Diy, dyi, dyvi

Allie444

Allie444

Active Member
Apr 21, 2007
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Fullerton, California, United States
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Ca
LOVE THIS!
DIY- Do It Yourself
DYI- Do Yourself In
DYVI- Do Your Vendor In.

I for one need to be reminding my brides just how much we florists really do. This is a great article. Do any of you know Holly Chapple? She seems incredible. ... successful flower shop, professional blogger and 7 kids. I can barely manage to get out one blog post a week and I have one 4 year old.

http://hollychappleflowers.typepad....10/01/the-cost-of-wedding-flowers-part-2.html
 
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What a great article - this should be required reading for every bride-to-be, particularly the DIY's!
Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
 
Great article, I just wonder if most Bride's would get it...we get it, but will they...when I get a bride in that only wants her personal flowers and says she will do her centerpieces, I just tell them to make sure they practice before hand atleast 2 months so they know if they even like their version of the final product...out of the last 7 brides that I said this to, 5 came to me after their trial of one centerpiece and either didn't like what they made, realized they wouldn't have time to make them, that they would all look different with all the bridesmaids doing them differently or that it was just a colosal paint in the tuchas to bother with....I never openly discourage DIYers, because some do have the talent to do it and get offended and then you lose them altogether, also we always sound like we are whining about the amount of work our jobs are and how we don't get paid enough for what we do(this may be true, but noone wants to hear us whine), the 2 month try it out thing gives them the opportunity to try it and then get back with you to arrange for upsell on the sale in plenty of time, I usually make a not somewhere on the slip that they may be back in for centers....just so I know when booking other weddings to give a call and let the bride know if we are booking beyond capacity to handle other requests...
 
That is an interesting theory Lori. Last year 2 florists in my county started a company called Flower Diyvas. Get it DIYvas. http://flowerdiyvas.com/ I got upset with my wholesaler (Mayesh) because they had the flyers posted at all their locations around here. My Mayesh rep was like Oh no this is good for the industry because they are really just trying to teach people that DIY is too hard. Then when they freak them out enough they will just order from them instead. I think it might of worked but the video wasn't dreadfully boring. I am lucky I don't get a lot of DYIers but I do get a lot of people who don't value my time at all.
 
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Allie,

DIY is becoming quite popular in many places, you may not know it because these girls have gotten so used to florists all but kicking them out on their arses, just for bringing up their intentions....I get why some do it, but I also think that there is a nice way to tell a person that you don't want their particular type of business and a not so nice way, unfortunately the majority of florists are rude and mean to these girls which scares them far away from people like myself and others who would gladly deal with them....anyway...I think that many, many people do not value what we do and never will...We make it look so easy and effortless, and it becomes so east in our own minds that we rarely give ourselves credit for our own efforts as a group, I know I don't....and then we have the whiners that tell everyone and their mother how hard we have it and there becomes no happy medium....imagine going in to get your hair, cut, colored and permed and the hair dresser telling you how hard it is to roll every perm rod and how difficult it is to keep all the colors needed on hand, and how long she has to stand on her feet, and that she doesn't get paid well enough and noone understands, just before you shell out 200.00 and 3 hours of your time in her chair....and all for her to use, 12 cents of shampoo, $5 perm and $5 color....it is very simple either her time is valued or it is not....by many it is not those are the people who generally do not value anyone's time but their own, that is why I suggest that they take their time and try it, it makes them realize the time, effort and expertise used in such a "simple" task....most realize after a few minutes that there is a whole lot more to it than meets the eye and have a whole new outlook on the value of the service...much more than listening to anyone gripe about their position...
 
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Thanks for the links to the great blog posts.

More than the DIYers are the frugal brides who will shell out $1200-1500 for a 'day of' coordinator. She'll put in 16 hours or so and heck, we go well beyond that plus actually providing the flowers.

Here's a funny about a frugal bride:

Got a call from a wedding coordinator I'd done an event with in the recent past. She usually worked with a couple other florists (closer to her area and her age) but asked if we were available for a Sunday wedding about a month away. Told her we were and that we'd done several weddings at the venue (if you Google the venue name + wedding flowers, we're the #1 result.)

She gives me a story about how the bride had planned to DIY but now realized she couldn't handle it. She then tells me the bride's budget is fixed (under $40/table for tall CPs with black feathers, red roses, fringe and a Roaring 20's theme) and that she would like us to do the wedding decor for the same DIY budget. Huh? I told her to go ahead and email me the overall budget and list and I'd make suggestions on what might be workable.

Nothing came.

She stopped in my store the following week to drop off some info about another event and I told her I hadn't received her email. She said the bride wouldn't budge on budget and wouldn't change her list so she didn't want to waste my time.

Fast forward to the wedding date and I see a tweet from a photographer that was shooting the wedding of that wedding planner. It had been her wedding all along.

I haven't seen her since and have no idea what her decor ended up looking like.... not sure I'll ever let her know I know...

But if we don't find value in the work of our fellow alleged wedding pros, how can we ever expect it from brides?
 
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Great article Allie.
Although Holly forgot to mention how we tear our hair out when we open the boxes and the pale pink is way too pink or the peony are like little marbles or the lilies are zipped up tight... And somehow, we always make it work -- brides never know about that... :rofl:

I went to Holly's website and I love the the section about her family and all the photos. Really unusual for a floral site and I really enjoyed it.
 
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I know Holly, we are byatch telephone friends. We share a designer who use to with me full time. Holly is awesome, there are certain weekends that she does 7 weddings, I have to struggle to get my help if I need it because Holly has them blocked.
 
Allie444 said:
LOVE THIS!
DIY- Do It Yourself
DYI- Do Yourself In
DYVI- Do Your Vendor In.

I for one need to be reminding my brides just how much we florists really do. This is a great article. Do any of you know Holly Chapple? She seems incredible. ... successful flower shop, professional blogger and 7 kids. I can barely manage to get out one blog post a week and I have one 4 year old.

http://hollychappleflowers.typepad....10/01/the-cost-of-wedding-flowers-part-2.html
Click to expand...
Allie,this post was wonderful. Thanks for the read.
 
I also know Holly we talk at least once a week.. SHE is amazing.. and soooooo busy her stuido is located on her property it's very nice. I was going to go down to DC and help her this past Dec..
 
Allie444 said:
LOVE THIS!
DIY- Do It Yourself
DYI- Do Yourself In
DYVI- Do Your Vendor In.

I for one need to be reminding my brides just how much we florists really do. This is a great article. Do any of you know Holly Chapple? She seems incredible. ... successful flower shop, professional blogger and 7 kids. I can barely manage to get out one blog post a week and I have one 4 year old.

http://hollychappleflowers.typepad....10/01/the-cost-of-wedding-flowers-part-2.html
Click to expand...

Holly Chapple is an amazing person, a veritable fount of energy, ideas and lust for life. I found her website last fall, and have been following her blog ever since.
She is right on with the DIY article, and also echoes similar themes on Nancy Liu's site. The fact is that most people find actually doing the flowers very overwhelming, and should be disocuraged. Probably the easiest way to do this would be to give the client a raw bunch of roses (25) and have then clean them, thorns and all. Now ask the bride to multiply that out by however many arrangements she is contemplating and envision the task ahead!. DIY is not for the faint of heart. But there seems to be a market for this, and I see that some flowers shops offer services to fulfill this desire of the bride. This seems counter-productive. I also see flower shops offering "flower design" classes; which seems to me to be very counter-productive on the face of it. But my understanding is that, counter-intuitivley, people learn how complicated it is to make graceful floral arrangements with levity, charm and beauty that they turn it over to the floral professional of their choice.
 
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