Styled shoots are a fantastic opportunity to showcase your new skills, not to mention a great time for networking and building relationships with other wedding suppliers.
I organised a styled shoot when I was very new in the game, it served a great purpose as I obtained images of my work from a professional photographer which I used on my website and social media to advertise my business.
Styled shoots are expensive for florists as it’s very rare that any other suppliers will assist with the cost of flowers, however, this is your opportunity to create designs that you want to showcase, so my biggest tip is pick wisely what you collaborate on. Its very easy when starting out to say yes to all requests that come your way, however, if you are able to be more selective with who you work with (especially photographers) because if you don’t love the work produced by the photographer & their style of editing, you may not want to use all the images. And as stated, your investment into a styled shoot isn’t cheap. Generally you will be arriving early and leaving last, so not only do you have to consider the cost of the flowers, but also a full day of unpaid work and potentially the day before if you make any arrangements in advance.
I would suggest thinking about the upcoming floral trends in weddings and what you think is going to be the most appealing to your ideal clients. Try to avoid creating designs which are popular in weddings now, because you want to showcase new and exciting designs and I would suggest putting your budget into a statement installation piece rather than spreading it too thin to create lots of smaller designs.
Prior to the shoot I would advise creating WhatsApp or social media group and adding all the suppliers into it, this way plans and timings can be shared and everyone knows who else is involved. Its also important to have an up to date credit list, ensuring all suppliers are tagged and it clearly states their involvement.
Behind the scene footage is a great way to show your audience what you’re getting up to on the day and provide sneak peaks of the work, however, it’s important to decide in advance what the purpose of the shoot is; just for content, or to try and have the images published in a blog. If the aim is to have the images published, hold off sharing the professional images as blogs like exclusively and may decline to share your hard work if the images have already been shared.
Its also a great chance to ask the photographer to take some photos of you working that you can share on your social media.
Remember the snacks!! It’s a long day, so make sure you take a packed lunch and lots of easy snacks to keep you going throughout the day.
And have fun!! Styled shoots can be stressful but remember to enjoy the day and build those supplier relationships!
