How Our Team Designs and Builds Epic Wedding Florals
As we gear up for peak wedding season, our Full Service wedding team is putting the finishing touches on the plans for some very special wedding floral installations. Many of our couples opt to order wedding flowers from our stylish A la Carte Menu, but for some events, fully custom florals are a must have, and our Full Service Weddings team is ready to serve.
How does our team of floral designers work together to create the perfect wedding flowers for each event? We’ve asked Natalie Gill, founder of Native Poppy, and Hanna Tithin, Assistant Floral Project Design Manager, to take us behind the scenes and share how Native Poppy takes couples’ inspiration and brings it to life in the form of epic floral installations, lush table florals, wild wedding aisles, and more.
Meet the designers: Can you introduce yourself and your role?
Natalie: I’m the founder of Native Poppy, and while I don’t technically have this title, I’d say I serve as the ‘creative director’ for many of our weddings and large custom events. I conceptualize the overall floral style for each project – everything from the flower selections and color palette to the way the arrangements will be designed and installed. I work within the vision and brief provided by the client or planner, then use my artistic perspective to translate that into florals and bring the entire experience to life.
Hanna: Hi blog world!! My name is Hanna :) I started my flower journey back in 2021 when I moved from the little island of Guam to San Diego. I had zero floral experience, but I recently got married the year before, and the process of choosing florals for my wedding sparked this desire to learn more about the industry. Native Poppy was my introduction into the floral world and I haven’t looked back ever since. I started out as a floral apprentice where I learned the basics from floral design, retail, and everything in between. I eventually progressed my way to lead floral designer and assistant shop manager where I helped train and guide our team using the knowledge I’ve picked up along the way.
While that was such a rewarding chapter for me, now that I live out of state, I was given the amazing opportunity to stay a part of the best team around by transitioning into a remote role as an assistant project design manager. I work alongside our full service and custom events team to help carry out the genius visions our team dreams up! Whether that be through digital design renderings, consultations, client/vendor communications, floral proposals, flower ordering, recipe writing, project organization, etc. I’m your gal!!
How does Native Poppy use wedding renderings to bring each wedding vision to life?
Natalie: We use wedding renderings for two purposes: the first is to communicate our vision to the client or event planner and help set clear expectations for the final result. The second purpose wedding renderings serve is as a blueprint for our internal design team. I can share the rendering with the designers who will be building the arrangements and installations so everyone understands the vision, scale, color palette, and overall styling direction.
Hanna: Also, renderings are just an important part of our actual design process in general. Since I can’t physically be on-site with the rest of our team to carry out design concepts, this helps me manage the projects from afar. By knowing what the end goal is, this helps me determine the overall scope we’re working with in order to give our clients an accurate quote, order the right amount of flowers, and have enough staffing lined up to make the day of setup run as smoothly as possible. Plus, flowers are SO pricey! It’s not in our best interest to create different mockups to problem solve.
What’s the difference between a wedding mockup and a rendering?
Hanna: Great question! A mockup is when you physically create a sample arrangement, which is something we try to do for all of our custom weddings and events whenever possible. We’ll place the floral arrangement on a fully styled tabletop with the linens, candles, plates, flatware, and glassware so we can see how everything works together in real life. It allows both us and the client to experience the scale, texture, color palette, and overall feeling of the design before the event day. From there, we can imagine how that floral style will translate into the larger custom pieces we’re creating, like ceremony backdrops, hanging installations, and other statement moments throughout the wedding.
Natalie: A rendering, on the other hand, is a digital visualization of the floral designs. When I first started as a florist, I would actually sketch ceremony installations and arrangements by hand and watercolor them myself. Over time, I discovered digital rendering tools, which not only save time but also allow for so much more creative freedom and customization throughout the design process. It’s honestly pretty amazing to see how a two-dimensional digital rendering can translate so accurately into a real-life floral installation once we bring it to life on event day.
What makes Native Poppy’s wedding floral design process special?
Natalie: Everything! I kid….
Hanna: Haha ditto. But truly!! Every single design we’ve made has been unique and special in its own way. No two events are ever the same. I think that’s what makes it an art form because it’s not a cookie-cutter situation. We dream up ideas that inspire us based off of what our clients want to feel through their flowers. We use ingredients that can be temperamental in unlikely conditions, and are trained to adapt and pivot in unlikely scenarios. At the end of the day, we are always able to make something really beautiful for our clients. I’m currently reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (actually a book recommended by Nat haha). She talks about how the creative process is not about it being perfect but to really just focus on the joy of creating. That’s really when some of our best work is produced. Such an inspiring read so far, I’d highly recommend it! Could you share an insider tip, like what tools you use to create renderings?
Natalie: It’s pretty crazy, but we actually create our digital renderings using programs like Keynote or PowerPoint. We’re able to import individual images of flowers, remove the backgrounds, and then layer and arrange them to build large-scale, realistic floral drawings.
A florist I really admire, Mulberry and Moss, even teaches a course on creating floral renderings in Canva, and her results look incredible.
Hanna: Sometimes it can be hard to find an existing photo out there of a flower positioned or growing the exact way we’re imagining it to be designed in person. So when I see a flower out in the wild just giving the most interesting and fluid shape, best believe I’m going to stop and take a photo of it. I have a whole album in my phone dedicated to just my favorite blooms ready at my disposal for when I need them. We can never have too much whimsy over here at Native Poppy ;) . Like Nat mentioned, we use pretty basic platforms to help us create these digital renderings. Sometimes Keynote’s “remove background” tool can be hit or miss, but I know I can always rely on remove.bg to get the job done! Super easy to use and accessible.
How does a project go from inspiration to installation? Can you share how you communicate and brainstorm floral trends? Do you use moodboards (and could you share one?)
Natalie: The inspiration for a project usually starts with color first, and then the overall feeling or environment we want the florals to evoke. Sometimes we’re drawing from natural landscapes - like arid and rocky deserts, lush and tropical rainforests, colorful wildflower fields, or even something moodier and swamp-inspired. Other times, the inspiration comes less from nature and more from sculpture, fashion, architecture, or fine art. Not every floral design has to feel organic or garden-inspired; sometimes it’s about creating something more conceptual and artistic (hello pasta installation!).
From there, we start selecting flowers and materials that support both the aesthetic vision and the practical realities of the event. We’re always thinking about how the flowers will hold up- whether they’ll need a water source, can they withstand heat in a tent or outdoor setting, or survive being installed the day before the wedding? We also factor in logistics like installation timing, labor, mechanics, and how many team members can realistically work on a piece at once.
Hanna: Oh yes!!! We love a mood board! That’s always the very first step in our design process. We’ll typically pull together a general mood board using inspiration images, often sourced from Pinterest, that help communicate the overall color palette, texture, tone, and feeling of the event. We’ll send that initial mood board along with the proposal so the client can see the vision of the overall aesthetic and make sure we’re aligned. Once the client officially books with us, that mood board becomes the foundation for everything else we create.
What advice would you give to couples building their confidence in reaching out and what to expect from wedding florists?
Natalie: I would say couples should never feel intimidated reaching out to a wedding florist! We are genuinely excited to hear from you! We want to make flowers for your wedding! So many exclamation points needed!!!!!
Hanna: I think the most important thing is having a sense of the feeling you want your wedding to have. Know if you want it to be modern, traditional, romantic, funky, colorful, neutral, sculptural, whimsical, or organic. Those kinds of descriptive words are incredibly helpful because they immediately start giving us a sense of the atmosphere and emotional tone you’re trying to create.
Natalie: It’s also really helpful to share a few images you love of wedding florals. Floral design is such a visual medium, and we really speak the language of visuals. Sometimes words alone can mean different things to different people. For example, someone might say they want “blush” flowers, but blush to one person could lean peach and to another person could feel more pink or lavender-toned. Looking at inspiration images together helps everyone get aligned visually and makes the design process so much smoother. Hanna: I also think it’s important for couples to understand that while florists are creating art, they are also managing flower seasonality, flower availability, weather conditions, installation timing, mechanics, labor, and budget. Trusting your florist is key- if you like their work let them do their thing. Allow them the space to reinterpret your favorite inspiration picture through their own artistic lens.
What is the process like when working with a wedding planner and getting the florals you want and need for a wedding?
Hanna: Oh we loveeee our planners! When you get the opportunity to work with the planners that really have such an eye for design and are so good at what they do, that’s when the process just feels so fluid. From a client perspective, going with a planner will take a lot of stress off of your plate to figure out all the wedding jargon especially if you are not familiar with everything that goes into the planning process. From a florist perspective, we love working with planners because they usually have a clear vision of what their client wants and understanding on what it takes to bring that vision to life. This not only sets expectations with the clients going into it, but gives us the opportunity to do what we do best when that trust is already established.
For the indecisive couple, what has been your advice or how have you helped couples make their final decision on their wedding florals?
Hanna: It can be tough to feel 100% confident about every little detail of your florals before making the step to book your florist! Things. Always. Change. That’s just the nature of the process. Sometimes you have a last minute addition to your bridal party, or table counts change, or you decide “yeah, we actually do want candles there”.
I always advise our clients when they are feeling indecisive that the most important thing they need to feel confident in is their non-negotiable needs for their wedding and that we are the right florist to carry out their vision. For example, they know they want personals for the bridal party, a few ground pieces down the aisle with an arch for the ceremony, a handful of bud vases for cocktail hour, and at least 12 tables, 2 bar pieces and a hanging floral installation for reception. Start there, get your florist booked and your date secured on their calendar, and then trust the process! This is where design renderings come in. We work closely with our clients to iron out all the finer details through digital design renderings, design meetings, and in-person mockups to help our clients feel confident that they are getting the florals they are envisioning for the special day.
