How to order flowers for a funeral (Part 1: if you are ordering for a relative, co-worker, or friend)

  I receive many questions each week regarding what is "appropriate" to send when a friend, co-worker, associate or relative dies.   The answer is : pretty much any arrangement of flowers, small or large, is a gesture of love, thoughtfulness and sympathy to friends or family who are grieving.  You can never go wrong with acknowledging the passing of someone special.  However, I would like to point out some guidelines to keep in mind:

Balloons, stuffed animals and silk(artificial) arrangements are discouraged.  Unless you are an immediate family member (son, daughter, mother, father)picking out the item for yourself to take home after the service.  It is not appropriate to send these items to a funeral.  There is a fine line between paying respect and celebrating the life of the deceased and sending an item that is generally reserved for parties and the living.

When possible, group names of individuals together by families on enclosure cards.  Those that are grieving are going to glance at the card messages to gather a gist of who sent the flowers.    Same goes for long messages or passages- a simple "Thinking of you" , "You're in our Thoughts and Prayers" or "With Deepest Sympathy" followed by "From the Smith Family"  is really all that is necessary.   Direct messages to specific family members, personal messages, and religious passages should be handwritten on a larger card and hand-delivered or sent in the mail to the house for family to keep.    Keep it short and to the point.  The family will appreciate those longer messages of comfort and healing thoughts after all the chaos of the funeral is over.

If a group of people is going in on a sympathy arrangement, I would suggest no less than $10 a person.  The average funeral arrangements start at $45-$55.  It will look tacky for 20 names to be on a card of an arrangement that is the smallest in the room (*the exception is if the names on the card are of children)

Funerals are also not a time to "out do" another friend or family member with the size of your arrangement.  Let's not lose sight of the meaning of sending flowers.  It's the thought behind, not the size of your arrangement that is important.

"Don't use funeral flowers!"   I don't even know what this means.   Flowers are simply flowers, especially to a floral designer.  We do not categorize them by occasion but by color, length and size.

Fresh flowers are designed in 2 styles for funerals - For the home and for the service.  The items that fall in the "For the service Category:
Standing Easel Sprays:

Wreaths and Crosses on Easels: 

Traditional One-Sided Sympathy Arrangements (aka: maches/ funeral baskets)

For the Home arrangements are everyday vase and basket arrangements that are sent to the funeral/family visitation for a family member to take home after the funeral services are concluded and enjoy in their home: 

 If you would rather send an arrangement or plant directly to the home, that is also acceptable in times of grief.  Keep in mind when requesting delivery dates that any day after the funeral services have concluded, and up to a month afterwards is suggested and appropriate.   Most families are rather hectic during the period of time the services are scheduled and may not be available to receive deliveries.  

When placing your order online, in the "Recipient Name" fields- please put the name of the deceased when requesting deliveries to churches and funeral homes. Newspaper and online obituaries are organized by deceased names,  and we organize our deliveries by the deceased name as well.    

While the florist will deliver before any family visitation begins, we are required to deliver to the funeral home (or church's) flower room, usually in the rear of the building.  We are not involved with the final placement of your flowers in the receiving room.  That is strictly up to the funeral home staff or director.  

The lighting in a funeral home parlor/room is drastically different than regular daylight and will change the overall color and appearance of your arrangement.  Blues and purples are especially hard to see in darker rooms, while white and yellow stand out the most.  Greenery also tends to look very dark and increase the "spaces" around the flowers.  

I will cover ordering flowers for immediate family in the next blog post.  Hope this was helpful and is a point of reference the next time you need to order for a funeral.  

Rose Prices Explained

Valentine’s Day rose prices are driven by supply and demand of the consumer.  Growers start charging wholesalers and retailers escalating prices in December and January.  These prices reflect the additional crops, labor and materials used to keep up with current demand as well as future demand. 

Growers have to produce enough roses in January/February to meet the needs of the consumer.  If a typical flower shop buys 100-200 roses a week year round, their supply for Valentine’s week is usually 10 times that or more.

Typically the difference in price is roughly 3 times what year round prices are for the same product.  In order to maintain the same level of profit and cover costs of goods sold, retailers must raise their prices also. 

Weather conditions during the growing season for the valentine’s crop, fuel prices and the economy also affect the prices on roses. 

Most roses are exported out of South America.  If they receive heavy rains, flooding, drought or pest damage to their crops, this affects the amount of supply coming out of South America. 

Fuel prices and the supply/demand equation that applies to fuel prices are a great example of the flower industry’s supply/demand equation.

With the expansion of the Internet and openness of trade with South America, many big box retailers (i.e. grocery stores) are able to purchase flowers directly from the grower.   Their advantage over smaller, family owned flower shops is the volume in which they buy.   Their order is generally for several thousands of stores, which guarantees them bulk discounts.   This is where the price difference is the greatest in grocery vs. independent flower shop.  

The difference in quality comes into play once the flowers receive their retail destination.  An independent flower shop’s staff is trained with years of experience on how to properly care and handle fresh flowers.  They are also able to pass on their education to you, the consumer, on how to properly care for your flowers once you get them home.  They will also package your flowers and plants to protect them from the elements once you leave the store.  Fresh flowers cannot withstand temperatures below 34-36 degrees. Green plants, 55 degrees.  Blooming plants 40-55 degrees.  

This article is simply to help the consumer understand what drives prices up at Valentines day and why there is a price gap between big retailers and smaller family owned businesses.  

Wedding bouquet estimates- What we need you to know.

You've found a bouquet you are in love with and email the picture to your florist for a price....and then you may (or may not) experience sticker shock.    Here are some things to consider before and after you get the bouquet price:

1. The picture rarely shows every stem that is actually in the bouquet.  What you can typically count is only the top view.  Your florist can only see what is " in " the picture and needs to estimate based on a real life 3-D bouquet.   So if we see 3 sunflowers, we estimate for 5 total, etc. to properly itemize everything in the bouquet.

2.  Usually, not always, the bouquet was made for a photo shoot, i.e. designed to look good in pictures- OR to emphasize a particular style, color or flower. Many more stems were used then what would be actually necessary to achieve this look.  The designer is not creating the bouquet based on budget but on what will photograph best for that magazine, website, etc.

3.  Your florist can reproduce just about any bouquet in a more economical way.    We scale down the number of stems of each variety.  The bouquet above, while beautiful, contains quite a few flowers.  Some of which are not very big and cost the same as some of the other bigger blooms.   You can get away with less of those expensive blooms and still retain the overall look and feel that you love.

For example, in the above bouquet, I estimate that there are:

5-6 Gerbera Daisies
15-16 Mini Calla Lilies (!)
3 +/- stems of Safflower
3 +/- stems of Nigella
3 +/- stems of Eryngium Thistle
5-6 sunflowers
6 +/- stems of Hypericum Berries
4 -5 blooms of Cymbidium Orchids
4-6 stems of Leucadendron "Safari Sunset"
+ assorted curly willow tips, greenery

with labor, that brings my price to design this bouquet to approx $465.00  

I could recreate this same look for under $200.00.  How?  By scaling back the quantities used, omit one or two varieties of flowers that are not necessary to the overall look, and possibly substituting more of one variety than another when necessary.

And this post isn't about crushing your dreams for that big beautiful bouquet.  Remember, your florist does not know what your budget and end-goal for flowers are unless you tell them!   I can work estimates up much quicker if I know the budget and what is the priority for the bride before rather than after.   I can scale the estimate to meet the bride's expectations versus over shooting the budget and disappointing my clients with an unrealistic flower budget.    Maybe the bride wants to splurge on the bouquet for herself and improvise elsewhere.  Anything is possible! ( A final note about big bouquets:  big bouquet = lots of flowers = heavy.   Like 2 lbs or more.  )


-The above picture was submitted to me for a proposal,which inspired this post. The original designer/photographer is unknown.  -

American vs European wrapped bouquets

The American fresh flower wrapped bouquet consists of an assortment of flowers, laid down on tissue, paper, cellophane or other decorative wrap material.  The flowers are laid so that they are displayed out the top of the wrap, the stems are left long for the recipient to cut to desired length later.  Also called "presentation style" bouquets, they are often given at awards ceremonies or other special occasions, but are still suitable for "just because" occasions.  This style of bouquet works best for the recipient who likes to style their own flowers in one or multiple vases. 

European Hand-Tied bouquets are the norm overseas but are typically not requested as often in the US.  Visually shorter than their American styled cousin, we have used the same amount of flowers, designed in our hand, tied off at the binding point, stems cut short.  These bouquets are "Ready -To- Party" and upon receipt, a quick re-snip of stems can be literally dropped into the recipient's vase and provide an instant professionally designed arrangement. 

Customizing Wedding Flowers

A toss bouquet I designed for a wedding this March.  The bride was a former ballerina/ ballet fan so the toss bouquet was to interpret the ballet.  Black satin handle and puffy pink tulle with white dendros glued in made a very lightweight bouquet.

For the same wedding, I added in the bride's nursing pin to personalize the groom's boutonniere.

An heirloom brooch, earring or other keepsake can be either integrated into the bouquet or added to the handle. 

Besides jewelry, just about any object can be incorporated into flowers for your wedding.  The main factors to consider : scale of the item to the size of the flowers/flower arrangement, the weight of the object (if applicable), and  the delicacy of the item (antique brooch, heirloom of substantial value, etc) and how effectively it will be incorporated into the arrangement.   I personally have incorporated many objects into bouquets and boutonnieres, each item was personal to the bride, groom or both.  Remember the item needs to reflect something of you or the groom, an interest or hobby can even be represented by a simple fly fishing lure.  Talk to your wedding florist about what custom touches you can bring to the flowers to make your wedding day a little more unique and personal.  

Hidden Labor in Weddings, Part 1

Hidden- why?  Because it is labor that occurs but that is not witnessed by the client.  Processing and prepping flowers for a wedding or any event, requires a LOT of time and labor.  For instance, I received flowers for a wedding.  I processed them (meaning unpack, cut stems, dip in hydration dip, place in preservative water, move buckets to front of shop.)  For one wedding this took two and 1/2 hours.  Mainly because I had to process 100 stems of gerberas.  For more on how those little fickle flowers are processed, see our blog post: Gerbera Blog Post

At the end of the first day, most of the flowers are placed in the cooler and organized by what will be used first.  Some flowers stay out to open up; like lilies and alstroemeria.  In order to get them to open quickly they require being recut and changing the water at least twice a day if not more depending on what open stage they are at.

Closed:Open: 


The next day I pull out the buckets of flowers I need to further process /prep.  Roses need dethorned. Lilies need pollen sacs and lower foliage removed.  Lilies and alstroemeria recut and seperate the open from the closed, open goes into preservative, closed stays out all day until it's "ready to party" as my supplier and I have termed it.

Everything I outlined above is normal for every shop for every wedding.  But I can't charge a "processing" fee based on how many times I will be handling the same flowers can I?  So therefore we have a specific retail markup on our flowers(which covers our cost + shipping) plus design & labor costs that combine to give you the final wedding bouquet price.  

Wedding Delivery Logistics

I recently delivered and set up a wedding in Front Royal, Va.  Here's the breakdown of the time spent from start to finish to help give a better understanding of how long it actually takes:

:45 minutes to load bouquets, personal flowers, 24 small centerpieces, toolbox, and a bucket of flowers securely into van.

:30 minutes one way to the event location (light traffic)

1:15 minutes unloading and placing centerpieces, unloading and delivering personal flowers, etc.

:30 minutes return trip back to the flower shop

:10 minutes unpacking and putting away all tools, buckets, boxes, etc.

That's 3 hours and 10 minutes for one wedding delivery where the ceremony and reception were at the same venue.


If you haven't already checked out our previous blog post concerning delivery and set up at events, you really should:
http://flowersbysnellings.blogspot.com/2013/02/delivery-and-set-up-fees-for-events.html