The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello flower friends. This is Jen and you were listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast. On this week's episode, I wanna talk all things event production timeline from when you should be ordering to on that week. When should you be doing what? So I have been a, uh, wedding, an event florist for. Well, I've owned my own business for 17 years, so I've been doing a lot of weddings since then, but I've been a florist for 25, so I've seen a lot of different formulas and ways people do things.

Of course, I follow in all the Floris Facebook groups to get, um, an idea of what people are doing. And one of the things that I think is the biggest indicator of what, um, your timeline is, if you have a cooler or not, and a lot of people, Hesitate. This is one of the things that I wish earlier in my business I would've done because I made this big deal out of this purchase, out of this commitment when it was the best purchase and commitment I probably could have made in my business.

So that is going to dictate, uh, some of the production items, but ordering should be the same a month out from the wedding. I am telling the, um, couple I need their final table counts. I am telling them, uh, that this is pretty much what your order is going to look like. I send them a revision and I give them one week to make any final revision so that I am getting final payment three weeks out.

But the reason why I'm doing that, like preliminary four week is because I want to push them to give me a 90% sure we could fluctuate by one table. Maybe number because I need to formulate my floral orders. I need to formulate, um, you know, reaching out to different wholesalers, sourcing product. I need that much time and some floors go way ahead of time and then commit to orders, which I totally get if it's a very dialed in order.

A couple months ahead of time. If you wanna source that, go right ahead. I have an April 28th event and it looks super easy, super simple, and so I can just put that order together now, especially it does have some, um, Matilda roses, uh, so some terracotta roses and that might be not the easiest thing to source in spring, so I'm gonna be able to do that now.

Uh, but if they are hesitating. This is what I hear a lot from other Flores is like, they're not solidifying. You need to make sure you have verbiage in your contract that supports what you are requesting. So you are saying in your contract very clearly when final table count is due and when final payment is due.

And I go as far as saying, I will not order the flowers and therefore cannot guarantee the aesthetic. And color palette without final payment. And this is pushing them, I, I don't order flowers until I have final payment. So I am pushing them because some people drag their feet on payments.

You probably experienced it, but I am trying to basically cut that off before it even starts by positioning that in my contract that this is important and that there are deadlines. So I do my preliminary revision, and that is based off their, I'm pretty sure our table count is going to be here. Then from there, I am going to formulate my flower order and then adjust.

If they have a table, I can adjust maybe a bunch or something when I'm at the wholesaler. I put that flower order together and then I start sourcing. I have several wholesalers that I order from here in the, um, twin Cities area. I usually buy my hydrangeas and my Italian Rus. Like I've just learned that something is nicer, less expensive, or the same quality and less expensive at different wholesalers and.

I also feel like one of 'em, if for some reason something comes bad that I pre-order, that they're probably gonna have backup stock. So you have to look at your sources, where's the best spot? Then I send out my order. I ordering from, um, Ecuador Direct. I usually have my roses delivered that Monday. So they leave on Thursday from Ecuador.

They come into Miami and then I think it's. Nashville and then they're at my house within four days. And so they come usually on Monday for a Friday or Saturday wedding. And the reason why I'm not freaked out about that is because I am usually cutting off anywhere from four to seven days. Of time, of age of that rose by ordering direct.

And if you ever wanna check out my Rose Farm, I order from Bellevue Roses. And you can save, um, 15% on your first order by using my code hustle. Their roses, their quicksands, their PLIs, their pink bundles, their white O'Hare, uh, they're, um, pink O'Hare stunning, like just. Such good quality, uh, consistency in color.

I just, I love them. So I always wanna plug, plug, um, my Rose Farm and plus they're giving you a deal with my code hustle, uh, to order on your first, um, purchase. So then, I am getting my roses. I am hydrating them. I am soaking, um, you know, like I'm having them hydrate with their sleeves on and everything because these babies are thirsty.

They have been out of water for four days and to some florist they're like, oh my god. Sometimes they've been outta water for like seven to 10. If you're buying them at the wholesaler, you can tell the roses just completely dehydrated. And with the four day timeframe, I have very good luck rehydrating the roses, so that they are absolutely stunning.

And my Rose just has a longer age with ordering it direct from Ecuador. So I'm processing, I'm hydrating, and then I usually hydrate. And then, Check them every couple hours to check and see like the consistency, how they're hardening. And then I change the water. And then the next day on Tuesday, we're processing roses.

Then on Tuesday I run to the wholesaler. I grab all my greens, I grab all my other flowers. I have a local flower farmer that I'll go and get, uh, flowers from and then on, you know, bring that back. We're processing all of that. And if I'm feeling ambitious, I start, if we've got everything kind of, you know, done and we're ready, I'll start doing bouquets, pulling bouquets.

I want to pull the nicest flowers first for B bouquets, and I have seen no issue with making my bouquets on Tuesday. Uh, or we'll start them Wednesday. If we're not ahead of schedule on Tuesday, then I am making sure. On Monday or Tuesday that I'm also have all my vessels prepped foam in my vessels. Uh, vss are clean, candles are cleaned.

I'm making sure, and I actually usually do this before then, if not Monday, making sure everything is ready to go, ready to just be put in, um, a vehicle to be brought to set up or. They're just ready because you don't wanna be worried on Thursday when you're designing that. You need to get foam soaking.

You need to get, uh, vs cleaned. You just don't want that. That is more stress. So I make sure everything is done ahead of time. That could be you bringing in or hiring somebody for Monday to come in and help do that. I have had somebody coming on Mondays during wedding season, um, for about two seasons, and it's been super helpful in just feeling like I'm more prepared.

But I also on that Monday or Tuesday, start filling. Uh, target type totes. So plastic totes that you would store things in. I'll put all my foam, um, to soak for the week in there and literally have it ready. If I'm doing a foam free installation, I want all my moss burritos for my, you know, to wraparound poles or whatever.

I, I want them pre-made as well because I don't wanna go on site, make a huge mess. I just want everything ready to go then. I, on Wednesday, I'll have all my vessels prepped. I'll have all my flowers prepped. We previously had one of our local flower growers co-op, they were just starting opening on Wednesdays.

So it was like the day if I wanted to get anything from them, I had to go on that day. Cuz flower farmers were bringing their stuff on Mondays and Tuesdays. They now were bought my May, so that could change my timeline, but I would go run Wednesday morning and get all those items and then my team would be here starting if we didn't pull bouquets, they're pulling bouquets.

If we are starting to make vase arrangements, so things not in foam, we will have, uh, start on those. If there's Bud Vass, I will have Bud vss made up and then we pre box them up. So when we're making, we're boxing and then I have all of these metal shelving that is tiered, I can just stack it in there and just make it really easy to just have storage and not things piled everywhere.

Then we're doing all the V things, not in foam. Then if the wedding is on Friday, on Wednesday, I would start greening my foam items. I always green the day before I pre-screen everything because it makes it for one something that you're able to do, and so you're not compiling, flowery and greening at the same time.

Especially 90% of my installations I do ahead of time, and I want that process to be really seamless. So we will pre green and you can, even if you are worried like, okay, this is going on the top left of an arbor, you can label piece one through six with a stem from a flower and a post-it note taped around it.

just have them all predesigned. I sometimes will even grab an eight foot table out and lay my pieces in a row and then green them together so I know this is exactly how they're just gonna be put up. I pre zipp tie anything that is needing a zip tie on it, so any foam cages, and I'm doing that before I'm greening so that I am.

Able just lift and place, uh, when I am there and just do a little bit of fluffing afterwards. So I'm greening, I am, uh, doing any EVAs arrangements on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Uh, then on Thursdays I'm usually starting, if we have personals, we'll start wiring up any leaves. We will, um, you know, wire up any flowers that we can.

If they are easy, we'll make any personals that can be made ahead of time and put them in a hydration chamber in my cooler. Uh, a hydration chamber is some type of plastic tupper ish container, a tote, but can get airtight. And I put paper towel. I spray the paper towel with water. Then I put my personals that I have completed.

In there. I spray that again and then I put another paper towel over it and spray it again. And then the flowers are drinking from their petals. They're getting super hydrated, super, just um, kind of plump with moisture, which is great. I've actually tested, I made a floral necklace and had it in a hydration chamber and a couple of the flowers were peaky when I did it, cuz I did it with flowers that were a little bit older and they stayed.

I. I gave up at 10 days just knowing that it was still going good and so 10 days it lasted in the hydration chamber and was still looking good enough that I would wear it. So the hydration chamber really helps you be able to get personals done ahead of time. If you don't like using that, you could actually, if you are natural stem wiring, your booters and corsages so that the stems are exposed at the bottom and you're just putting a little bit of tape around them, you could.

Also create a container. I actually have these, um, stem containers that you can pop the bir in, put water in it, and it's almost like a little mini vasse arrangement, and it's staying nice and moisturized in there. So that day, Thursday or Friday, you know, depending on when the wedding is. We usually are doing the personals like for a Saturday wedding.

We'll do them on Thursday. We'll wrap all of the ribbon on Friday, and then we're delivering on Saturday. If it is a Saturday we or Sunday wedding, we would go and make them Friday. I would wrap them Saturday and then we would deliver them Sunday. So I'm not doing them. I, I've, I've seen in some Facebook groups that people are like, I need to get up really early on Saturday morning to do my personals.

No, this is super easy. You can do it days ahead of time. You could do it probably three days ahead of time if you really want, depending on how great your product is. But I'm also designing with personal flowers that I know are going to last. So I'm using my favorite white spray. Rose is Snowflake. It's very hard firm and holds up really, really well.

Vernacular usually hold up really well. Lithe usually hold up really well, making it advance as long as it like. The soft, roughly kind, uh, you're making sure that you're not like squishing the pedals so that they get that creases in them. But those hold up really well. And then I'm using greenery that is, is good for long, um, long-term personals as well.

Like I'm using Italian rus, Israeli Rus. If I'm using Eucalyptus, I make sure that it does not look Peaky going into it because I don't want to deal with having like brown leaves or anything. So I, my strategy is making things ahead of time. So I'm using product that supports that wax flour, usually very sturdy, um, as a filler in your, your personal.

So I'm using those things and not necessarily using really delicate things that I feel that won't wear well to begin with, but also aren't going to hold up. For long-term success in me being able to do these ahead of time. I mean, I've had weddings that we've had $35,000 of weddings in one weekend and there might be three weddings that weekend and two sets of personals and then one maybe, um, cultural, like a Hindu wedding or something.

So two sets of personals that need to be done and you need time to do those things cuz they are time consuming, but, Also, I make sure that I am getting my ribbons, uh, if I have a Saturday weddings, I always do ribbon and cutting the bouquets in that nice straight stem. The day before, so I'm not messing with that in the morning.

I give it a fresh cut, usually later in the day, the day before I'm delivering it fresh cut and changing the water, having my water so that the flowers are sitting in it, but it's not sitting close enough to get the ribbon. And, uh, usually the day before an event is when I am flowering foam. So I'm putting in my roses, my hydrangeas, whatever it is.

I'm doing that the day before. Whether we have tall elevated pieces or if we have a, um, foam cages that are going on amond up or a compote. If it is a compote and I have a lot of foam work that can go in my cooler, I could do that two days in advance. But that's, you know, only something that's like spatially going to fit in my cooler, cuz I'd want every one of them probably to be in my cooler.

I have two coolers. I have a three door and a two door. And, uh, I have a couple shelves, you know, obviously positioned in each one, so I just, I'm, I'm looking and planning based on what I think my cooler space will co, will handle, and if I can do something in advance. I do that, uh, only if it really could be protected.

Also, I'm a big fan because I am doing it a day ahead of time. I'm a big fan of really hydrating my flowers. So I actually have, uh, our studio is in my garage. It's a two and a half by two and a half, um, deep garage that literally is just a flower shop. There's, you know, work stations and coolers and. I bought the house because of it, because it had water and it had a furnace.

And when I walked into it I was like, this is it. This is, this is what I want. Because I knew I wanted to be able to do flowers and be close to my children and not, um, have that heavy feeling of a APR payment on a monthly basis. And then I could have my kiddo out here with me, cuz I bought this house when I was seven months pregnant.

And, I wanted everything to just be convenient. And so with that, I, I make sure that like from spatially, everything for an event is also, you know, worked out. So I'm looking at, okay, I have all these big center pieces to do. I'm probably in the progression of things gonna do those last because I'll likely wanna just leave those on work stations.

So when I'm sketching out what my workload would be, I wanna make sure that I'm looking at the space and utilizing that to its best functionality for people to be able to continue working when things are getting a lot of flowers running around. And then I. Let's just say this is a Saturday wedding and I have 30 tables to set up.

If I have greenery for my tables, I will actually, on Friday, have all of that precut in a bucket so someone can go and just position the greenery on the table and be done. So we're not cutting up bunches, we're not doing all those things in advance. All the pieces are precut, and I can usually find somebody that's, you know, Maybe not a very high skilled floors, but just like wants to play with flowers and it wants to learn like that's a good task for them because they're learning how long pieces should be, especially if they're helping on Saturday set up.

Uh, and then you're all done and not worried about tearing apart bunches. And then really, if the bunches are smaller, then you're not worried af when you're on site that you're not going to have enough. Then I am, um, loading up my bouquets. I pre box all my centerpieces whenever possible when they're done.

So compotes or vase arrangements or bud vases, all those are pre boxed. So I'm just packing up my vehicle and leaving with them, which is, um, nice because then I'm not doing a long load in. Then I am making sure that I have my tarps, literally canvas tarps from Menards or Home Depot so that I can have a surface laid down and I'm not cleaning up more mess that's on the floor.

I can actually roll these up, especially if timelines are tight. Then I'm also bringing my emergency kit. If you don't have an emergency kit, You gotta get one. They are so helpful and literally have saved my butt so many times. And I actually made one for my, um, my decor bestie because she was always coming and needing something out of my toolbox.

So for Christmas I made her one because it's such a nice thing. And I have a couple I absolutely love. Um, One of my, uh, freelancers, but she's accident prone, so I got band-aids in there. I got Neosporin, I got all the things. I've got the studio stocked with, um, extra band-aids already for the year, so I'm making sure that I'm having everything in case something happens.

I also have small weights and I have them pret tucked in my van. If for some reason something is too heavy and needs a weight to counterbalance it, I have a foam brick. In a cubby in my van. So I've, I've thought of all these little, like, last minute things that if something happens at the event, I'll, I'll, you know, be panicking because I, you know, don't have it or need to get it.

And then I also, um, bring one extra of every single item. So if I have trios, I'm bringing a six inch, seven and a half and nine inch base. I'm bringing an extra set. I'm bringing an extra full floating candle. I'm bringing an extra vase because if something happens, I am prepared. Then I set everything up and then, you know, usually I'm only there for a small setup time because most everything is pre-done, and then I leave, and then I'm done.

And if we need to tear down, we tear down on my tear downs for timing. I will always ask the couple if I can come 15 minutes before their last dance. And the reason why I do that is because if they're items that they can bring home, if you're doing it right at midnight, everybody's already leaving. And I have been stuck.

With tons of flowers being still there and then having to figure out what to do with them, cuz it was a 45 person wedding or 45 table wedding. So I make sure that I, I ask them and tell them, I will actually have me or whoever's tearing down, go take all of those flowers and put them on a table right near the entrance so that they can be enjoyed after your wedding.

So then you're 15 minutes earlier for your tear down. And then people are actually gonna be taking the flowers with them, and so you are disposing of less. Then afterwards, I start, uh, the cleanup process usually on Monday, so I am loading up my vehicle with all the cardboard. I actually take all my boxes back to my wholesaler.

I just shove, fill the whole back of my van up if need be, and then I'm cleaning. I am getting foam buckets ready again. Uh, I have that person that usually comes on Mondays that helps with that whole process. And then we start the whole process over if we have weddings again. I hope that was helpful.

That's just a little insight. I mean, I've done nine weddings in one weekend before I, I'm not doing that anymore because that's just not, doesn't sound fun anymore, but nine weddings in one weekend. So it is possible as long as you are prepared, coordinated, and have a plan to flawlessly deliver multiple events.

If that's what you choose to do and possible to maximize your profits, cuz you're being efficient with your labor, you're being efficient with your resources, you're making sure you're not getting things too early or too late, so you're getting last minute delivery fees. I hope this episode was helpful.

I literally am so passionate about being able to do things ahead of time and if you ever have a question and are like, Could I make this ahead of time? Send me a dm, send me a photo. I would love to see it and give you my opinion, cuz I've done 90% of my installations offsite for probably over eight to 10 years now.

So I, if you, if you're wondering it, I probably have an answer if it could be figured out ahead of time. Thank you so 📍 much flower friend. You have an amazing flower week and thanks for listening.