The Great $50 Wedding Centerpiece Challenge!

[Sprout]

I'm running a design contest on my blog and I wanted to be sure to invite all you Flower Chatters to participate!

It was after many face-to-face and on line conversations with fellow florists and flower lovers about how bridal magazines depict centerpieces that are so over the top and beyond the normal bride's budget, that I decided to hold a contest challenging designers to create a $50 wedding centerpiece.

I know we're all frustrated by brides coming in with unrealistic expectations. Well, here's your chance to show your stuff!

Click here for the details!

PS And if anyone knows how to get an invite to participate to Martha and her team, I'd be much obliged!

 

[OB1]

Love the idea. Love the concept. Love the approach. Love the website.
Best of luck to you...you new idea maven!!!
JP

 

[ddahlson]

Is that one centerpiece for just six guests plus the bride and groom? Or one of out of, say, ten tables? A key part of getting a great design with an effective low price is derived from economies of scale and division of labor. Please advise.

 

[Sprout]

...you new idea maven!!!
JP

Oooh! New idea maven - is that the step between media darling and leading authority?! Quick, where's my copy of The Tipping Point?

I thought since so many of the folks who follow me online are other flower professionals, that it would be fun to challenge ourselves. Plus, if we get enough entries, it will create a nice reference for all of us of new ideas in that price range.

 

[Sprout]

ddahlson - I imagined this would be the type of centerpiece that one would make multiples of, but if someone wants to create something for a wedding of only 8 people, I won't quibble.

We should all be thinking about economies of scale as well as economies of design when doing event work.

 

[Snapdragon Studio]

What a fun idea! Got my creative thinking cap on...

 

[Sprout]

OK, the holidays was not a good time to try to run a contest! So I've pushed the dates ahead a bit and there's still plenty of time for to enter!!! Click here for more info!

I'd also lkie to leave you with a comment a reader left on my blog which aptly points out why this is relevant - "Thank you for doing this! My wedding centerpiece budget is $50 and I'm not even sure what to ask my florist for, because I'm afraid she won't be able to work with me. You will be helping florists and brides alike with your great ideas! Thank you."

 

[CHR]

*bump* Only 11 days left to get your entries in to Sprout's competition! I'm on it this afternoon!

 

[master J]

Thx for the bump CHR, I will need to make it a priority too, we all need to support each other with these kind of ideas! Cathy(Sprout), if I don't have something to you by next week, call me and rip me a new A-hole! LOL

Great idea, and your blogs are always interesting to read. Keep up the great work!

$50 wedding Cp is a tough one, I'm struggling with ideas right now, but will come up with something. I also look forward to CHR's entry too!

 

[pnyflr]

I can't help but laughing to myself over this one. It is a GREAT idea, but in my market, I cannot get a bride to pay more than $20 for a centerpiece. Receptions here typically have 30 or more tables as everyone is related...and they spend about $12 to $15 a plate on food, and its always buffet. My average wedding is $800 to $1,000 total...and no one has less than 5 bridesmaids and always at least 25 corsages and bouts. Not to hijack the thread, but how do you get them to spend $50 a table?

 

[RWK]

Granted, at Carolina Pottery, we don't do many weddings as most brides like and want fresh flowers and not permanents...........but could I enter a permanent botanical design?

 

[CHR]

how do you get them to spend $50 a table?

Get to them before all the money goes to the ceremony site, banquet hall, caterer, photographer, videographer, baker, gown shop and honeymoon trip.

Entice one or two popular brides to have a decent budget for centerpieces and they may also set a trend. Small towns have their own vibe of 'what's expected' so you're gonna have to help raise the bar.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Get to them before all the money goes to the ceremony site, banquet hall, caterer, photographer, videographer, baker, gown shop and honeymoon trip.

Entice one or two popular brides to have a decent budget for centerpieces and they may also set a trend. Small towns have their own vibe of 'what's expected' so you're gonna have to help raise the bar.

In theory, that sounds like a great idea.

BUT this is what I run into time after time.
They order the flowers, spend lots, and I'm all Happy Gilmore-

Then they go and meet with the rest of the vendors, get sticker shock, come back to me, and a consultation and proposal I've spent at least 3-4 hours on is shot cause they need to "make a few changes", cut their initional budget by at least a third, but more than likely HALF- but still want all the flowers, "just use different, less expensive ones" then I get to re-do the whole proposal again, 'cause "it's OK to use cheaper flowers, just not carnations and dasies, or 'astro-merry-a""
"OK, so what flowers were you thinking?"
"I don't know, maybe we need to have another consultation. My finacee's only day off is Saturday. Can we meet around 4pm, after he watches the game?"
AAAHHHHHHHH!

I'd rather be the last vendor a bride sees.
Every wedding planner under the sun tells brides when it's time to shave a budget, start with the florist. poor us.

But I do agree once you get a few to lead by example, they all follow.

 

[master J]

Bump.....Reminder

Don't forget to enter the Sprout centerpiece challenge, all entries are due Jan 31.

I did mine and also Blogged about it too.

 

[RWK]

I would do something tommorrow at work and snapshot it, but no one answered me to see if I could submit a permanent botanical design?

 

[Sprout]

Sorry folks, out straight here! If you can do a permanent design and fit the rules of the contest, sure, go ahead!!

 

[RWK]

Ok then, I'll be downloading and uploading some more pictures and hopefully posting some videoclips of the pallets and cases of flowers we got in today.....so tommorrow, I'll do a spring wedding centerpeice. We got in 22 cases of floral product today......mostly spring stems like forsythia, viburnum, lilac, iris, gerbera, scabiosa, lots of flowering branches of different types...............of course, we also get in the occasional item that we look at in horror.......What were they thinking kind of thing...... We got two cases ( 72 bushes in each case) of a mixed grass bush.......with butterflies stuck on the ends of the stems.

Now, the pricing structure we use is different than a traditional retail floral shop.....so the design may look more than the 50.00 value.

 

[RWK]

I have the design completed, photographed and ready for submission. I can upload the pretty pictures to here.

 

[RWK]

Here is the arrangement - It is large for the value - but consider our pricing structure and the fact that we buy in massive bulk quanitites.........just to give an example - We unpacked 3 pallet loads of floral product yesterday........On one pallet was 5 cases of bush iris (72 bushes per case ), 3 cases of mixed dahlia bush (96 bushes per case )

I'll post some pictures on my permanent botanical thread.

But to this arrangement - the large glass urn was 11.99 retail.....The most expensive single flower stem I used was a foam mini-calla at 1.99 per stem


By the way, the backdrop is a huge peice of cardboard being held by one of my assistant managers - The display on the table is sitting in fron of the boxes that the place settings are in.

 

[RWK]

So, What do you all think of the design........As I wrote on the submission e-mail - the mere fact that our buyers get such massive quantities lets me do things at a price range that most shops could not.

The green hydrangea was 1 bush. The lilies, lilac, alstro, and scabiosa were one bush, The fern was the remains of one bush ( about a half ),

The most expensive single item in the design is the large footed urn......at 11.99