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The Price Is Right....Or Not, Sometimes!!!
" Flowers don't cost much do they"? "I'm getting married in August and I want tulips". "I want a classic elegant look with a minimal contemporary twist"!! These are just some of the things that brides have said to us in the quest for their perfect wedding flowers. In fact over the years, we've heard so many weird and wonderful anecdotes that we could write a book! All these sayings however, have one thing in common.....expectation. Every couple that we meet has an expectation of what they want their wedding flowers to be, however vague or off the wall. So today, we thought we'd share with you an insider look at just what goes into creating those amazing arrangements and beautiful bouquets and, why we charge what we charge.
Unless you've just won the lottery or just don't care what you spend, everyone has a budget. Only once have we ever had a client who said those magic words, "I don't care what it costs". It was a dream moment but, we carried on as if it were a daily occurrence! Increasingly though, we're finding that the demand for the "wow" doesn't follow through with the budget. We've always advocated allowing around 10% of your overall spend for flowers. This is a realistic figure and will of course depend on how important flowers are to you for your wedding. Annoyingly though, some wedding magazines and websites publish wildly unrealistic figures for flowers which, is confusing for the client and makes our job as florists harder. Why should a potential bride believe us quoting £1500 for reception flowers, when a magazine says she can have them for £500?
This is where it gets tricky and we have to deal with the idea of perception. What do people THINK flowers cost? Without wishing to sound sorry for ourselves, in general the public think we have a pretty easy time of it. It's not a real job is it? You play around with flowers all day, it must be lovely. It is lovely....it's also hard work! Very early morning market trips, unsociable hours, standing all day, buckets and buckets of cold water, a lot of lifting and sore backs are just some of the perks, yet we love what we do. Unfortunately, most of the above goes unseen and clients only get to see the end result on the big day, without any knowledge of what goes into producing their event. What most people also don't realise is most flowers are imported from Holland, where they are sold in euros. Not good for the weak pound and, with ever increasing fuel costs the price of transportation keeps rising too. We here at Euphoric believe we give an excellent standard of service to our clients. We price our work realistically and are very open about additional costs such as delivery, clearance and hire charges. We put together design boards, make mock-ups of our designs (once a booking is confirmed) and make extensive site visits, travelling hundreds of miles in some cases. This is all part of our service and we're delighted to do it, but time is money and has to be accounted for. Choose the florist for your wedding not just because they're offering the best price, but because you have absolute confidence in their ability to create the wedding you want, artistically, professionally and ethically. Remember, we all like a bargain but you also get what you pay for!
" Flowers don't cost much do they"? "I'm getting married in August and I want tulips". "I want a classic elegant look with a minimal contemporary twist"!! These are just some of the things that brides have said to us in the quest for their perfect wedding flowers. In fact over the years, we've heard so many weird and wonderful anecdotes that we could write a book! All these sayings however, have one thing in common.....expectation. Every couple that we meet has an expectation of what they want their wedding flowers to be, however vague or off the wall. So today, we thought we'd share with you an insider look at just what goes into creating those amazing arrangements and beautiful bouquets and, why we charge what we charge.
Unless you've just won the lottery or just don't care what you spend, everyone has a budget. Only once have we ever had a client who said those magic words, "I don't care what it costs". It was a dream moment but, we carried on as if it were a daily occurrence! Increasingly though, we're finding that the demand for the "wow" doesn't follow through with the budget. We've always advocated allowing around 10% of your overall spend for flowers. This is a realistic figure and will of course depend on how important flowers are to you for your wedding. Annoyingly though, some wedding magazines and websites publish wildly unrealistic figures for flowers which, is confusing for the client and makes our job as florists harder. Why should a potential bride believe us quoting £1500 for reception flowers, when a magazine says she can have them for £500?
This is where it gets tricky and we have to deal with the idea of perception. What do people THINK flowers cost? Without wishing to sound sorry for ourselves, in general the public think we have a pretty easy time of it. It's not a real job is it? You play around with flowers all day, it must be lovely. It is lovely....it's also hard work! Very early morning market trips, unsociable hours, standing all day, buckets and buckets of cold water, a lot of lifting and sore backs are just some of the perks, yet we love what we do. Unfortunately, most of the above goes unseen and clients only get to see the end result on the big day, without any knowledge of what goes into producing their event. What most people also don't realise is most flowers are imported from Holland, where they are sold in euros. Not good for the weak pound and, with ever increasing fuel costs the price of transportation keeps rising too. We here at Euphoric believe we give an excellent standard of service to our clients. We price our work realistically and are very open about additional costs such as delivery, clearance and hire charges. We put together design boards, make mock-ups of our designs (once a booking is confirmed) and make extensive site visits, travelling hundreds of miles in some cases. This is all part of our service and we're delighted to do it, but time is money and has to be accounted for. Choose the florist for your wedding not just because they're offering the best price, but because you have absolute confidence in their ability to create the wedding you want, artistically, professionally and ethically. Remember, we all like a bargain but you also get what you pay for!
6 comments:
Great article thanks
Bless you guys.
I have to show this blog to my Brides whenever i hear "oh this prices are more than the mags suggested".
Here here! Well said. The wedding industry has set up the brides to have such unrealistic expectations, making it nearly impossible to bring them back to reality without crushing their dreams. :-)
Very well written piece.
It's a similar story with wedding photography.
The bridal magazines publish unrealistic 'average' figures and suggest to the brides they use 'friends' to provide photos/flowers to save money.
These are the same magazines that call 3 times a week pleading with us to spend thousands of pounds on advertising in publications that are telling our potential customers that we're over priced....
Excellent post, Euphoric! Beautifully written and candid.
Such words of wisdom – a fabulously written blog which would be well placed in any article on wedding flowers.
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