Do you want to know a little wedding day detail that can easily be overlooked? Floral logistics.

Wedding day florals go beyond just choosing your favorite flowers, placing your florist order, and paying your bill. Someone— you, perhaps, but preferably your planner or a trusted family member or friend— need to be mindful of when and where those florals arrive and their journey on your wedding day.

This is important no matter what, but it’s especially important for couples whose wedding days will span multiple locations in any way.

From a photographer’s perspective: I typically start wedding days photographing details, and flowers are an anchor in your overall aesthetic. The more time I get to have with the florals, the more creative I get to be with integrating them into photographs so that you have a greater variety of photographs including them. For this reason, I highly recommend florals be delivered as early in the day as possible and that they arrive wherever you are getting ready.

For ladies— If your flowers are going to be integrated into your hair at all, it’s especially important to confirm that your hair flowers will arrive at the same location where you will be getting your hair done well in advance of when you expect to be in the chair. This may sound obvious, but it’s the kind of detail that, if not accounted for, has the kind of potential to add a lot of stress and complication to the morning of your wedding day.

Next, it’s important to remember that boutonnières, corsages, & bouquets should be in place when we start taking portraits. If you and your fiancé are getting ready in different places, figure out how the florals will get to their different destinations. If your florist doesn’t offer multiple drop-offs, ask your planner (or a family member or friend) to be responsible for distributing florals to different locations.

Also, be sure boutonnières are pinned correctly— on the left lapel, with a tidy hidden pin. (If I’m at your wedding, I’ll be keeping an eye on the boutonnières. I re-pin a LOT of boutonnières every year, because it’s important to me that every detail to be treated with care. I learned to pin a boutonnière correctly very early in my career— before I graduated from college, in fact. And it’s still a skill I use more Saturdays than not.)

Regarding bridesmaid bouquets, remind your ladies to keep their bouquets nearby until portraits and the ceremony are over. A missing bridesmaid bouquet can be a real bummer for group photos and the ceremony. And arrange to have vases at the reception tables for bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, so they have a place to land when it’s time to dance.

Florals are such a fleeting beauty. Their fragrance, their delicate nature, the artistry of the floral designers who arrange them to help you celebrate your day— all these things add up to a precious experience that is a time-honored layer of how we celebrate weddings. When & where they arrive can play a role not only in how much they appear in your wedding photos, but also just in how much time you get to admire & experience them.

Finally, I think one of the coolest things you can do with your wedding florals is to donate them to a nursing home or extended care facility, to be enjoyed by the residents. Check out what your options are in your area & enlist some loved ones to help distribute them the next day. If you don’t know of any local options for donation, check out this post from Here Comes the Guide.