Module 8
Production: timeline, helpers, transport, setup
Professional studios call this "production" and it is where the hours go. The flowers are a third of a wedding florist's work; the rest is scheduling, staffing, packing, driving, placing, moving and striking. The mother of the bride has one extra constraint a studio does not: on the day, she is a guest. Design the production so that by noon on Saturday your only job is to hand things to people.
1. The master timeline
| When | Flowers | Mechanics & supplies | People & logistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months out | Processing drill; hydrangea tests; dry a batch | Build the three base mechanics; validate painted vessels with water | Start the practice calendar (Module 9) |
| 9–10 months | Winter practice: bouquets, bouts, compotes with grocery flowers | Build all compote mechanics, liners, weights; label vessels | Decide scope with the florist in writing (personal flowers) |
| 6–8 months | Write recipes; sample online bulk supplier; contact farms | Build faux aisle inserts and grass planters; bar garland | Recruit helpers; book the second fridge |
| 3–4 months | Final recipe after summer build | Kit everything: build-day kit, setup kit, personal-flowers kit, strike kit | Confirm venue access times, water source on site, shade, parking for load-in |
| 6–8 weeks | Place all orders; confirm farm pickup | Buy consumables: food, tubes, tape, towels, bags | Helper schedule confirmed; draft the run sheet |
| 2 weeks | Dry station hydrangea; confirm orders | Crates and boxes labeled by destination | Run sheet final; photo map printed; movers briefed |
| T-5 to T-4 | Clear and chill fridges; set up station | Fill weight bags; stage vessels in build order | Groceries for helpers; nothing else scheduled |
| T-3 | Deliveries; process everything; cut station hydrangea | One helper for processing | |
| T-2 | Cut ceremony/aisle hydrangea; build hardy pieces: station arrangements, aisle fresh adds (hold in tubes), garland | Fill water tubes | Two helpers |
| T-1 | Cut dining hydrangea at dawn; production line: compotes, bud vases; evening: bouts/corsages/any bouquets | Pack crates; load what can be loaded cold | Two to three helpers; movers get the map |
| Day of, morning | Ribbon; top up; final hydration; load | Setup crew of 3–4 places everything; you supervise then leave | |
| Day of, 4:30 on | Nothing | Movers execute the ceremony-to-tent moves from the map | |
| Next morning | Compost; save dried heads; rinse vessels | Strike kit | Strike crew named in advance |
Your flower week, dated
2. Flower week, hour by hour
T-3 (Wednesday)
- Morning: station ready. Deliveries unboxed within 15 minutes of arrival; triage; process (Module 2). One helper strips while you cut.
- Afternoon: cut the first wave of any garden material (hydrangea: alum, deep water). Everything into the cool room. Labels on every bucket.
- Evening: nothing. Flowers rest 12+ hours.
T-2 (Thursday)
- Dawn: cut the second wave of garden material, if any.
- Morning: build the hardy station pieces (bar, buffet, welcome and escort tables). They go to the cool room in crates.
- Afternoon: fill water tubes; bunch and label the fresh stems for any faux-and-fresh hybrids but do not insert until the morning. Fresh garland if any. Pre-fill bud vases with solution in their crates.
- Evening: check water in everything; change any cloudy bucket.
T-1 (Friday)
- Dawn: cut the last wave of garden material into buckets; two hours rest minimum.
- 9 a.m.–1 p.m.: production line for the centerpieces. Three people. Crated and cooled as finished.
- 1–3 p.m.: bud vases from the scrap bucket plus airy stems. One helper.
- 3–5 p.m.: inspect everything; top up; re-mist hydrangea; load anything that can sit in a cold car overnight (nothing, unless the night is cold and the car is shaded; otherwise everything stays in the cool room).
- Evening: personal flowers if you are making them. Hydration boxes into the fridge. Then stop.
Day of (for a late-afternoon start)
- 7–8 a.m.: ribbon on any bouquets; pull bouts from the fridge an hour before pinning; insert fresh stems into any hybrids; final top-ups.
- 8–9 a.m.: load in order of placement (last placed, first loaded).
- Venue access time (confirm; likely 10 a.m.–noon): setup crew places from the photo map; you walk once, adjust, and hand over the watering can.
- By early afternoon: you are done. Go get dressed. (Shift everything earlier for a midday event.)
3. Helpers: roles, numbers, briefing
| Role | When | How many | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | T-3 | 1 | Anyone patient; it is stripping and cutting |
| Foliage base builder | T-1 line | 1 | Someone with a little eye; forgiving work |
| Finisher / editor | T-1 line | 1 | The most visually confident friend; works from the sample photo |
| Bud vase filler | T-1 afternoon | 1 | Anyone; show three examples |
| Driver / loader | Day of | 1–2 with vehicles | Careful drivers with SUVs or a van; AC on; no stops |
| Setup crew | Day of | 3–4 | People not in the wedding party; working from the map |
| Movers | Day of, after ceremony | 2 | Named, briefed, with the photo map; strong enough to lift an insert |
| Strike | Next morning | 2–3 | Named in advance |
Brief every helper the same way: the sample piece in front of them, the photo, the index card with counts, and the one rule for their station. Feed them. Plan twice the time you think and you will finish on time.
4. The workspace
- Two rooms: a build room (warm enough to work, big table, good light, floor you can hose) and a cool room (dark, 55–65°F, where every bucket and crate lives when not being worked).
- Buckets on the floor against walls, labeled and grouped by role, not by delivery.
- A trash bin at every build station; a compost tub for stems.
- Crates for finished pieces staged by destination: "Run 1," "Run 2," "Bar," "Cigar," "Charcuterie," "Aisle," "Cocktail."
- The personal-flowers kit (pins, ribbon, scissors, Crowning Glory, glue, tape, spare wire, a towel) in a box that goes to the getting-ready location, not the venue.
5. Packing and transport
- Crates with dividers for compotes and bud vases: a milk crate or box holds four to six compotes with cardboard between; bud vases in the cardboard wine-box dividers they came in, filled to an inch below the top.
- Floor of the vehicle, not seats; lowest center of gravity. Boxes wedged with towels. AC on high. No stops.
- Water in vessels travels better than empty (the weight stabilizes) as long as it is an inch below the rim. Top up on site from a watering can.
- Bouquets travel in buckets with 2 inches of water, wedged with towels, upright.
- Personal flowers travel in their hydration boxes on a seat, in AC.
- Inserts travel in their urns or in buckets of the same height; two people lift.
- Load last-placed first. The tent goes out before the aisle because the aisle is placed last and closest to the ceremony hour.
- Bring: watering can, spray bottle, snips, spare stems in a bucket, tape, zip ties, extra weight bags, towels, trash bags, the map, a second copy of the map.
6. Setup and placement
- Tables first (they take longest and are under cover): crew places from the layout photo, run by run, checking the service lane. Candles after flowers. Top up water.
- Stations: bar, cigar, charcuterie, guestbook, cocktail tables.
- Grass planters at the tent threshold or aisle entrance.
- Aisle clusters last, as close to ceremony time as the schedule allows (ideally within two hours), with fresh stems already tubed in; weights checked; a final mist.
- Walk the whole site once from the guest's path: entrance, aisle, seats, tent entrance, bar, table. Fix only what is wrong from six feet away.
- Hand the watering can and the spare bucket to the on-site person (a planner, a coordinator, a designated friend) with one instruction: top up at 3:30 and at 6.
7. Day-of run sheet and the hand-off
A run sheet is a one-page table: time, task, who, where, notes. Give a copy to every helper, the planner or coordinator, and the movers. Yours should end a few hours before the start with "I leave." If the schedule has you doing anything floral after noon, the plan is wrong; move it earlier or give it away.
The mother-of-the-bride rule
Every task after noon on the day needs a name that is not yours. Water top-ups, the ceremony-to-tent moves, the bouquet into its vase at the table, the bouts to the groomsmen, the cake flowers to the baker: all named, all on the sheet, all briefed the day before.
8. Strike
- Named crew, next morning unless the permit requires same night.
- Compost all fresh; pull and save the dried hydrangea heads and anything the family wants; rinse liners and vessels; wire mechanics into a bin for next time; inventory what was borrowed.
- Nothing left on the reservation.
9. Do: write your run sheet
- Copy the master timeline into your own document with real dates (the dated flower-week table above is generated from your event date) and real names.
- Write the T-1 production line schedule with stations, counts and helpers.
- Write the day-of run sheet from 7 a.m. to strike, every task with a name. Yours stops at 1 p.m.
- List the crates by destination and what goes in each.
- Confirm with the venue: earliest access time, water source, shade, vehicle access, and whether anything must leave the same night.
Read
- A Practical Wedding, DIY wedding flowers: 10 tips that will save you a meltdown. The timing advice (centerpieces two days out, bouquets the day before, twice the time you think) is the consensus, and the tone is right.
- Thursd, safety tips for wedding floral transport: the cardboard-divider and stabilizer methods florists use.
- How to safely transport flowers.
- How long before a wedding do you put the flowers together?