The Floral CEO

 Hello flower friends, I wanna talk to you today about styled shoots, and I did an episode a while back how to basically like. You know, do a styled shoot and different ways to look at it. But today in Minnesota there was a Minnesota Bride tour of venues. So think of the parade of homes, but for wedding venues.

And so my Instagram feed was littered with all of these florists. You know, participating in dressing up venues and making it prettier for this open house. 'cause it's basically like most of the venues are wanting to dress up so that it looks like a wedding. And I participated in. One at my favorite venue Essence Event Center, where we have annually the Installation Rockstar Workshop.

Um, because they have the most amazing ceiling hooks and amazing little like installation points that it's like so fun. But I also participated with a hotel that I really want. I would love to get on their preferred vendor list and I'd love to, you know, start doing more weddings and being recommended and, you know, for Essence, we actually turned it into.

Not only are we doing the open house, but we're doing a styled shoot. The venue manager is an amazing photographer that I love her pictures, so I'm gonna get great pictures for her. And, you know, then they had this open house that, you know, had actually, uh, she reported back and they had almost like 30 couples come through.

And I've actually already got emails from some of the brides that attended, but. I wanna talk about like how you can really maximize your ROI and really some thought process going into it so that you can get the most connection points, the most kind of, uh, bang for your buck. Not only from a, you know, uh, exposure standpoint, but with building relationships with a venue, building relationships with vendors, and really.

Getting a portfolio and getting photos out of it and getting Instagram exposure, that is impactful. So one of the biggest ways that I realistically like don't wanna really participate in a styled shoot unless they're turning it into an open house, and I'm not just getting the images. I often will do that with my workshops.

And actually, I'm so excited you guys. I have a. Three workshops planned for next year that are going to be so amazing, and every one of those workshops are turned into a styled chute. And then two of them are going to be open houses. The third one is going to be the retreat on our family farm, and we're gonna have a beautiful, amazing dinner that night.

So we're still utilizing all the beautiful flowers, but. When you do the, you know, style shoot to the open house, you are getting in front and giving the venue also an opportunity to really show their best foot forward. Uh, a lot of venues actually, and this was interesting, I've met with a venue. Uh, that's about 30 minutes from our farm that really needs kind of, it's, it looks like log cavity, and it's not the cutest, but it's really catering towards low budget brides because of the aesthetic and.

He wants to dress things up. Really great owner love him. He is like really wanting to dress things up so that he could start potentially attracting a higher end bride. And I'm like looking at the venue going, you need to paint this thing white. You know? And I'm like, when you get all these things done, like I think that you should do a style shoot.

I think you should do an open house and really showcase. How amazing everything is. And you know, I think as florist, we don't feel like we can insert ourself into a conversation that is going to maximize our revenue, our exposure, our potential tee up to get in front of more clients. We're just saying, yeah, we'll do this style shoot, and then like the style shoot's done and you're tearing it all down.

And they could have had this amazing opportunity to have clients come in and see them all dressed up. 'cause most clients love to see their wedding venue all dressed up. They love to get ideas. They love to just look, you know, I mean a lot of people are visual. They wanna just see like how the tables are laid out and how things come together.

I mean, I don't blame them. That is amazing. So with this opportunity. A lot of times they will, you know, when you go to an open house, they're offering you a booth, and I often will not sign up to sit somewhere for three to four hours. Um, unless it is heavily marketed, uh, a couple of the venues that I've done this at, I've actually put marketing dollars behind it.

So I also wanna make sure that this is going to be worth my time. That's part of maximizing. If I'm going to be sitting at a table and they have three couples come in, that is not going to be a good use of my time. I might book one of those couples that that would be totally magical, but I would love. If at least like a dozen or 15, um, I literally at the last open house after the installation rockstar, um, workshop, because they heavily marketed this.

They spent money, they spent money renting linens. I mean, we, this venue was stunning. We had. A huge focal installation over the head table. We had a huge ceremony installation. We had a hanging installation in this little nook of a hanging orange grove, like this was stunning. This is their best foot forward for the year, and this was their opportunity to really showcase.

So they put marketing budget. I actually, especially because people are coming and they're like, holy shit, look at how amazing this looks. Look at how beautiful this looks. Look at what this florist did. So not only did we do the workshop, then we did the styled shoot, then we did this open house, and I had people waiting to talk to me like it was crazy.

Like how many people were, were there and excited to connect with me because like we created this just amazingly beautiful space. So whenever you can talk bigger. About this opportunity with your venue. Hey, have you ever thought like, I would love to do this style, shoot, blah, blah, blah. You know, have you guys done an open house or, I love Essence.

They have won every month. They call it open doors. They have booked so many clients off of these open doors because it's a no pressure. Hey, we're just coming in to check it out. It's like shopping for a car on Sunday. You don't wanna be bugged by a salesperson. You just wanna kind of see how things are.

And the one today they, she was thinking that they're probably gonna book five to six of those clients, which is amazing. So getting that exposure of getting your flowers in front of a million people is so impactful that another thing I saw today, do not go crazy this. Unless you are getting paid, unless you are working out a trade of some sort or um, they are paying you and helping out on flower costs do not go crazy.

I saw a venue that had must have been 15 tables, set up 15 tables, and there were tall centerpieces. There were low, huge kind of floral, floral kind of, uh, compote arrangements and on a head table, and there was like three of them. Then there was a ceremony set up with a bunch of flowers. Then there was greenery on the tables.

I mean, this, so much money was spent. So think creative about this is your opportunity. To showcase the things that you would like to be doing so you can maximize a styled shoot slash open house as an opportunity to to do what inspires you. I do not take someone's mood board and I'm like, Hmm, I'm just gonna run with that because like that's what they want.

Honestly, they don't fucking know. Most of the time they're looking for direction and. We often don't insert ourself because we're not feeling confident in, you know, saying, Hey, what about this? What about this concept? What about this idea? And I literally have a file folder of inspiration and Instagram, and I have a screenshot folder that when I find something inspiring, I screenshot it.

Because if I wanna make that or if I wanna do that. I wanna just create this little like creative treasure trove that not only could fuel one of these situations, but could fuel a wedding. I have, uh, multiple times. Going, okay, I have the perfect picture for this. And then I've gone in and dug into my, um, saved folder.

And then I've gone in and dug into my, um, you know, screenshots. And then I've found this like perfect thing to be able to share with them. You could do that same thing. You do not need to do boring. You do not need to do rounding mound if that's not what's speaking to you. If you wanna do fun pin frogs, if you want to do just like something totally different.

Do it, like think outta the box. Have fun. And when it comes to flower costs, try to think of things that are going to minimize your flower costs if you are the one absorbing it, make sure that you trying to be as strategic as possible by doing something that's inspiring to you but doesn't go overboard from a flower cost perspective.

Doing these two things, like really setting some boundaries or even, I know it's hard to ask for money because you're just excited that this venue, you're, it's just like they're picking me. They're picking me for this great opportunity. You, they maybe picking you because they emailed three other people and they said no, which I like.

You might be their first pick. We don't know. But we need to also reflect that flowers cost money. They're getting exposure from this. It shouldn't be free. I have had photographers, planners, venues participate in flower costs. Um, today for my second shoot, because when they asked me, I was like, yeah, I'd really love to get in there, but I don't wanna spend money.

Like I, like, I just don't want to. I, I don't wanna spend a bunch of money 'cause I've already committed to the essence thing and doing something really fun and inspiring. They were, they're renting the linens. I got to design the event, um, from an aesthetic standpoint, from the linens up. And with that, like this is really creatively fulfilling for me.

So use those opportunities to feel creatively fulfilled. Uh, what's funny is one of my freelancers, she was like, yeah, you know, I'm really trying to think of ways to be creative. And she's like, you have essence. You know, because I regularly do something creative for them. And so, uh, that's what I was allocating my fund, my budget.

This weekend for, but this other venue was a hotel and they offered me in exchange for, um, doing this, they offered me doing, uh, a free night stay in their hotel, which is I think like $250. 'cause it's kind of swank. So I still got value. I don't know where I'm gonna go because of all the animals on our farm and how I have to take care of 'em.

But maybe we can figure out a. Mini donkey babysitter or something and go up to the hotel in exchange for me bringing my silk flowers, and then I have a drying rack that I literally hang everything on that I am, you know, like at the end of the weekend I'm like, God, I didn't use these, but I know they dry well.

So then I just pull those dried out and I made one room, had an all dried insulation for a little mini fireplace, and then I made a com bowl. And then the other one I did my white silk rentals. I did some tall centerpieces, um, some low centerpieces. And then I actually, for the ceremony, used my Harlow stands and put two tall ones, and then I put some floating candles in front of it.

It was beautiful, simple, and. Did the job and I was in and out really quick and they were very happy and they had people walk through and see that, and maybe somebody contacts me, I left some marketing material there as well. But you want to to do things that are easy when you are not getting paid as well.

So that's why I love the silk flowers, because I can use that solution. Kind of whenever I want. So I hope these little tips and tricks about really upping the ante when it comes to your return on your investment for style shoots. I hope some little tip resonated with you, and thanks so much for listening, flower Friend, and you have an amazing flower filled day.