Florist News

Am due to meet with first of two brides am doing work for next year and am panicking slightly, never having actually formally done this before My "best friend" volunteered myself with her helping (she ain't a trained florist either) to do this small wedding for a member of her family, and i can't get out of it. The bride wants calla lilies specified 5 in her bouquet, 3 in the bridesmaids, and 1 for a flower girl, also will want flowers in the church and some table centres but not sure what design yet. I am not too worried about making the actual bouquets as such as have sort of covered this before in other private course and will do some stuff in my C & G this september, but not sure what exactly to charge also the wedding is on the 8/8/08 which will probably put up the cost too won't it? Any help re pricing and bouquets etc would be great as i am still very very new to all this

I wouldn't panic too much - you'll have another year's experience under your belt by that time. I would practice practice practice as much as you can - when you're on your course get Calla's as much as possible and then undo whatever you make in class (don't forget to take pics 1st) and make up the bouquets. As for pricing, I would have a look on internet for similar and see what other florists charge locally - but bear in mind they have probably volunteered you cos they think you'll be cheap, but make sure you don't undersell yourself.

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www.treesfloraldesign.co.uk

does she just want 5 calas in a line bq? or a bq to inc 5 calas and other flower?
If she wants a line bq then you should think about how much calas are likely to be,,approximately..I would work on about £5 a stem for med size,,if she wants the big ones then prob about £7,,,to cover yourself really against any possible price hikes. So that would mean,,5x£5 for calas,,£5 ish for leaves and bit of foliage and then whatever you personally put on for your skill charge,,I don't think these line bq's jusify too much make up charge cos they really don't take much time to do,,or they shouldn't do,,but saying all that the date will affect prices like it did this year so you prob need to estimate more per cala..all very hit and miss really isn't it!!

That doesn't make any sense at all!! nothing new there then!

5 in a line bq as far as i know, no foliage to speak of so quite simple. The thing thats really throwing me is that she only wants one single calla for her flower girl and i just can't visualise how that look really nice? I suppose a pearl or pin in the centre with ribbon around the stem, or maybe i could talk her into few pieces of bear or steel grass with some beads, maybe that sounds stupid but it sounds very plain to me.

I'd say £10 at least for large callas for that date.

If 08/08/08 is anything like 07/07/07 would suggest you add at least another 30% on your quote for contingentcy. Don't show this on your quote but do explain that this will be like mothers day etc and prices will reflect. good luck and don't quote off the top your head. Try to go away quietly and work it out.

I had an all white calla wedding on 6 July and big ones were £9, crystal blush were £6 and that was off the Friday before's auction, if I'd got the off the monday auction as normal they would've been about £12. Made nooooooooo money on that wedding, didn't even bother costing it it was too depressing. It's hard though explaining to them as they can't get their heads round why one flower should be so expensive, esp as at other times you can have them at £1.50/2.50. Everything will be expensive that weekend though, white things particularly, have learnt a hard lesson from this year.

its really tricky to price things when there are sooo many millions of reasons why the prices jump about...but I just don't believe in not giving a fixed price I thinks it unprofessiona...but including danger money is of course acceptable

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Sarah Creating Bespoke Wedding Flowers Cheshire

its so hard i hate calla weddings, the prices are just so unfair, for that time of year its just madness, and every bugger wants white so that ups the price even more, i would work on £10 a stem and whatever you want to charge for makeup, no money in calla weddings