Welcome back! Here is part three of the series on the cost of certain wedding services and products. If you are just joining us, you can catch up by reading Part One with Joanna Moss Photography and Part Two with Mink Makeup and Hair. I'm really hoping that these posts can shed some light on where your money is going as you plan your wedding.
Paying more...
So, there may be times that you do end up spending more than your budget for a certain vendor. This doesn't need to be a negative. As long as you are being cognizant of the big picture and the entire budget then going over on something can work. I look at it this way... if there is a service or product that you have really fallen in love with and will help make your day the way you want it to then look to see if you can find the extra money somewhere else in your budget. Even if you find something a few hundred dollars cheaper, if it's not what you actually want, I look at that as a waste of money rather than a savings. Why spend any money on different flowers, or decor, or whatever it may be if you aren't truly happy with it?
In today's blog, we hear from Jane, owner of Budget Blooms, a florist based in Delta. Jane was one of the very first florists I worked with in my first year or weddings and we have continued to work together multiple times over the years.
Paying more...
So, there may be times that you do end up spending more than your budget for a certain vendor. This doesn't need to be a negative. As long as you are being cognizant of the big picture and the entire budget then going over on something can work. I look at it this way... if there is a service or product that you have really fallen in love with and will help make your day the way you want it to then look to see if you can find the extra money somewhere else in your budget. Even if you find something a few hundred dollars cheaper, if it's not what you actually want, I look at that as a waste of money rather than a savings. Why spend any money on different flowers, or decor, or whatever it may be if you aren't truly happy with it?
In today's blog, we hear from Jane, owner of Budget Blooms, a florist based in Delta. Jane was one of the very first florists I worked with in my first year or weddings and we have continued to work together multiple times over the years.
What service do you provide?
We are a full service florist. We stick to flowers so that we can keep our costs as low as possible. We supply vases for low arrangements only. We do offer our buy back tall vases for ceremony only – maximum two per wedding to help out the smaller weddings who don’t need a decoration company.
How long have you been in business?
12 years
How many weddings do you book each year?
Approx. 200 – about ¼ are larger sized weddings. We do not have a minimum spend so we do a mix of wedding sizes. It sounds like a lot but we manage each weekend separately to ensure we are not overbooked on tough items vs. easier items.
What do you love about working on weddings?
I love being able to bring a dream to life for our budget minded Brides. We can still do so many pretty looks and still stick to a budget.
What is the average amount of hours that you put into each wedding?
It’s tough to answer this one as sometimes we do 100 emails with a smaller wedding and 10 emails with a larger wedding. You can never tell but it’s a lot more hours behind the scenes than a customer ever guesses. Re-reading emails and studying photos to ensure we have the look correct. Chasing after flowers that have not shown up to ensure we have them etc.
What factors go into/went into determining your prices?
Our pricing is an average markup as per any retail store, but with a little extra to ensure we are covered due to a product with a 5 day life cycle. When we order your flowers we have to order extras as with any product there is damage when we get it. That bunch of roses from South America will have 4 broken stems out of 25 so we have to order 50 as you need 27 for your order. Some of the heads will be crushed. The local product may have been bumped on our auction cart and we lose 10 stems. If we could just order the 5 perfect stems needed then that would work to help lower costs but we can’t. We have to order 10 and we typically can only use 5 to 7 of them as we know you would not appreciate bruised flowers.
Any extra comments on pricing for weddings?
As with any purchase you make there is more work than actual product put in. The time you spend with us ordering and detailing your order. Then confirming it closer to your date and going through the details again. Time is then spent on formulas for each product, a total is sent to our wholesaler or we wait to buy it at the local auction. I am up at 5:45am to watch 3 hours of auction to get the perfect shades for the weddings this week. Then we go to the auction to pick up the flowers, bring them back to the store and condition them. That means that we spend time cleaning stems/putting in fresh water and sorting out stems for each event. The week prior we have already spent time going through a supply check to ensure we have the right ribbon, packaging material to deliver it, we refresh ourselves on all details we have on your wedding. This all happens prior to making anything. Wednesdays we start to work on the wedding items that need to be made early.
I'm learning so much from these chats I'm having with other vendors as well! I've always known that there is a lot of extra work put in behind the scenes (which is what motivated me to write this series) but one thing I can say I had never taken into consideration is the fact that florists need to order that much extra product just to make sure that they have enough perfect looking flowers to make your bouquets, centerpieces and everything else.
Next time, we will hear from Mat Bittroff, owner of Mathew Bittroff DJ Services.
As always, if you have any questions, email me or leave a comment!
Happy planning,
Sara
We are a full service florist. We stick to flowers so that we can keep our costs as low as possible. We supply vases for low arrangements only. We do offer our buy back tall vases for ceremony only – maximum two per wedding to help out the smaller weddings who don’t need a decoration company.
How long have you been in business?
12 years
How many weddings do you book each year?
Approx. 200 – about ¼ are larger sized weddings. We do not have a minimum spend so we do a mix of wedding sizes. It sounds like a lot but we manage each weekend separately to ensure we are not overbooked on tough items vs. easier items.
What do you love about working on weddings?
I love being able to bring a dream to life for our budget minded Brides. We can still do so many pretty looks and still stick to a budget.
What is the average amount of hours that you put into each wedding?
It’s tough to answer this one as sometimes we do 100 emails with a smaller wedding and 10 emails with a larger wedding. You can never tell but it’s a lot more hours behind the scenes than a customer ever guesses. Re-reading emails and studying photos to ensure we have the look correct. Chasing after flowers that have not shown up to ensure we have them etc.
What factors go into/went into determining your prices?
Our pricing is an average markup as per any retail store, but with a little extra to ensure we are covered due to a product with a 5 day life cycle. When we order your flowers we have to order extras as with any product there is damage when we get it. That bunch of roses from South America will have 4 broken stems out of 25 so we have to order 50 as you need 27 for your order. Some of the heads will be crushed. The local product may have been bumped on our auction cart and we lose 10 stems. If we could just order the 5 perfect stems needed then that would work to help lower costs but we can’t. We have to order 10 and we typically can only use 5 to 7 of them as we know you would not appreciate bruised flowers.
Any extra comments on pricing for weddings?
As with any purchase you make there is more work than actual product put in. The time you spend with us ordering and detailing your order. Then confirming it closer to your date and going through the details again. Time is then spent on formulas for each product, a total is sent to our wholesaler or we wait to buy it at the local auction. I am up at 5:45am to watch 3 hours of auction to get the perfect shades for the weddings this week. Then we go to the auction to pick up the flowers, bring them back to the store and condition them. That means that we spend time cleaning stems/putting in fresh water and sorting out stems for each event. The week prior we have already spent time going through a supply check to ensure we have the right ribbon, packaging material to deliver it, we refresh ourselves on all details we have on your wedding. This all happens prior to making anything. Wednesdays we start to work on the wedding items that need to be made early.
I'm learning so much from these chats I'm having with other vendors as well! I've always known that there is a lot of extra work put in behind the scenes (which is what motivated me to write this series) but one thing I can say I had never taken into consideration is the fact that florists need to order that much extra product just to make sure that they have enough perfect looking flowers to make your bouquets, centerpieces and everything else.
Next time, we will hear from Mat Bittroff, owner of Mathew Bittroff DJ Services.
As always, if you have any questions, email me or leave a comment!
Happy planning,
Sara
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