Caroline Hardy is a luxury wedding florist based in Provo who designs flowers for events all over Utah. I first met her as a neighbor when she came to my door to gift me a fresh, colorful bouquet she had created in a university floral design class. I was impressed by her talent and admired the flowers, which sat in my kitchen window, as I baked that week. Those were only the first of many flowers I would see from Caroline. Shortly after completing her design course, she launched a wedding floral business that has truly blossomed. She’s quickly become many brides’ favorite wedding florist in Salt Lake City, Utah County, and beyond.
Caroline grew up picking wildflowers with her dad in the mountains of Idaho. As they hiked, she’d joke with her dad that one day she’d have her own flower shop. Her childhood vision resurfaced when she chose to pursue a degree in horticultural science and landscaping at Brigham Young University. Her course of studies prompted her to take a job at a flower farm. Spending time outside and cultivating beautiful plants, Caroline decided she wanted to work with flowers forever. She took more classes and freelanced for other prestigious florists to gain experience in the wedding world. Soon she started her own brand and began booking weddings. She has already become a reputable wedding florist and a favorite of many other Utah wedding vendors! You can see her work by visiting her Instagram page: instagram.com/carolinepearlfloral
Caroline picked 3 words to describe her style: elegant and classy, but still whimsical. She says it’s all about balancing the blend of old and new. For example, although she doesn’t use the tight, round bouquet shapes of the past, she still incorporates classic and elegant flowers such as roses.
The luxurious feel of her designs is also important to her brand. While many florists fill their arrangements with the cheapest flowers possible, Caroline creates bouquets exclusively from the finest flowers.
Caroline works with over 30 local Utah flower farmers to get sustainably-farmed, gorgeous blooms. She explained that local flowers are fresher, stronger, and–in her opinion–prettier! Last summer over 90% of the flowers she used for weddings were locally grown. Some of Caroline’s favorite Utah flowers include dahlias, cosmos, sweet pea, tulips, Queen Anne’s lace, garden roses, and zinnias. Often she buys these from Utah Flower Market, a small business in Pleasant Grove.
You can learn more about “Utah’s only exclusively locally-grown flower market” by visiting Utah Flower Market’s website or Instagram.
Each wedding is truly unique, which is what Caroline loves most about designing wedding flowers. Every couple wants different installs and color palettes, providing her with new challenges to create something novel and beautiful. Some of her favorite wedding flowers include installs such as arches, floral meadows, and aisle pieces.
At Caroline Pearl Floral, the booking process begins with a simple inquiry form. If Caroline is available on your requested date, she sends you a welcome guide outlining her base prices, and a second questionnaire to collect more details. Next is a complimentary consultation call, where she goes over your budget and inquiry. You’ll discuss colors and vision for the big day. She gives you an estimate of how much you can expect to pay and breaks down what is possible within your budget. Caroline then comes up with a custom proposal that lists the specific flowers she will use, precise quotes for them, and how they will be arranged for your wedding look. As soon as you feel good about it and you’re ready to book, you sign a contract and pay your down payment.
After this, you’re free to relax and move on with other wedding planning tasks! In the meantime, Caroline is busy placing orders with wholesalers, purchasing supplies, constructing install structures–everything! She stays in touch with her couples throughout the process, and if you need to make any changes she helps arrange that so that you will be happy with everything. Moving forward to the week of the wedding, she loads up her water buckets and drives to numerous flower farms. She begins processing the flowers immediately to preserve their freshness. Although she pulls some all-nighters to get everything done, this wedding florist is there on time for set-up the next day with a smile–and the most gorgeous florals you will ever see.
According to Caroline:
Although flowers are traditionally a big part of weddings in many cultures, they are nonetheless a luxury item. They may be common, but some people don’t understand how expensive they inherently are.
As a wedding florist, Caroline puts in a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work. There are so many little-known costs, time-consuming prep and meticulous planning that go into every event. Just a handful of examples are consultation calls, searching wholesalers’ websites, planning designs, visiting flower farms, calculating pricing for proposals, compiling contracts, acquiring support structures for installs, hiring freelancers to help pre-process flowers… not to mention learning and maintaining a website, social media platforms and effectively marketing! There are lots of supplies and equipment that add expenses beyond just the flowers themselves.
If you really want a specific species of flower, you will need pick a wedding date in that flower’s blooming season. Caroline does her best to find what you want and can often find a similar type of flower if your first choice isn’t available, but at the end of the day, flowers are agricultural produce and sometimes they are simply not available. Flower species and exact colors cannot always be guaranteed–yet to Caroline, this can be a fun part: when specific flowers can’t be sourced, you get to be creative and find new solutions.
I’ve ordered many flowers from Caroline for wedding and other custom cakes and have always been impressed with how fresh and well-cared for they’ve been. We collaborated on a styled shoot at Studio Elevn in Salt Lake City last September (2023) and the results are absolutely breathtaking. I confidently recommend her as a highly reliable, meticulous, knowledgeable, artistic and fun wedding florist!
You can see more of her work on her website, launching this Valentines’ Day.
You can read reviews from other brides who have hired her on her Zola listing.
I love working with her, and at times we have offered discounts if you book us for the same wedding. Please contact either of us to see what preferred vendor promotions are available for your wedding date.
Contact Heather | Contact Caroline
Photos: Rachel Reyes Photography
Florist: @carolinepearlfloral
Cake Artist: @toptierconfections
Jewelry: @annemariedesignskc
Stationary: @mimistudiowedding
Cake Table: @allaboutyourentals
Female Model: @jennica_anusua
Male Model: @mh.hajj
HMUA: @sarahmichelleartistry
Bridal Gown: @alpbridal
#luxury wedding flowers #utah weddings #wedding florist #wedding flowers