Hi Flower Friends,
I received the following email from one of our readers and I think she raises a very good concern. Let’s face it, not every bride can spend thousands of dollars on flowers and decorations. I realize many of you have minimums for clients, but someone out there must be taking care of the smaller budget brides. To those designers, what advice do you have for our reader? (and all the other readers wondering the same thing). Please leave a comment below, or if you have photos of pieces you’ve designed for budget brides, please email those to: info@flirtyfleurs.com.
“I’m working as a new designer in a medium-sized, quite financially-conservative (and overall conservative) town.
I have been able to find tons of articles online and in print from high-profile designers about making sure you charge for the full value of your work, educating your customers on the value of what you do, explaining the pricing behind their pinterest and bridal magazine finds– but the average wedding budget here is probably $10,000-$12,000, with the DIYers obviously clocking in as low as they possibly can.
At the small local flower shop where I used to work, the average budget for wedding flowers was $500-$1200. They wanted roses in a little posy. They wanted gerberas, they wanted daisies. To put it bluntly, it wasn’t a matter of educating the customer or upselling them, this was their budget, and they weren’t willing or able to spend more.
Some of my workarounds so far have been monotbotanic/ monochrome arrangements so I can order in bulk, loading up on greenery and garlands vs. spending on flowers, selling market bunches for the diy crowd, but I am always looking for new ideas.
Are there any websites, portfolios, thoughts or articles that you or your contributors could recommend for someone in a small town with small budgets? I would love advice on making a small budget look more thoughtfully-styled.”
