Floral Pricing no comments
Flowers and pricing – it’s not a big secret
How much do flowers cost? It should be a simple question. The answer – not so cut and dried (pun intended). There are a million different florists around the world with their own philosophies and business models. I am not going to pretend to understand them all. What I would like to explain is how Pick Me Floral and Event Design structures our pricing and why we do things the way we do.
The floral design process begins with either a phone call or an email (or sometimes a walk into the studio). An initial design meeting (face to face or skype or phone) is had between either Rami or myself where we identify the who, what, when and where of your wedding. Your designer then creates a vision board as well as an itemized bid for your wedding. At this point in the design process, we can and will build your bid either around your given budget or your absolute dream/vision. The reality is usually a balancing act where we work with you to mesh the two realities of all weddings – The Dream/Vision VS The Budget. Revisions (if necessary) are made to ensure that you (the bride) and your designer (Pick Me!) are on the same page with colors, shapes, size, floral choices and containers. Then contracts are written, emailed and returned with payment. Months go by, we check in with you 30 – 45 days before your wedding, confirm numbers, make any modifications necessary (based on alternate numbers, current market availability, etc) and move forward with planning wedding design.
For a normal Saturday wedding, either Rami or I will drive to market on Wednesday. Wednesday is the best day for us due to the shipping schedules from most growers around the world. Flowers arrive in Denver on Tuesdays and Wednesdays – if we are at market on delivery day then we get the pick of the litter. It is also a great day because it allots us wiggle room for weather (we do live in Winter Park,Colorado – when Berthoud Pass is closed due to snow – the pass is CLOSED!) and for processing time. Round trip to market for us is 137 miles (that is without any extra stops at J Crew / Anthropology – the J Crew / Anthropology stop adds 26 miles – and yes, I have clocked it). Now some mountain florists have the flowers delivered direct from the wholesalers or shipped via UPS or Fedex. In our experience, nothing beats hand selection of the flowers at market. Sometimes my idea of a peach colored rose is someone else’s idea of coral. Sometimes Rami’s idea of dark blue is different than what was shipped from Holland. The hands on selection process is time consuming – but scores of past clients agree that the extra attention to detail/color/flower quality on behalf of them was money well spent. As for freight shipping – there is no direct delivery to Winter Park. Items spend the night in Silverthorne in a warehouse that is NOT temperature controlled. End result? That is a big risk to take with someone’s wedding. The flowers could freeze or burn (heck, it’s Colorado, both could happen in 12 hours). The long and short of it is – I’d rather eyeball everything personally so I KNOW I am delivering the right thing to your wedding than risk disappointment. And another secret for you, if we not sure of a specific color or floral substation based on quality and availability the week of your wedding, we will take a picture with our phones and text you from market. You, the bride, will be with us every step of the way with last minute decisions or substitutions . . .even if you are getting a mani/pedi at the time.
A quick thought of floral substitions. We have a clause in our contract that reads the following – ” In the event a certain flower is not up to Pick Me’s standards the week of the event, Pick Me! reserves the right to substitute flowers with similar characteristics, with notice given via telephone call to the client. Client will incur no further cost and the floral substitution will be of equal or higher monetary value than flower initially stated in the contract.” Why is that? Because in the last few years, Thai rebels have seized the airport in Bangkok for 5 days cutting off all exports in December (i.e. no James Storeii Orchids that week) and heat waves have decimated the sweet pea crops in California as early as July (2008). A huge volcano in Iceland stopped any exports from Europe (i.e. Holland) for a month last winter and Central America is not always stable. We do everything within our power to fulfill your vision but flowers are a market item and there are certain things that are simply beyond our control.
So the first consideration of cost is travel time to market (average 5 hours – again without any shopping), enough gas to fill the Ford Econoline Van as well as time spent. Then add the cost of flowers and supplies. Unfortunately, the tape, foam, pins, crystals and ribbon aren’t free for any of us. Neither are the containers, the vases or the candles . . .
When we get back to the studio – it’s time to process the flowers. This is why a team works better in our situation. Either myself or Rami has been to the city – the other has been at the studio cleaning and returning phone calls and emails. Yes, while one of us is driving the van down I-70, the other has been scrubbing and bleaching buckets, filling them with water and food and cleaning all of the containers that we will be using for the upcoming wedding. Once we unload the van, all flowers need to be processed and fed. Every stem must be cut so the flowers can take on water. Some flowers need to be forced open (lilies can take easily 5-7 days in some cases) some need to be rewrapped so they don’t peak too soon. Tropicals need to be kept warm enough – Hydrangeas need to be misted and put in the cooler. The list goes on and on – and we continue to learn additional tricks of our trade weekly – but each flower must be addressed individually.
Welcome to Thursday at Pick Me! Now it’s time to continue cleaning and processing the flowers. Thorns and leaves must be stripped from each flower. Water needs to be changed. Some flowers need to be placed in sunlight or a heater needs to be put into action. Sometimes it’s time to get out the hairdryer to open the flowers. Some flowers (like carnations and roses) can be opened by hand. And all of the roses and dahlias need to have their outside petals plucked. And then someone (again, Rami or I) need to sweep (again) and take out the trash.
Please do not get us wrong, we love to be hands on. Building day is when we turn on the radio and start to play and create our designs. This is where we are allowed to be artists. Every week is new opportunity to create someone’s dream. We create someone’s vision for her wedding day and that is an honor we do not take lightly. We are humbled by the trust and we strive to exceed expectations at every event.
Thursday afternoon and Friday continue with the actual assembly of the floral designs. We spend the days building the reception arrangements and the bouquets, cutting and prepping the flowers for any installation pieces that need to be built on location. And we spend the time setting aside any materials / flowers that need to be utilized the morning of the wedding. Personally, I prefer to make all boutonnierres and corsages the morning of the event so they retain optimal freshness. All of the arrangements are then packed back into the cooler, watered and re-misted. Then it’s time to sweep (again) and take out the trash (again).
Saturday morning – game day! From a timing point of view, we will work with you to schedule your delivery with the following in mind, we want everyone to have bouquets and boutonierres for pictures that are happening prior to the ceremony but we don’t want to get their too early (for fear that flowers will get too hot or cold in a tent) or that the ceremony pieces will cook (or freeze) under our Colorado Sunshine and / or epic snow conditions. We do not want to charge you for time wasted – so we spend the extra time to make sure all bases are covered. On the flip side, if your outdoor ceremony needs to be moved indoors – we need adequate time to put into action the rain plan. Yes – there should ALWAYS be a rain (or snow – even in July) plan.
Built into this part of the cost consideration is the load in process – are we able to drive right up to the ceremony / reception site? Are these, in fact, the same location? Is the load in difficult? Are your arrangements light and easy or do they weigh 45 lbs each? Will we need additional labor for installation? Do we need additional liability insurance to drive into the property? How long will the load-in and installation take? This is different every week and at every event. We weigh all of these considerations when creating your initial floral proposal. Every wedding is different and we consider all of these questions when we create your bid.
So we have handed you your bouquet, set up your ceremony site, pinned the boutonierres on the men and set up the centerpieces for your reception. In some cases, we will stay through the ceremony and move ceremony pieces – sometimes this is a place for you to save money by having a friend move the ceremony pieces to the reception. It depends on what you want and need and what we have under contract.
Strike depends on the venue and what you have ordered. Does the venue require the event strike the night of the wedding or the morning after your big day? Do you have rentals or have you purchased all items for your wedding? Are you going to clean up? Or have your friends / family clean up after the reception ends? Does your venue provide this service for you? Is there a time allotment from your venue for strike? Are you going to return the rentals items back to Pick Me or are we contracted to come get them? Ever single wedding is different – we don’t have a standard policy because each wedding is unique.
In addition to the last 3 pages, there are other costs that go into your flowers. We need to pay for rent and utilities in our studio space, pay for inventory storage and marketing as well as cover our time as designers and laborers (research and development as well as payroll). And Rami really needs to be paid because she pays our taxes, pays our bills and manages our books – and I really don’t want to do it. There is also the cleaning of the studio itself and everything in it, the van maintenance and all of the other million tiny details that go into running a small business.
That is why “how much does this bouquet cost?” is not a simple question for us. But if you are still reading this manifesto – it means you at least took the time to walk a bit in our shoes. These are the shoes / ski boots of two women who try to walk the line between artists and small business owners. Since you are willing to give us this much of your time – call us. We would love to talk to you about your wedding.
970-531-9237