Help/Advice required baby funeral

[Glamflowers]

Hi, looking for help on this one please. I have a customer here in the UK who is thinking of sending a small Funeral pillow for a babys funeral (18 Months old) The area is Laguna Hills, CA. First do you do this type of design for babys funeral in the US and if so what sort of price would it be???
Any advice greatly appreciated,Many thanks Karen

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

I would search the Member List for shops in that area - I saw that Flowersurrealist is from Laguna Hills, but I don't have time to do a better search ... some shops may be very close by in a neighboring town.

Pillows are appropriate - in our area we mostly do satin pillows, with a small floral cluster attached. These are typically 8"-10" and are designed to sit inside the casket.

I know in the UK you make beautiful all floral pillows for outside the casket, and we do those occasionally as well. A plush animal incorporated into a traditional floor mache or standing spray could be appropriate as well.

good luck - maybe someone from CA will offer a recommendation for a shop, and the best choice for a design.

 

[Glamflowers]

Thank You so much for your reply Tracy. Our Funeral work in the UK is so different to your style and I really wanted to give my customer the best of advice, at such a sad time for them and what better place to find help than on FlowerChat. Karen x

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

this is a good question for many reasons....


I have lost 2 pregnancies myself, but did not have a funeral, but I grieved just as much, let me tell you, especially with the first one. It was very very tough for me and my husband.

One thing I generally advise against is sending to the home or the service is a baby arrangement. I personally think that is cruel.

However with that said, my husbands aunt also lost a pregnancy, and she thought it would have been great to get a baby arrangement. Her reasoning was, every time she looked at the container she could cry and remember her baby. That really doesn't make much sense to me, but all people grieve in different ways.

Best rule of thumb, if you ask me, is: If you don't know just send a nice tasteful arrangement... and "tasteful" is one heck of a subjective word!

 

[wildflowerschicago]

Here, when an baby dies, the casket is usually closed (thank God). If your client wanted to send a pillow, it would need to be on some sort of a stand.

Like Shannon, I would suggest a pretty vase or basket of cut flowers, maybe all white...just simple & elegant. Definitely no baby stuff...that's the last thing they need to be reminded of! We do a lot of arrangements with flowers and a small concrete cherub in them. The parents can place the cherub at the cemetary or in the garden at home. Just a thought.

The California people will be waking up & chiming in soon.

 

[Knife's Wife]

Maybe I am missing something here... This baby died at 18 months, here the caskets are open if that is what is requested just like in any other funeral service. A small satin pillow in the shape of a heart would be most appropriate.. They generally run about $45.00 dollars with sweetheart roses or mixed flowers and a few larger roses.

Best of luck.

Joan

 

[Victoria]

Baby funerals definitely run to the emotions of the family involved. In my experience we had open and closed caskets... all are heartbreaking just based on the size of the casket.

While at Flowers Canada, we were advised to not use "babies breath" in a child's funeral arrangement.

I've can't speak to the pain of losing a pregnancy or a child, thank God, however, my personal feeling is to not send a plush.

V

 

[CHR]

From my quasi-Southern roots, a pillow is a set piece on a styrofoam or Oasis sheetcut, typically covered in white carnations or pompons and then accented with a small swag or cluster. It's delivered on an easel. The price would generally start at $125 for a small, simple one, with $185 and up making a better presentation.

I haven't had a request for one of those in years. Looking at the prices on some UK sites, if you convert the pounds to dollars, the prices seem comparable.

As far as delivery to Laguna Hills, you can contact Lenka (Flowersurrealist), who is in Laguna Hills, or Eric S, since I believe his shop also delivers there. (The city is in the south part of our county.)

HTH

 

[RWK]

When it comes to baby/infant sympathy flowers..... I scale them down to baby size......for instance....I may do a small easel spray on an 18 inch high easel. For an easel pillow.....I mount a cloth pillow onto the easel and do a cluster cascading doen from there.....again on a 18 inch high easel.

 

[Glamflowers]

From my quasi-Southern roots, a pillow is a set piece on a styrofoam or Oasis sheetcut, typically covered in white carnations or pompons and then accented with a small swag or cluster. It's delivered on an easel. The price would generally start at $125 for a small, simple one, with $185 and up making a better presentation.

I haven't had a request for one of those in years. Looking at the prices on some UK sites, if you convert the pounds to dollars, the prices seem comparable.

As far as delivery to Laguna Hills, you can contact Lenka (Flowersurrealist), who is in Laguna Hills, or Eric S, since I believe his shop also delivers there. (The city is in the south part of our county.)

HTH

Thank you for all the replies and help posted. A pillow in the UK is very similar to the ones on your link, we never put things on easels here in the UK. After taking on board your comments we advised our customer accordingly and she decided to leave the order open for the florist in the US to choose the most appropriate tribute.
Sorry I haven't responded to thank you all before now but yesterday was just one of those days where I was chasing my tail all day and it was hubbies birthday so really had to give him some me time last night so didn't get time to reply sooner. Sent the order through Teleflorist, again through lack of time. Noticed Eric is a member so hopefully he got our order that would be good.
Thank you all once again for your help.:thumbsup
Not very technical but will try and post some pictures of baby funeral work we did last week, nothing really special just your standard requests (no Pillow!) I love to see the comparisons in our funeral designs and the way we conduct our funerals are quite different.

 

[Glamflowers]

Not very technical but will try and post some pictures of baby funeral work we did last week, nothing really special just your standard requests (no Pillow!) I love to see the comparisons in our funeral designs and the way we conduct our funerals are quite different.

OMG!!! I'm getting so clever I'm amazing myself!!! Just managed to post some pictures in my gallery under my profile!!!!:SUI:

What do you think are these similar to ones you would produce in the US?
Looking forward to your comments.