Weddings & Events in Los Angeles

Weddings & events in Los Angeles: flowers for a dry season and a grey June

Downtown Los Angeles gets around 360 millimetres of rain a year, and about 92 percent of it falls between November and April, with February the wettest month. From May to October, an outdoor ceremony worries less about a downpour and more about heat and the grey morning cloud along the coast. That weather shapes weddings & events in Los Angeles, deciding how a wedding flower delivery in Los Angeles gets planned, from the bouquet's water to the hour it reaches the venue.

Wedding bouquets, and how far they travel: centre to Irvine

Wedding, Wedding Bouquets and the Bridal Bouquet are priced individually, with the Bridal Bouquet sold as a single design. A bridal bouquet or a set of wedding bouquets can go straight through checkout, with delivery priced separately by zone.

The city splits into three rings, and every address pays its own zone fee:

• city centre, free — from 45 minutes after confirmation
• Mid-Wilshire & Koreatown, Marina del Rey & Playa Vista, paid — from 1.5 hours
• Pasadena & Glendale, Sherman Oaks & the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach & the South Bay, Orange County: Irvine & Anaheim, paid — from 2 hours

Those times cover an express order for a bouquet the florist already has, counted from confirmation. A wedding is usually booked for a date and a time window instead, and delivery to an exact minute goes through a manager for a small extra charge.

At a hotel the courier gives the guest's surname as registered and the room number; the hotel decides whether the flowers go up or wait at the desk. At a restaurant the timing is agreed with the venue beforehand, so the bouquet or basket arrives for dessert, for the toast, or just before someone walks up to speak. Full delivery zones and fees are listed for planning ahead.

Ordering from outside the country works the same way as ordering locally: payment by card, a photo of the finished flowers sent before the courier leaves, and a message once they're handed over.

A venue near the coast runs 6 to 8 degrees cooler than one just eight kilometres inland, and that gap decides more about a bouquet's afternoon than the calendar does. Through May and June, low cloud sits over the shoreline most mornings, locally called May Gray and June Gloom, while an inland venue can already be in full sun by midday. Later in the year, the Santa Ana winds blow in dry and hot from the northeast, mostly through autumn and winter, and humidity drops fast when they do.

Neither pattern changes what the flowers need: water and shade. A bouquet shouldn't sit in a parked car, and it shouldn't stand where an air conditioner blows straight onto the petals. A basket of lilies set out for the reception needs no vase at all, since the stems sit in soaked foam and draw from it on their own. That suits a dry Santa Ana afternoon as well as a foggy morning by the water.

White chrysanthemums, the number four and a dozen roses

Koreatown sits inside the paid delivery zone, and its families keep customs worth knowing before flowers go to an older relative. White and yellow chrysanthemums, along with white lilies and white roses, are funeral flowers in Korean tradition, and Chinese tradition keeps mourning flowers white as well, avoiding the number four because it sounds like the word for death.

For most American guests a dozen roses is simply the classic gift, no reading required. A Russian-speaking grandmother, though, may read an even number as a sign of mourning, since odd counts mark celebration in that tradition. The 51 stems in a Jumilia bouquet or a basket of 51 lilies already fall on the right side of that count.

Where the guest list mixes backgrounds a host isn't sure about, the safer move is a message to the florist, who sends back a few options with photos and prices before anything is paid.

For a first look, browse the full wedding range, baskets of lilies included, or start narrower with the bridal bouquet for the ceremony and wedding bouquets for the wedding party. In cooler months, peonies suit weddings and events in Los Angeles too, and delivery pricing for any address is settled before payment.