The dilemma as to whether a flower grower wants to jump into the wedding trade is a tough one. If you sell flowers at a local farmers’ market, sooner or later someone will approach you with the desire for you to do their wedding flowers. Having done approximately 180 weddings in the dozen or so years I’ve been in this trade, I think I can safely say I’ve had a pretty broad range of positive and negative outcomes trying to make myself and my wedding clients satisfied . It’s a tricky dance.

So, before I go into the mechanics and logistics I’ve discovered are most useful about doing wedding work, let me share with you the most important caveat I’ve learned about this aspect of the trade. Doing wedding work is not for everyone who grows flowers. Besides needing aesthetic talents, it takes a certain temperament to work cooperatively with brides, grooms and, sometimes, their parents. For the most part, you’ll encounter fairly pleasant, reasonable folks, but occasionally you’ll run across high strung, compulsive types who can make the experience for all of you not worth the “profit,” given the “headache.” My advice is to pay attention to incipient signs of this when first approached. Conduct a 2-way interview when first approached. Try to get a “vision” of what the client wants and determine if you can make this vision a reality. What’s their general attitude about their wedding? Are they relaxed and laid-back, or do they see this as one of the great global events of the year? Be wary of the latter. If they respond well to you diplomatically taking charge and respect your boundaries time-wise, then maybe it’ll all work out. If you don’t see a cooperative response, send them on to a commercial florist or another grower with a different temperament .

Once the interpersonal groundwork feels solid and the bride’s vision of what she wants and what you can do are congruent, then it’s up to you to do the work well. The usual needs of most weddings involve a bridal bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, flower girl flowers, altar arrangements, reception hall arrangements and flowers for the cake. Since most brides are doing this for the first time, and you’re not, you’ll probably have to make her aware of all the conventional options since she may not have considered them before talking to you. You have many questions to ask.

Bridal bouquet
I generally offer 2 options: a hand-held “farmers’ market” type of bouquet with a floral taped hand hold, covered with tulle ribbon and a bow, or an arm supported, sometimes cascading over the arm arrangement, that’s a bit more formal and larger than the first option. Once again, the base is wrapped in tulle ribbon and a bow.

The bridal bouquet, as well as all the wedding flowers, are the finest flowers gathered in that day’s harvest at our farm. We do all our wedding work before beginning our farmers’ market work to insure this. Ascertaining the bride’s color choices for her bouquet and other floral articles is key. Does she want all whites, pastels or bright colors? What color does she NOT like? I try to nail down a three-color combination – purple, blue and pink; red, yellows and oranges (esp. in the fall); white, green and pinks; blue and white with a touch of yellow. “Wild card eclectic” colors work also, though my personal preference is that the wedding party itself has a narrower color band, for a more classy, connected appearance, even if the other arrangements run “wild” with color.

Often brides want particular flowers. If you grow those species, and they’re in season for the wedding, great. If not, talk to your wholesale florist and buy them in if it’s possible. The bride must be made aware that this will add to the cost.

Bridesmaid bouquets
Once again, hand-held or over-the-arm arrangements? What color are the dresses they’re wearing? If it’s a weird shade of color(s), see if you can get a sample of the fabric for better matching. Do they want bows on the bouquets? What color bows? If there are several bridesmaids, does the bride want all their bouquets to look the same or vary in the flowers and colors used?

Boutonnieres
These are made for the groom, fathers, grandfathers, other male members of the wedding party and, possibly, ushers. These are a snap to make. I generally use a small, nice flower with an herbal sprig of rosemary, thyme or artemesia behind it. Since these will not be able to be set in water after you’ve fashioned them, try to use flowers that will look good for at least two days without hydration. Lisianthus can’t be beat. Small coxcomb, asters and mums work well also. Wrap the short stems, and pin with a boutonniere pin to some card stock. Enclose all the boutonnieres in a sealed bag and refrigerate.

Corsages
These are the trickiest of all the wedding flowers for me. Typically, a florist wires all the flower heads, wraps them in tape and ‘curlicues’ all these wrapped wires into a neat tapered bundle at the bottom. Frankly, I’m hopeless at this unnatural flower maneuvering. I’ve tried, but believe me, you wouldn’t want to see the results, let alone wear them.

So my solution has been to steer the bride towards ‘tussie mussies’- small, short-stemmed, hand-held rounded bouquets with satin ribbon streamers. The advantages for the mothers and grandmothers are that they don’t have to poke holes in their dresses, have the weight of a corsage on oftentimes thin fabric and the flowers won’t be crushed in all the hugging that (hopefully) occurs at weddings. Using herbal, scented fillers in these has become quite in vogue. We keep tussie mussies in short buckets of water until the wedding. The bow is wired on at the last moment.

If the bride still wants corsages or wristlets, I’ve found a local florist who is willing to do all the floral mechanics with flowers I provide. They look beautiful, professional and are nominal in cost since the florists costs are only in labor, not flowers.

Once again, as with boutonnieres, find out what colors will compliment the dresses and use flowers that hold up well without hydration. Make sure the corsages have pins and be sure to refrigerate them.

The flower girl
Some weddings have them, many don’t. The floral options for flower girls generally involve a small hand-held bouquet, a basket of loose petals for throwing in the bridal aisle, and/or a head wreath (which is also an option for the bride).
Find out how old the flower girl is, as this will determine the size of her bouquet. A 3-year old proportionally needs a smaller bouquet than a 10-year old. Head wreaths require a head diameter measurement. Some people want a small wreath around the crown of the head, others want something closer to the forehead and back of the head. I use a strong, flexible wire as a base and floral tape flowers around it in one direction. Adding thin satin streamers on the back is sweet. Oftentimes these can be dried after the wedding and kept as a memento.

A bag of petals is easily accumulated by pulling petals off damaged flowers in the field or barn. Dahlia petals are luminescent and beautiful. I have the bride provide the basket from which they’ll be strewn. Store the bag of petals in the refrigerator.

Altar arrangements
These run the gamut from small and simple to grand. I’ve found that the best way to determine what the bride has in mind is to have her provide the containers for these arrangements. I’ve received 2-quart clear vases that accommodated one simple bouquet to large 3-foot-tall silver, brass or glass containers. The latter requires some expertise in working with floral foam, soaked in floral preservative. If the arrangement is going to be large, tall and/or wide, be sure to use chicken wire over the foam. These flowers have some traveling to do, and the jostling could break the foam apart without the wire reinforcement. Remind the bride that an altar arrangement can serve double-time as an arrangement at the reception if she can delegate someone to transport it after the ceremony.

Reception table arrangements
Here, once again, ask the bride to supply the containers. The question here is whether she envisions floral foamed, more formal arrangements, or simple bouquets in water. Often the decision comes down to cost. The floral foamed option takes a lot more labor and materials, and can cost more than twice as much. Remember to keep these arrangements short enough so people can see each other across the table.

Also, make sure you know what color the tablecloths will be. I learned this the hard way my first year doing special orders. A woman ordered a dozen bouquets for a company picnic and I didn’t ask about the table coverings. They turned out to be red and white checked clothes, and I, unawares, made bouquets with a lot of oranges and pinks since I had a glut of those colors in July. I had an unhappy customer due to my failure to establish a “vision” of the “big picture.”

Table arrangements that are designed in floral foam will ideally need to be kept cool before use. If this isn’t an option for you, steer your clients towards flowers hydrated in water-filled vases, particularly if the reception is outside in hot weather.

Flowers for the cake
Ninety-eight percent of the time, I offer cake flowers as loose flowers in a bucket of water. These will need to be delivered to the cake person to arrange around the cake. Occasionally, I’m asked to make a floral cake top, which requires getting the diameter of the top cake layer. Sometimes a short, fluffed-out bouquet with its short stems wrapped in ribbon and inserted into the top layer does the trick. A more formal option could be an arrangement in a round disk of floral foam placed in a shallow dish on top of the cake.

Other options
Garlands, end-of-pew arrangements and dried flower wreaths made from the wedding flowers after the event are other options that sometimes come up.

For garlands, get a length measurement, allowing for ‘draping’, and find out if it’s for a staircase, doorway, mantel or banquet table. These use a lot of filler greens and/or flowers, so make sure you have an adequate supply.
Pew arrangements can be upside down (swags) or right-side up bouquets with bows or flat-backed baskets with flowers in them. The main inquiry with both garlands and pew arrangements are what kind of attachments for them can be used – Nails? Wire? Ribbons? The church and reception hall policies are usually quite specific.

Pricing
Ah! Here’s what you’ve probably been wondering about all along…..So have I for the past 10 years! I’ve just begun to have some confidence about this. Alas, I have no set price guidelines given how individual each wedding is. Some of our weddings have been in total $200-250., most are in the $450-650 range and a few have been between $1,000-2,500. Because most of our weddings use 80-100% flowers from our farm, the “middlemen” aspect of the conventional florist trade has been eliminated. This allows us to ethically charge less than a conventional florist and still make a decent profit. I used to charge much less in my earlier years as a grower/arranger, but as our product has become more professional, classy and well-thought out, my prices have come to reflect this. Be aware that pricing is a regional thing. I could set much higher prices in an urban area and would have to come in somewhat lower in a rural area. Our prices are generally based on the economics of a university town’s comfort level. So, here’s a very general breakdown:

Bridal Bouquets $25-45
Boutonnieres $4-6
Corsages/Tussies $8-15
Flower Girl Bouquet $12-20
Flower Girl Head Wreath $35-40
Bag of loose petals $15
Altar Arrangements $25-125
Reception Tables $20-45
Flowers for the Cake $20
Garlands $4/ft.
Pew Arrangements $25-45
Dried Wreath from flowers $40-50

The most important aspect of pricing is to determine what you think your product and time are worth and then stick to your numbers. If the initial quote is too high for a client, work with them and either eliminate some of the frills, downsize the quantities or simplify the types of arrangements needed. For years I was so tentative about pricing, my ambivalence would sometimes cause confusion for me and the clients. You’ve got to establish your boundaries or self-doubt will make you and your client nuts.

It’s mandatory that you get at least a price estimate to your client, well in advance of the wedding date. No one likes surprises two days before their wedding. It’s wise to ask for a deposit when you’ve reached a point of commitment. However, I’m not always wise and often I just ask for full payment upon pick-up of the flowers. Since I’ve worked hard for a relationship of trust and “shared vision” with my client, I’m satisfied with this more risky arrangement. Call it the way you feel it…I’ve only been burned once in a dozen years, and that was a mere $100 wedding. Payment came two weeks later. Remember, your price should reflect not only the cost of materials and labor for the finished product, but also the time spent in consultation and perhaps the one to two farm visits that the bride made to determine what she liked in your field.

Delivery
Since most weddings are Saturday affairs, which is when we are at farmers’ markets, it’s a rare event when I have anything to do with the delivery or set-up of the flowers. My clients know this at the outset. My policy is that they pick-up the goods at my barn mid- to late-Friday afternoon, and then my responsibility has ended. I pack the flowers in their vehicles for them, relying on my experience in packing flowers all these years.

If a lot of the product they’re getting needs to remain in buckets overnight, I sometimes ask them to bring their own buckets. Alternately, if they use mine, I ask that they return them to me the next week or so at market. I pick up free deli buckets at grocery stores for this purpose so my market display buckets don’t slowly suffer the inevitable attrition.
If the wedding is a larger “high-society” type of affair, I do, very occasionally, deliver and set-up everything on site. Depending on what’s involved and how far you have to travel, charge accordingly for this added service and stress.
So, there you go- you’ve got my “condensed Bible” on wedding flowers. They are a headache, even if everything goes well. Expectations run high. For us, the matter of condensing all the wedding work on a Friday while we also have to prepare for two to three Saturday markets has compelled us to invest in a walk-in cooler this past season. Previously, we used a conventional refrigerator, but space was limited pretty much to just the small floral articles. The cooler now allows us to spread the work out over three days instead of one, and still have a first-class product.

If you’re not set up with a cooler, have farmers’ markets on Saturdays and commit to wedding work, be organized. Have all your bows made ahead of time, make sure all your mechanical supplies are prepped and ready and wake up real early that morning.

Good luck to you in this enterprise. It’s a value-added way to make flower growing a viable and profitable livelihood. The money is there, if you’ve got the temperament and, perhaps, a bottle of aspirin handy.¶

Linda Chapman and Deryl Dale own and operate Harvest Moon Farm in Southern Indiana. They grow bedding plants, fresh flowers and produce dried flower wreaths. They can be contacted at chapdale@bluemarble.net

For information about the mechanics of wedding designs, read Florists Review magazine. The monthly magazine is packed with easy-to-emulate designs, including clear color photos showing the work step-by-step. In addition, a hardcover book, Florists Review Weddings, priced at $39.95, compiles designs from past issues of the magazine. The magazine sells other titles about weddings, too. To order, call 800-367-4708.