lowered minimum order, LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Blossom Sweet has temporarily lowered our minimum order to $350, for those brides who don't need a lot of flowers, but want the few things they do get to be stunning.

This is a limited time, temporary offer that won't last forever, so jump on it! Whenever your wedding may be, book while this offer is up and we'll honor it. We'll have this offer listed on the blog sidebar, so as long as you see it there, the offer is still good.

We're doing this because we know there have been many brides who wanted a "Blossom Sweet Bouquet" and perhaps a few other small items, but haven't been in a position to meet the minimum order requirement. So, pass the word along to your friends who fall into that category and we'll hook them up with something fantastic!

Every bride deserves beautiful.

floral nightmares

Today's post on UBB featured a couple florists' experiences with what we've witnessed others go through that could be considered floral nightmares! I wrote up a few experiences I've seen just in the past two months. Here they are:

Foam Fiasco
Last month I was waiting for one of my friends to come out of the Salt Lake temple on her wedding day. As per usual during the spring months, there were brides here, brides there, BRIDES EVERYWHERE! And as a designer, when I saw the following bride's bouquet, it made my heart hurt. The bouquet in question was composed of white daisies, babies breath, and leather leaf. It was designed using a foam bouquet holder with the flowers sparsely placed - it was clearly not put together by a professional. Every few steps the bride took, one or two daisies would fall out of the foam and onto the ground, and then the mother of the bride would pick up the daisies and go back and try to place it back into the foam holder. What a pain! This foam fiasco was certainly one of the saddest bouquets I have ever seen.

From Hot Pink To Hot Mess
Purple is a gorgeous color, but not when you are expecting hot pink! A friend of a friend was married back in February. Her color scheme was hot-pink, black, and white. On her wedding day, after months and months of planning, her flowers were delivered to the ceremony site. To the bride's surprise, all of her flowers were a deep shade of purple! I am told that said bride subsequently burst into tears upon seeing her flowers arrive, and could not stop crying until just before the ceremony. The deep purple floral designs didn't exactly mesh with the abundance of hot pink decor. From hot pink to hot mess in an instant.

Spring Breaking My Heart
Last Thursday around 9 p.m., I received a phone call from a desperate gal, searching for someone who could create a bouquet for her by the following morning. Why the last minute-ness? Well, upon arriving to pick up her bouquet from her non-professional floral designer's house, she discovered that said florist was not home. And upon further investigation, it was learned that the florist had gone out of town with her family for Spring Break! Yep, she plum forgot about the bouquet she had agreed to create. Unfortunately for this bride (but fortunately for me - gotta love sunshine!), I too had been out of town on vacation over Spring Break, and at such late notice the night before the bouquet was needed, I was unable to assist this frantic bride in her time of need. Although I felt terrible for her situation, this was one ill-fated bride that I could not rescue. A note to her florist: you're Spring Breaking my heart!

It really does pay to hire a professional.
[And that's why I've chosen to label this post under "investment."]

you get [MORE THAN] what you pay for

You know the old adage: "You get what you pay for?" Well, honeys, it's time to get that saying out of your head! Yep, when it comes to flowers for your big day, you get [MORE THAN] what you pay for!

Really? Really? How much work could it possibly be to design for weddings and events, anyway? It can't be that hard, right? Really.

Ooh, child, I promise you it's more work than you think! In this industry, there is SO much that goes on behind the scenes.

Now, let me say that I totally understand that in this economy, it's important to all of us to find the best deals possible. Believe me, I get it! That being said, I feel that it is important for brides to know what a steal of a deal they really get when it comes to hiring an event florist to bring their floral vision to life. Let me repeat that, STEAL OF A DEAL!

So, let me break it down for you. Here's what top event florists actually do for each wedding, each event, each bride:

• Consultations: For me, an average consultation takes about an hour {they can take much longer}, and my consultations are "free, no obligation."
• Custom Estimates: Putting together a custom bid takes a lot of time! I put a lot of effort into creating bids which fit the needs of each individual bride's floral vision. And once again, this is a "free, no obligation" item.
  
• Placing the Order: Top florists have great relationships with their wholesale source, and work hard to make sure your order is placed on time and that you get what you want.
  
• Bumps in the Road: Sometimes little things go wrong which are out of anyone's control. Which option would you choose? Option 1: Your florist calmly comes up with a solution and takes care of it. Option 2: You become a stress-case just before your wedding. Trust me, when your florist handles it, you'll never even know a thing about it. {For specific examples of "bumps in the road," you may want to revisit this post.}
  
• Details: I go out of my way and all over the valley to find custom ribbons, handle treatments, etc., which make all the difference in the finished product. And in regards to the design process itself, you can't imagine how long it takes to make sure that intricate details are displayed throughout every design.
• The Flowers Themselves: It goes without saying that high-quality flowers are expensive - absolutely stunning - but expensive. The cost of the flowers themselves is a LARGE portion of what you are paying for.
  
• Processing: Roses have thorns to be removed, dried leaves and petals need to be groomed so that each bloom shines, air and water temperatures need to be just right, and each individual stem needs to be processed and freshly cut to ensure optimal water absorption. This is a time-consuming, arduous at times process!
  
• Designing: This one's obvious, but it takes time, effort, and expertise to create your floral masterpieces!
  
• Delivery & Set Up: Load up the car, make sure everything is sturdy and in place, drive to the destination, unload the car, set up, etc.
• Cleaning Up the Flower Mess: To say that every inch of my design space is covered to the brim with a foot-high pile of leaves and stems to be cleaned up after every event is the understatement of the century. It's like a jungle in here!
  
• Floral Knowledge: What's in season? What's not? What looks good together? What doesn't? You are paying for expertise, experience, and general floral know-how.
  
• Advertising: Spreading the word is expensive! Worth it, but expensive. My clients don't pay for me to advertise, I do. The cost of running a business adds up quickly.
  
• Supplies: When you haven't done flowers yourself, it's easy not to realize what supplies actually go into it - and supplies cost money. We're talking an endless supply of floral tape; corsage wristlets; pins, pins and more pins; oasis foam; floral preservative; corsage boxes; ribbons; beads; brooches; buckets; vases; wire; etc.
• Blogging: Of COURSE I don't charge for my blogging services! {If I did, I dare say I'd be a rich woman!} But, I do invest a vast amount of my personal time and energy into making my blog a valuable tool for potential clients and brides in general in order for them to gain information and ideas, as well as {hopefully} a fun read.
  
• TALENT: I wouldn't have started a business had I not thought I had something fabulous to offer. Anyone can "throw together an arrangement." Few can do it with flair. Are you paying for my talent? My eye for design? My up-to-date, current, modern yet classically artistic style? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Without a doubt. Again, I never would have started a business if I didn't truly believe I had something fabulously worthwhile to offer to the industry. I'm really grateful for the talents I've been given, and I'm grateful that with those talents I've created a livelihood for myself. I'm very lucky!
  
• Time is Money, Honey: If you only knew the time it took to pull-off a successful wedding design, you'd probably wonder why anyone would be crazy enough to want to work in the wedding & event floral industry. I promise. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

So, there you go. I would say that the list above merely scratches the surface as to what an event florist actually does. What do you think? Anything you were surprised about? Either way, I hope that it at least enlightened you to some degree to the fact that event florists offer their services for a steal of a deal. And now to sum it all up, let me go back to what I said at the beginning:

You know the old adage: "You get what you pay for?" Well, honeys, it's time to get that saying out of your head! Yep, when it comes to flowers for your big day:
you get [MORE THAN] what you pay for!

more money, less problems

I live in Utah Valley, so as can be expected in this area of the world, frugality is preached and frugality is practiced. But, let me put this out there: is choosing to spend the extra dollar always a bad thing? I can attest to the fact that when it comes to wedding flowers, when you hire an event florist you will pay a little more money, and by so doing, you will also experience a lot less problems.

I want to share the experiences of two real brides with you (said brides will remain nameless). These two brides chose to err on the side of penny-pinching when it came to their wedding flowers and what they got was STRESS, STRESS, STRESS! Truly. Read on.Bride #1:
This past August, Bride #1 was married. She had decided in her wedding planning to forgo hiring a professional floral designer and go with the "Costco option" instead, meaning that she would order flowers from Costco, pick them up herself the day prior to her wedding, and then put the arrangements together herself that night. Oh boy, here we go...

So, the morning before her wedding day, Bride #1 goes into Costco to pick up her flowers. But, guess what? Costco doesn't guarantee flower or color options! Did you know that? Sadly, Bride #1 didn't know that. Therefore, although her colors were shades of lavender and chartreuse, the flowers that came in were hot pink.

I got a call from Bride #1 at 4:15 pm the day prior to her wedding. Although I knew nothing of her wedding or flowers, she found my number and called in desperate search of lavender blooms. I had finished a consultation a few minutes before her call, so I was available to assist in her time of need and pick up some purple flowers before the wholesaler closed at 5:00 pm.

She was so grateful and told me that she had spent her entire day going to three Costco stores, as well as to every flower shop she could find, and none of them had the correct hue in stock. Call me crazy, but is that really how you want to spend the day before your wedding? This is just one reason why investing in a professional is worth every penny.


Bride#2:
I held a consultation with Bride #2 (along with her mother) for her Spring wedding. She had a beautiful flower vision- excellent color, blossom, and style choice. However, a few weeks after the consult, Bride #2 decided to pocket her allocated floral budget, and go with an option of having her sister-in-law do the wedding flowers instead. Bride #2 said that, "She doesn't know anything about flowers and hasn't ever had any experience with floral design, but she said she would do it for free and I bet she'll do a pretty good job." Hmmm...

Fast forward to the day prior to her wedding. At the time, I was not only a floral designer but an interior designer as well. While I was at work that day, in rushed a frantic, obviously at the end of her rope, stressed to the maximum Mother of the Bride. Let me remind you, this was the very day prior to the upcoming wedding. The mother (who didn't recognize me) with tears in her eyes said to me, "Do you sell ribbon here? I've been to every store in the valley and I can't find any sheer black ribbon. My daughter is getting married tomorrow and I need sheer black ribbon for her bouquet! Please tell me you have some!" I told her that while we did sell a limited selection of ribbon, we did not have any black ribbon at the time. I gave her suggestions of where to find some, but to no avail. Every suggestion came with a response of, "I already tried there." She left with her head hanging down.

Sad day for Bride #2! She learned the hard way that even when "getting flowers for free," there is still a high price to be paid: STRESS. Is it worth amateur design and a wedding filled with unnecessary drama to not spend a buck? You decide.

Do you want to be stressed out the day before your wedding? No? Well, then don't attempt to do your own wedding flowers- don't even think about it.

Remember: a little bit MORE MONEY, a lot LESS PROBLEMS.