For Prospective Brides

This post is for all our newly engaged brides who are looking to learn more about Nona's work!

Having answered many inquiries that arrive in Nona's inbox, I have compiled some information to help answer the FAQs that arise in the wedding planning process.

How Nona Creates Her Designs:

Nona creates individual designs for each bride based on many factors, including the following:

-venue location
-indoor/outdoor
-time of day of the wedding
-guest count
-feel of the wedding: intimate? silly? serious? fun? couture? relaxed?
-the wedding's theme colors
-the bride and bridesmaids' gowns, including color, texture, and tone of the dresses (romantic, whimsical, elegant, flirty, etc.)
-the brides' favorite flowers
-seasonal availability and seasonal touches to the wedding colors and theme
-budget*

Floral Design and Your Budget *

In any wedding or event planning process, budgeting is always a looming thought. "How much can I spend on flowers?" a bride will ask at one point or another. Budgets are of course a reality for every bride, and often the main concern when choosing wedding vendors. Nona extensively works to find creative solutions to budgeting limitations. While each wedding vision has a realistic price tag, Nona aims to help brides succeed in their floral vision while maintaining a feasible price tag by working with elements such as seasonal flowers that complement the brides' favorites, items available for rental to cut the cost, suggestions for areas brides could do easy DIY tasks to narrow the budget, and more. Floral Design Studio has worked with weddings from the mid hundreds to sky-is-the-limit events. We welcome all inquiries, no matter what the size- our goal is to help you find the look that you are seeking!

Wedding Planning Tip from Mollie: In the process of planning my own wedding, expenses seemed to add up faster than I could keep track! To keep my budget on track, I used the budgeting calculator on www.theknot.com. It has a tool that allows you to put in your ideal budget. The budget calculator estimates out a cost for each vendor/expense. If you have already purchased items, you can plug those expenses in and it re-adjusts the remaining unspent balances. It was a *lifesaver* in staying on track for me! I highly recommend it.

Our Timeline For Weddings
Here at the studio, we schedule each wedding so that our brides have the freedom to make maximum changes. Our typical schedule for a wedding is as follows:
-A bride comes in for her hour-long consultation with Nona and discusses her initial ideas and budget. Nona creates a proposal for her that is converted to an electronic copy and sent to her in an easy to read spreadsheet, including details and pricing.
-The bride reads over her proposal, discusses any immediate revisions with Nona, and decides whether or not she would like to book*. (*Booking is a term we use synonymously with "saving the date". A bride pays a $300 deposit to save the date on her wedding and secure her calendar space with Nona. After "booking", a bride still has up until 2 weeks before her wedding to make as many changes as she wants, altering flowers, colors, and price.)
-After booking, Nona remains in active communication with the bride. Changes can be made any time via e-mail, a phone call, or an additional consultation in person.
-A month before the wedding, a consultation is set up to begin to finalize the process.
-2 weeks before the wedding, changes are solidified and the remaining balance is due in full.

Delivery and Set-Up:
Delivery and set-up is not guaranteed with every wedding and event florist. Nona makes delivery and set-up available to all brides. Nona has a team of designers who assist with set-up and delivery and have extensive experience in the wedding and event floral business. Nona's talented team allows high-volume wedding weekends to be possible.

On the day of our brides' wedding, if they prefer not to pick up their flowers at the studio, Nona offers delivery and set-up for the event. A delivery and set-up fee applies for every wedding, on a sliding scale based on mileage to the event, amount of work, and number of stops. Nona's services can include dropping bouquets and boutonnieres off at the hotel or residence of the bride for pre-wedding photos, setting up the ceremony site, setting up the reception site, and taking down the ceremony and reception site.

While fees are not applied for returning of rental vases if done by family and friends, delivery and set-up to an event will include a fee on a sliding scale to compensate for time and energy used.

To Book a Consultation with Floral Design Studio, contact the office at (510) 656- 3010 and we will get you on our calendar at the next available consultation! We do evening consultations in the after-work hour (between 5-8pm) to fit our brides' needs.

April Events

It's late April, and updates are back on the blog. We've had a busy season-13 weddings and events in the last two weekends! Nona's work went on display at the Bouquet to Arts exhibit in the De Young Museum and is showing through Saturday the 24th. Nona created a beautiful floral wall to accompany Sean Scully's Wall of Light Horizon piece. She took 10,000 empty CD cases and created a wall structure, filled with leaves and orchids to make a living creation of Scully's work. Nona's piece is inspired by nature's resilience over human creation.






In recent weddings and events, Nona created the flowers for Cal State's Gala on the 16th. She created tulip and tea light centerpieces, as well as large pillar decorations.






For the Fore Runner Church in Fremont on the 17th, Nona created beautiful flower ball arrangements hanging from the ceiling of the church, as well as submerged orchid centerpieces on mirrors.







On the 18th, Nona created this cake decoration and centerpiece for the Farmer wedding. We are hoping to get a link to the photographer soon so that pictures of the bouquets can be put on the blog as well!





Here at the office, Mollie has been working on compiling a slideshow of photos that show examples of Nona's work for prospective brides. While the entire gallery of photos is still under edit, here is a brief sample of some of Nona's work ranging from 2008 to the present.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Floral Design Studio! We're excited to announce that we've joined the blogosphere. Whether you're an old friend or newly engaged, check out what we're up to at the studio here! We'll have updates from weddings, events, and photo galleries. You can also visit our website at www.floraldesignstudio.com.

The blog is slowly being constructed, and we'd love your help. E-mail Mollie at Floral Design Studio (fdstudioblog@gmail.com) if Nona has done your wedding in the past, and you would like us to feature some photos and a blurb about your special day :) We'd love to show our brides off.

Thank you for checking us out, and keep your eyes out for new updates.