In the first live broadcast from its newly unveiled studio, the Floral Design Institute welcomed floral educator and wedding specialist Leanne Kesler, AIFD, PFCI, alongside guest designer and instructor Jeri Barr from Bella Bloom Floral to share expert insights on wedding flower organization, bouquet mechanics and current bridal trends.
The hour-long session focused on one of the most popular wedding bouquet styles of the season: cascading tulip bouquets featuring flowing tulips, calla lilies and amaranthus. Using a dramatic AI-generated inspiration image as a reference, Jeri demonstrated how to create a modern cascading design using mini green hydrangeas as an armature and several wiring techniques to extend and position tulips for maximum movement and visual impact.
Beyond design mechanics, the discussion centered on wedding workflow and organization. Jeri shared practical strategies developed through more than 16 years of wedding floristry experience, including preparing greenery bouquet bases days in advance, organizing flowers by individual bouquets, labeling wedding orders, and using transport-ready boxes to streamline event setup.
The presenters also addressed important industry topics such as managing AI-generated inspiration images from clients, hydration methods for wired flowers, transporting delicate wedding bouquets, and testing flower performance before recommending new techniques to customers.
Throughout the presentation, viewers were encouraged to invest time in experimenting with flowers, documenting results and building confidence in new mechanics before offering them commercially.
The session highlighted an important message for wedding florists: creating beautiful designs is only part of the job. Successful wedding work also requires careful planning, organization, preparation and realistic client communication to ensure profitable and stress-free events.
