Floral & Stripe | Seattle Wedding Designer
Right before we all got shut down for what felt like an entire lifetime, I was blessed to meet the brains behind Floral & Stripe. Cherelle, the incredible Seattle Wedding Designer, takes a couple’s vision for their wedding day and makes some serious dreams come true! If you’re not sure where to start with your wedding vision, Cherelle can help guide you through making your wedding day completely cohesive from top to bottom.
After having photographed a huge branding session for her, I asked to feature Floral and Stripe on my blog so all my wonderful clients (that’s you!) can get to know this amazing woman and her creative work! Below is her interview and some pretty awesome styled shots from our big branding session with her!
Hi Cherelle! Please tell me more about you and your fabulous company, Floral & Stripe.
My name is Cherelle German and I am the owner of a wedding and event design company called, “Floral and Stripe”. By day, (and I suppose by night as well), I’m a wife, mama to three and small-town hobby farmer.
I started my business in 2016, sort of on a whim, and haven’t looked back. Floral and Stripe is my creative outlet where I get to design and decorate really awesome events and weddings and put my tasteful brain for designing and decorating to work for other’s special celebrations.
How does a wedding designer differ from a wedding coordinator?
As a wedding designer, I help you design and cohesively plan out your wedding decor throughout your entire event. On your wedding day, I show up, decorate, disappear, and then return at the end of the night to clean up the decor. As a wedding designer, I don’t help you plan your event, coordinate your vendors, etc., but rather I stick to the details I love the most and am passionate about, which is the design aspect of your wedding.
A wedding planner is the one who plans your event, coordinates your vendors, tells you when to walk down the aisle, keeps the timeline running, that sort of thing. And that’s NOT me 😊. However, some wedding planners do also offer wedding design services!
When it comes to weddings and design, what is your favorite part of the process?
Ooooh, that’s a tough one! I can definitely tell you that my favorite part of the process IS NOT ironing and steaming, ha! But, I would have to say that one of my favorite parts is the design process itself. After my clients tell me their colors, their ideas, the overall feel they want for their event, etc., I then get to take all that information and get my design brain wheels turnin’ to create that beautiful wedding they’ve envisioned. That is super fun to me and I spend hours upon hours designing.
What is the biggest benefit to hiring a wedding designer?
The biggest benefit of hiring a wedding designer is the fact that you can have a professional who will design and execute your wedding designs to meet the high standards you have in mind. Not only will I, as a wedding designer, help you finalize and seamlessly weave the designs throughout your event, but I will make sure your wedding day gets decorated right!
This means, no Aunt Martha placing unironed linens on the table (my biggest pet peeve), and no best friends sister being put in charge of “hopefully” decorating your wedding aisle correctly.
I tell people all the time, “You don’t want to DIY!”. And I’m not just saying that to make a dollar or two. People don’t realize all the behind the scenes production that goes on leading up to your wedding day. Things like ironing 27 tablecloths, folding one gazillion napkins (because after the first 32, it literally feels like a gazillion), tracking down tableware, curating, transporting, setting up, taking down, returning, cleanings, and on, and on, and on!
Because of that alone, hiring a wedding designer will save you SO much stress, time, energy on your big day, and it’s totally worth the investment!
How does Floral and Stripe’s design process work?
After your initial inquiry, we will get you scheduled for a complimentary design consultation. This is the fun part! We get to browse through your Pinterest board (you know you have one!) and the ideas you have for your wedding design. At this meeting, I get a really good feel for what you want.
Next, I go home and put together a mini- design board for you, along with an estimated proposal.
Upon approval of the direction (and/or some minor tweaks), and you decide to move forward, you will pay for the wedding design service charge. Once that is paid we start narrowing down the little details like linens, centerpieces, floral installments, tableware, big statement pieces and so much more!
Once we have the designs and decor narrowed down and finalized, I will send you over your invoice in which you would pay 50% down, and the remaining balance 2 weeks prior to your wedding.
Now even more fun happens! I get to crafting a comprehensive design book for you that will show you all aspects of your wedding decor visually. This is where things really come to life and you even get to keep the design book for yourself!
Lastly, you can mark your wedding designing and decorating off your to-do list because I have it handled from here!
Do you coordinate rentals for your designs or will that need to be handed off to a coordinator?
Every aspect of the wedding decorating will be coordinated by me if it’s on our contract. I will be your one-stop for all your decorating needs; no wedding planner needed for this portion!
Are your floral services limited to decor or are you able to include matching floral pieces for the wedding party and couple?
If you want matching floral pieces for the wedding party, such as bouquets, boutonnieres, etc. to align with the floral designs used in your wedding decor, I will most certainly handle that part for you. This is something we would discuss at the design consultation.
You’ve said before that everything is custom designed, down to the price. What is the minimum you recommend couples hire your services for? (Ex. Sweetheart table, ceremony arch, general design plans)
I don’t currently have a minimum requirement for my services. However, I highly recommend that you choose to either have me do most, if not all of the designing and decor aspect of your wedding, just so your wedding designs flow together.
For instance, if you wanted to hire me for, let’s say, your guest tables, to which I would handle all the linens, tableware, centerpieces, and chair decor, and then you choose to have your friend do your sweetheart table. Well, the sweetheart table’s florals, linens, tableware, and overall aesthetic might not flow with the designs that I created for guest tables and therefore might stick out and ruin the flow of the designs.
Do you have an ideal couple for Floral & Stripe?
Not really… although people are always drawn to those like themselves and I’m a big extrovert who’s a bit quirky, artsy and fun. I love working with clients who are fun, a little creative, and want their wedding designs to be a bit different, just because it’s super fun for me to create something new and exciting.
But if you’re a quiet introvert who wants something super traditional and plain, there’s still a place for you in my heart too. Let’s do it girl!❤
What is your favorite memory from a wedding or event?
One of my favorite memories is from a wedding I did last year in Seattle at Sole Repair. The clients told my husband and me that they wanted us to stay for their actual wedding and celebrate with them.
We did of course and had a lot of fun. But the best part for me was to be a sort of “behind the scenes” guest at their wedding, and being able to hear all the positive compliments about the wedding decorating from the actual guests. The wedding guests didn’t know who I was, so it was very cool to hear things like, “wow everything looks so beautiful!”, and “this is like a fairytale”, etc. It made me super happy! Even more, I got to see the happy and newly married couple off, and as they were leaving, they thanked me for creating their “fairy-tale” wedding. Score!
When hiring a wedding designer, what should couples look for?
There are a lot of amazing designers out there, so couples should ultimately look for a designer who truly gets their individualized vision. Your wedding designer is the major mood setter for your wedding’s overall feel, and this shouldn’t be taken lightly. Also, make sure you feel good about your wedding designer, as you would with any of your wedding vendors. Feelings (vibes, or whatever you may call it), goes a long way!
Any other advice for newly engaged couples?
Hire out! Don’t try to do things yourself, because your wedding day should be a day of celebration with no care in the world. Don’t ruin your big day with the stresses that could easily be handled by professionals. 😘
To hire Cherelle check out her website www.floralandstripe.com and let her know I said hi! For more vendor goodness, check out Sirius Pizza’s Vendor Highlight
