Behind the Scenes on Your Big Day: Your Wedding Timeline

There are fewer moments in life more precious than this; a bride receiving her wedding bouquet. Your inner circle is likely to shed a tear when they see you on your wedding day; a highly anticipated life event, often signifying the beginning of a new, flourishing chapter.

Floristry is a time-sensitive industry and, since we are working alongside Mother Nature, time is of the essence when it comes to achieving the most illustrious look on your wedding day. That’s why being organised and having meticulous planning is part of our ethos here at Xavier Nicolle Flowers.

When you and your wedding suppliers work seamlessly together, something truly magical happens. You can breathe a sigh of relief knowing you will be able to enjoy the most wonderful day of your life. Above all, we want you to relish this time.

Your Timeline

There’s nothing like a tidy spreadsheet to get us excited about the way your day will unfold. Highlighting times, locations, people and projects, your timeline will be the cement of your wedding day. Your bridal party and your vendors should each hold a copy.

At Xavier Nicolle, we love helping you create your timeline and working with you to build a schedule that works for all parties involved, especially you! Communication is a key element at this stage of planning.
Typically, when it comes to your wedding flowers, the timeline will unfold in the following way.

30 Days before the day

Before the big day, we will email you to confirm plan A and plan B ceremony locations.
At this stage, we will discuss whether there have been any changes regarding bridesmaid dresses, bridal party numbers, cake flowers, or arrangements.

Additionally, this is an excellent opportunity to let your florist know whether there will be any installations, decor, or final touches you’d like to add.

At this time, we will also confirm your delivery schedule.

Clear Communication

Whether you have enlisted the help of a wedding planner, or you’re excited by the notion of planning your wedding yourself, you’ll want to keep in mind the importance of communicating your itinerary with all of your vendors.

Visually, we recommend keeping all of your floral, dress, and location inspiration in one Pinterest or Google Docs folder. Sending us the link will reduce the amount of email dialogue and maintain aesthetic clarity for both you and your florist.

You’ll also want to elect one of your bridesmaids or groomsmen to be on ‘flower watch’. While our team will be there for you on call, it’s always a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes to ensure boutonnieres are the right way up and flower crowns are conducting themselves appropriately.

The Magical Morning

You will wake up feeling fresh and ready to enjoy this most exciting day. Your bridesmaids will begin to arrive at your bridal dressing location around 8 am. Between 8-9 am, we will deliver the styling flowers (bridal bouquet, hair flowers, and bridesmaids bouquets) to your bridal dressing location.

Weather Watch

If the weather is temperamental, you will be asked to make a decision by 11 am as to whether you have chosen location A or B. Sometimes, the reception location will be plan B for your ceremony. This detail will have been discussed prior to your big day, so you can make your decision with ease on the day.

Your ceremony

Boutonnieres will be delivered to the ceremony location unless there is a specified, additional request to deliver these flowers to the groomsmen prior.

Your flower girl petals and corsages can be delivered directly to the ceremony site or your bridal dressing location.
Ceremony flowers and installations will be created by hand at your chosen ceremony location.

Our team will remain on site to enjoy your ceremony and ensure that no petal is out of place. With your additional request, we are able to relocate the ceremony flowers to your reception location.

“Nothing says love to me more than fluffy garden roses and freshly-cut stems. These are my childhood memories of my grandma, an undeniably nostalgic heritage of all that she taught me; to honour craftsmanship and to love the earth.” ~ Xavier.

Your Reception

The experienced Xavier Nicolle team will create and assemble your wedding florals at your reception during the morning. For weddings with luxurious or hanging installations, there are times when we will need to set up these masterpieces the day before your big event. In this case, we typically create 70% of the artwork the day prior and complete the look while your ceremony takes place.

Here we will deliver your table decor flowers, cake flowers, bar arrangements, entry installations, cocktail table arrangements, centrepieces, and your bouquet for tossing, as well as any other reception flowers that have been customised for your special day.

If our team is relocating your ceremony flowers to the reception site then this will occur within 40 minutes of your ceremony. This usually takes place while you and your love are having your first photos together as a married couple, and your guests are enjoying cocktail or canape hour. We advise that any additional photos being taken at the ceremony be priorities as we generally only have 2hrs to relocate, remake and clean up before guests arrive.

We will confirm the bump-in and bump-out times of your venue before your big day, so you’ll know when we will be arriving at your reception. We generally leave around the same time as you to pack away between 10 pm and 12 am.

8:00 Bride’s dressing location: Bridesmaids arrive for breakfast and bubbles.

8:30 Bride’s dressing location:

The Xavier Nicolle team delivers the bridal bouquet, bridal hair flowers, and bridesmaid bouquets. Boutonnieres, corsages, and flower girl petals. (At your special request we can deliver the boutonnieres to the groom’s dressing location earlier.)

9.00 Reception location:

The Xavier Nicolle Team delivers and integrates your table decor flowers, cake flowers, bar arrangements, entry installations, hanging installations, cocktail table arrangements, centrepieces, and your bouquet for tossing, as well as any other reception flowers that have been customised for your special day.

9:30 Bride’s dressing location: Makeup and mimosas begin.

11:00 Ceremony location:

The Xavier Nicolle team delivers and arranges the ceremony flowers.

14:00 Ceremony location: Guests to arrive.

14:30 Ceremony location: Wedding ceremony commences.

15:00 Ceremony location:

Congratulations are offered, guests enjoy canape or cocktail hour, bridal party and family photography commences.

15:15 Relocation of Ceremony florals:

The Xavier Nicolle Team packs down and relocates floral designs to the reception space. This is to create maximum wow factor.

16:00 Golden hour bride and groom photography.

Can we take a moment here? You and your love are MARRIED! This is your chance to soak in all the magic of the day. It will undoubtedly go faster than you can imagine, so maintain your presence with one another and remember, if you have each other, you have it all.

17:30 Reception location: Guests are seated for dinner.

20:00 Fun and dancing!

23:00 Bride and groom depart.

23:30 The XNF team packs away styling and florals.

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