Funeral Work=Sprays and Time

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the times are not for an exceptional and experienced designer. The JH books are for an "average" timed designer...........
I do much quicker, trained by me...a little bit more....for an average designer, I'd figure them possibly right on.
 
No pic ... sorry! But here's the recipe, price & time for a spray I did on Monday for a 23 year old soldier.

10 white glads, 10 white snapdragons, 10 red carnations, 12 red roses, 10 blue iris, break fern, pittosporum, blue bow with streamers & script. $200.00/ 20 minutes.
 
shannonlovesflowers said:
Lori-

You are a flower shop badass!!
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I have my speed by working in a high volume shop...I learned the true meaning of working my a$$ off at that shop...No fooling around just at the bench 8 or morers, no phone answering, no customers, no flower prep...I would say on average I would do 10-15 funeral pieces and the 4-6 runs of 8-10 arrangements with 2 other people a day....We kept at least 100 arrangements on hand made up at all times from 26-46 dollars and then maybe 10-15 funeral baskets for early delivery or late delivery to just grab in a pinch... It taught me how over staffed most flower shops are and how much work could really be produced by one person dedicated to design....

So now when I have a holiday or weddings, I just go into high volume mode and go, go, go.....I have and can get 1500.00 worth of aasorted funeral work done in 4.5 hours...It happens all the time when I am alone and just have to do it....It just gets done...
 
I can do a funeral arrangment in 7 minuets. When my parents owned a shop I would work with the other designers and secretly time myself against them. I have a shop of my own and have 1 part-time designer that is slowwwwww so I bought a timer and gave her so much time to do an arrangement it help get her to speed up
 
I don't dawdle when I work, can't afford to, but why would you want to do an expensive casket piece in 15 mins? If a customer pays me $300- $500 for an arrangement, I'm going to give it my best as a designer plus try to get it done in a timely manner. If I make the shop $300 in an hour plus answering phone and waiting on customers, I can live with that. If you're high volume and everyone cranks out the same mum, carnation, flat fern casket piece then go for it I guess.
 
if I have time, I "play" with family pieces but crank out the maches and baskets. I do the design and delivery person greens them.
If I'm under time constraints, just stay out of my way.
 
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Tuberose said:
I don't dawdle when I work, can't afford to, but why would you want to do an expensive casket piece in 15 mins? If a customer pays me $300- $500 for an arrangement, I'm going to give it my best as a designer plus try to get it done in a timely manner. If I make the shop $300 in an hour plus answering phone and waiting on customers, I can live with that. If you're high volume and everyone cranks out the same mum, carnation, flat fern casket piece then go for it I guess.
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It shouldn't take any more time to put a stem of carn or a stem of anthurium in a casket cover...They are all basically the same shape whether made from carns, mums and poms or hydrangea, roses and larkspur...It's not that you want to only just take 15 minutes for some of us that is just how long it takes....because we have made 4 million of them...
 
Now this casket cover took me 1 1/2 hours to make...it was because it was for my dad and I wanted it to be very special without over working it.


It is an awful picture. It was taken in the funeral home. The moss covered heart on the top is broken. My dad's favorite flower was anthurium, my mom's favorite is Calla lilies and Exotic flowers are my favorite flowers to design with...
 

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That is a gorgeous casket cover Lori. I like that one.
 
RWK said:
That is a gorgeous casket cover Lori. I like that one.
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Thanks, Rick....I loved the way it ultimately came out. I actually gained 4 new accounts at my dad's wake because of the funeral work I did..
 

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here's another one from me and my brother
 

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But Lori That's not your average everyday casket spray. There are a lot of componets that went into that spray. And hour and a half is spot on in my book.

That's a peice that I think a lot of designers would have trouble with. You have to really know what you are doing to pull that off.

VERY good job!
 
Designer/arranging quickly doesn't mean designing in a substandard manner.

I will be working on a casket spray this afternoon with Tulips and other flowers (tulips generally take a bit longer) in it, fish, and some golf things.

This will take me longer because of the "doo dads" that have to go in.

Joe
 
We have 16 standing sprays and 1 casket piece for a funeral Friday. I have one designer dedicated to it, I'll make it a point to keep track of the time.
 
Lori,

Great tributes for your Dad....
 
Queen of Weddings said:
Joe,,I am so with you on speed, and I know that you work speaks for itself, I get so upset that my new designer takes so long to do anything it kills me, and I can wrap rings around themk, and the quality is what is important in this business, also keep in mind as most of us shop owners on here know labor is not free, and it should not take that long to do things,,,

Also this what brought to my attention a few days on this subject,,

If you say do about 20 arrangments in one day at an average of 50.00 each..and you are paying that person 20.00 and hour..and she takes 5 hours to make these..then you take in effect how much was used on the product to make these, and the basket and stuff that goes with it, and gas, and utilitys is it is staggering,Heavens I need to get a job..that pays more..
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Hello there 20.00 an hour, Can I be one of your designers? Oh, how I would kill to be... Uh, I mean, Salt Lake needs to get on that wagon.
 
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