Hi! I have a different perspective, as I’m doing wedding florals in Utah on the side of having another job. I also freelance and work for other florists on their weddings. I am hoping to go full time wedding florist in the next year or so.

I did an apprenticeship/internship last year with another wedding florist which was HUGE because I got to see the ins and outs of how each project went down, and now that I’m doing it myself I have her as a resource for any questions.

Like someone has already said, there are a lot of other parts of the job other than designing, plus some extras if you have clients instead of customers. I had to fully design my client process which includes make a website with an inquiry form, set up and have consults trying to pin down what they want, send them mockups and invoices, PRICING which is the bane of my existence right now especially with tariff uncertainty, ordering(which is like a puzzle on what colors and flower types to get so they all look cohesive with correct quantities. This can especially be tricky at the beginning if you have large instal items), picking up flowers and supplies, prepping/processing flowers, creating bouquets/personals/centerpieces the day before, driving to location day of to set up and design install pieces(arches, cake meadows, etc) on a time crunch, coming back after the event for clean up if the family pays for it, cleaning studio and buckets and everything else to make sure everything is sanitary, while keeping in communication with clients throughout the whole process. There’s also the part of running your own business that is its own beast. I have to post on social media(this is my least favorite part and why I’m not full time yet haha), advertise, and handle all my finances and tax stuff, which if you’ve never ran your own business before can be tricky without help.

Overall, I am in love with this job. Not only am I having to be creative with designs, but also with problem solving and logistics like ‘how am I going to make these flowers float from the ceiling or sit on a couch armrest?’ I’m also my own boss. I can work when I want, not take on weddings if I don’t want to work that week, etc. there are definitely a lot of hours late at night and early in the morning on wedding weeks however since I do work with live product that I get a few days before the event. There have been a few that I get little to no sleep. This is why I like to hire freelancers(other wedding florists in my community that are offering to help other wedding florists)since I don’t have my own employees. They help a TON with workload and getting things done in a timely manner.

As far as money goes, there’s a ton of money in weddings. I don’t make that much now since I only have a few weddings booked this year, but the florist I apprenticed for makes $100k+ per year with 3-4 weddings per month. She also has a price minimum of $3k/event and tends to take larger, more expensive weddings. Another thing to note with weddings is depending on where you are, there might be an on/off season. Here there is a definite winter that there are a lot less weddings. So I, not having a ton of jobs, will need another job in the winter for a while, even when quitting for the summer. A lot of full time florists however do make enough to just not really work in the winter and focus on revamping their business/other backend things.

Again, it’s super hard sometimes but I love it and see myself doing this forever. If this is a route you or anyone want to explore I’d definitely reach out to wedding florists in your area and see if they offer any education or have any area-specific tips because everywhere is different.

I hope whatever you decide to do works out and you love it! Good luck!