This post is timely with Valentine's Day around the corner. Guys know this better than anyone...have you ever walked into a flower shop to order something "standard" like "a dozen red roses" and collapsed when you found out that they'll cost you (depending on your market) close to $100 ($70 - $120 regionally, and some areas more)?
Did you figure that the florist must have seen you coming? Did you detect dollar signs in her eyes?
Warning: This is a LONG article...but perhaps one of the most valuable you will read as you plan your wedding.
All branches of the wedding industry have taken pretty harsh criticism for "price-gouging" based on the word "wedding". This notion was popularized in the 90's by all the bridal bargain books that were released - some of which were helpful, and others which led many, many brides astray. It's recently been supported with a series of truly weak, and under-educated arguments in Rebecca Mead's "One Perfect Day, The Selling of the American Wedding". It's unfortunate that the best part about that endeavor was the PR campaign. The victims of bad information aren't the vendors (who can shrug off her one-sided attack on an industry that oddly enough isn't pure evil anymore than any other...bad apples exist everywhere)...the victims are the brides.
There are definitely vendors guilty of inflating prices based exclusively on the fact that "brides have to spend it somewhere". Keep in mind, however, that there are attorneys, contractors, taxi drivers, airlines...lots of operators in service industries guilty of the same practices. There are many, many providers in those same industries who offer fair pricing for valuable services, too. Bottom line is that ethical pricing is based on the value of the provided service. The best way to protect yourself from price-gouging is to educate yourself about the product you are seeking.
Thus, today's "Wedding Flowers Demystified" post. Long overdue, I have promised many brides and florists alike to delve into this subject, and am finally living up to that promise. Here goes!
As with any product, the value of a centerpiece, for example, is determined by a number of factors:
Cost of materials to the florist
Cost of labor
Cost of business
The popularity & experience factor
Cost of Materials
The first factor is obviously the cost of materials. This is where many an outsider stops with their calculations. I have heard far too many times: but the flowers could only have cost... The faulty equation goes something like:
Cost of Bouquet with 30 roses = 30 x Market Price of Roses
So, if you stepped into your local market and bought a bunch of roses for $1.00 a piece the cost should be somewhere in the vicinity of $30 plus tax right? Oh sure, you'll throw in the ribbon, which is just a few feet from a roll that the florist already owns, so we're talking $50 tops, right?
Think logically, however, and that is only where the equation begins. First, market price for roses is based on numerous factors: color, season, weather patterns in growing areas, volume purchased from distributor, etc. Until the invoice arrives for the flowers specifically ordered for your wedding, the cost factor is unknown. Of course, rarely can florists satisfactorily provide a quote that says: "we'll see when the invoice comes in the day before the wedding" so they do have to calculate an educated estimate based on past years and current forecasts. They take a measure of risk in doing so, and that risk is a cost factor.
Keep in mind that other materials may seem like "nothing", but actually are critical in pricing the final product. That green foam that they stick stems into to keep them wet and hold arrangements together? At BULK pricing the medium sized versions can approach $10. You'll find once you figure in the other three major factors that you could be ordering a $25 - $30 piece of foam with no flowers in it by the time it's been fairly marked up for retail.
Cost of Labor
"I know that bouquet only took her 30 minutes...how can she even charge me labor for that?"
First, trust that I give most of you much, much more credit that that statement reflects. But it IS something I've heard before, and it's the result of another basic misunderstanding. First, what goes into a labor charge? It's not simply the output of work on your boutonniere. It's the entire labor cost of a business, averaged out over the cost of all necessary staff (shop employees, designers, delivery drivers, etc.), divided out over the dollar-for-dollar income of the business in relation to the overall labor expense of the business. If a florist only does one wedding a month, he or she can afford to reduce the labor expenses dramatically...but cannot leverage the same floral supply prices, and may or may not have backup when the big day comes around to cover for being injured, ill or displaced for any reason. There are SO many factors to consider when choosing the right florist for you, as I imagine you're starting to see.
Now cost of said bouquet above is looking more like:
Cost of 30 rose bouquet = cost of roses + cost of supplies + factored cost of overall labor
Cost of Business
As a small business owner, I'm intimately familiar with the cost of running a business. I'm also not the cheapest wedding coordinator in town, and I'm not apologetic for it. To run a business properly, you must have talent (doesn't cost too much, except maybe the cost of your education & training, which can be immense) and infrastructure (leave out labor for now, since we factored it in above - you still need professional services like accountants and lawyers; you need someplace to work furnished with appropriate technology, i.e. office lease, cell phone, computer technology, software, etc.; utilities still don't come free; advertising is necessary if anyone is going to find you; the list goes on and on).
For the sake of brevity, I'll say that the smart ones amongst you are starting to see the impact of "overhead" on the cost of any retail item.
New equation?
Cost of 30 rose bouquet = cost of roses + cost of materials + factored cost of labor + factored cost of overhead
The Popularity and Experience Factor
Why is it that I go to an art fair, and I see a painting that I REALLY love, yet by price it's out of reach? Seems simple to me - just some paint and a canvas. Maybe factor in the artist's time and the cost of the fair and booth that I'm standing in. In all fairness, it should be pretty affordable, right?
The key in the above question was the word "artist". An artist in any medium, including someone who is designing flowers - or even weddings, lends value to what is otherwise an object. The demand for the object influences its market price. The limited number of the object that can be produced at any given time increases its value. The quality of the object; the fact that it probably won't fall apart due to poor craftsmanship impacts the final price. The distance that the artist or object has to travel to get to my "art gallery" of an apartment most definitely contributes to the number of digits on the tag.
All fairly; and, if I don't think that the price matches the value, I can either ask for a "discount" (probably insulting the artist, by the way), ask for something similar that I might enjoy as much, but that is inherently more accessible to me (less insulting, far more respect), or, I have the right to walk away.
Take "art" and "object" out of the above paragraph and substitute with "floral estimate" and tell me if a light goes on.
Final cost of 30-rose bouquet = cost of roses + cost of materials + factored cost of labor + factored cost of business + factored cost of demand
When your $30 - $50 bouquet actually turns out to be an approximately $120 - $150 bouquet or more, you may say to yourself "it's worth the $100 to do it myself." Fair enough. The final, ubiquitous category is the stress factor. You may very well be capable of making it yourself...will you have the time? What will you do if the flowers don't come in, or the market doesn't have what you want? What will you do if the price has gone up significantly? What happens if it doesn't turn out the way you pictured it?
A professional florist is responsible for mitigating all of those factors. Who will do it in their absence.
Now - I have had couples who chose the DIY route and were extremely happy. They had key characteristics in common, and if these don't accurately describe you, then run, don't walk to a professional florist and make peace with the cash outlay:
1. Each couple was extremely laid-back about the entire wedding schedule. There were no time concerns (really, truly), no deadlines, and there was no remorse if something didn't show (like, say, centerpieces).
2. Each couple firmly and completely understood that the vision they had for their flowers may very well be completely different from the reality...and they didn't sweat it. That means that the 30-rose bouquet could easily be a 20 carnation bouquet on the day of the wedding, and it mattered not at all. This describes very few brides today.
All of this is by way of "demystifying" the price of retail wedding flowers. I hope that some of the insights will shed light on things that may have confused you in the past, or at the very least, will help you properly address the issues when they arise. An educated consumer tends to get the value of service that he or she wants.
Happy Planning!
Shayna Walker
Williamsburg Wedding Design
www.williamsburgweddingdesign.com
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