers are designed around the spaces. Once you have a confirmed date, write to two or three florists with the basics: date, places, guest count, style, indicative budget.
To find florists working near your venue, start from our list of wedding florists in Italy. If you are marrying in Italy from abroad, look for those who handle destination weddings. To see how much lead time you need, read our guide on when to book your wedding florist.
10-8 months before: choosing and signing
Meet the florists, in person or on a video call, and compare their proposals. Sign a written contract that includes:
- a list of items, even an outline one;
- the deposit and payment dates;
- clauses on flower substitutions, cancellation and bad weather.
Use our guide to the wedding florist contract as a checklist.
From design to details
8-6 months before: site visit and design
The florist visits the venue, measures, looks at the light, and checks access and rules. You prepare a mood board with reference photos and a palette. The design comes out of this: what goes where, with which flowers and which structures.
This is also the moment to ask the church or the town hall about decoration rules. In Italy each parish sets its own, and so does each civil ceremony room run by the Comune (the local council). Ask for them in writing and pass them to the florist.
Read more in our guides to the site visit with your florist and to the flower mood board.
6-4 months before: bouquet and details
Once the dress or outfit is chosen, show the florist a photo and, if you can, a fabric swatch. The bouquet should suit the outfit, your build and the style of the day.
At this stage you also settle:
- buttonholes for the groom, best men and fathers;
- flowers for mothers and bridesmaids;
- ceremony arrangements: altar, pews, entrance;
- reception elements: centrepieces, top table, table plan display, buffet.
4-2 months before: sample and hire items
If a centrepiece sample or mock-up is planned, it is usually done in this period, when the season's flowers are available. If possible, look at it on a table laid with the caterer's place settings.
Choose the hire items too: vases, stands, candelabra, arches. Check the venue's rules on candles and open flames.
The final weeks
2 months to 3 weeks before: final numbers
Your guests' replies come in. Send the florist:
- the final number of tables and their shape;
- the floor plan of the room;
- the wet-weather plan, if the ceremony or drinks are outdoors.
Check in the contract the deadline for final numbers. After it, changes may cost more.
Final two weeks: the running order
The wedding planner, or whoever is coordinating, prepares the running order for the day and sends it to everyone. For the flowers it should include:
- the florist's arrival time at the church and the venue;
- access points and unloading areas;
- the time and place for delivering the bouquet and buttonholes;
- who moves arrangements from the ceremony to the reception;
- the time and method of breakdown.
To make everything work together, read our guide to coordinating flowers, catering and venue.
The wedding day and after
The days before and the day itself
The florist receives the flowers in the days before, lets them drink and open, and prepares the arrangements. The bouquet is usually made close to the ceremony so it is at its freshest.
On the wedding day:
- morning: set-up at the church or ceremony room;
- delivery of the bouquet and personal flowers to the bride's home or hotel (in Italy the bride traditionally gets ready at her family home);
- afternoon: reception set-up, often alongside the caterer;
- after the ceremony: moving any arrangements being reused.
End of the party and the next day
Breakdown happens at the end of the night or the following day, depending on the venue's rules. Hire items are collected, the space is cleared, and you decide what happens to the remaining flowers: give them to guests, donate them, leave them with the venue. See our guide on what to do with your flowers after the wedding.
If you want to preserve your bouquet, arrange it beforehand: it needs to reach whoever will dry or treat it quickly.
The timeline when you marry from abroad
For a destination wedding the steps are the same, but some take a different form:
| Step | How it works remotely |
|---|---|
| Choosing the florist | Video calls, full portfolio, references from other international couples |
| Site visit | Done by the florist, with video, photos and measurements |
| Mood board and design | Shared folder, visual proposal from the florist |
| Bouquet | Photos of the outfit and fabric sent by email |
| Centrepiece sample | Photos taken from a seated position, video, live video call during the sample |
| Payments | International transfers in euros, with a few days' margin |
| Wedding day | A local point person, often the wedding planner |
Leave more margin at every step. A reply that takes a day within Italy may take two across time zones. If you arrive in Italy a few days before the wedding, ask for an in-person meeting to go over final details and, if possible, see a sample stem from the bouquet.
Questions to ask about timings
- By when do we need to give the final number of tables?
- When will you do the site visit, and when will we receive the design?
- Is a centrepiece sample planned? When?
- What time will you deliver the bouquet, and where?
- Is breakdown at the end of the party or the next day?
- What happens to the leftover flowers?
To sum up
A clear timeline saves you from deciding everything at the last minute and leaving logistics uncovered. Once you have a date and venue, request a quote from two or three florists and ask each of them for their working schedule.
