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Reality Check Part 2

So what accounts for the varying prices across the country and how do these costs compare to the Seattle area?

Well, several things affect the cost of your wedding flowers –

Availability
Dahlias are cheap in September because they are grown locally and they are in season. They are a dime a dozen at the farms around the Puget Sound. But try finding dahlias for your February wedding and it’s not so easy. They will have to be imported from somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere which gets me to my next point…

Distance from grow point
Anything that has to be imported automatically costs more than something grown locally. It’s entirely logical; now you are paying for the cost of transport, import taxes, fuel for trucks and airplanes etc. Most flowers used by florists in the US are imported from Canada, South America or Africa because those countries have a long growing season and warm climate (or in the case of Canada, large greenhouses!)

Style
The style and intricacy of an arrangement will also affect its cost. A more involved bouquet with lots of different floral elements and techniques such as wiring for delicate blooms such as orchids will require more labor than a hand tied bouquet of a single flower.

Cost of Doing Business
In my opinion, this is the primary reason that the same arrangement is priced differently in different part of the country. In addition to raw materials, a florist has to account for rent, labor, utilities, trucking, insurance and sales tax in her pricing and this cost can vary enormously across the country.

So where does Seattle fall in terms of floral pricing?

On the higher end. Seattle is an expensive city for property and this affects the price of rent for a shop or studio. We are also in a part of the country where, while the weather is generally mild,  the growing season for flowers is short and outside of the summer months, most flowers have to be imported into the area.

But there are several ways to keep your costs lower!

  • Choose in season flowers.  Tulips in the Spring and dahlias in late summer are two common examples but both are gorgeous flowers that come in many different colors and styles.
  • Choose simple, looser and smaller arrangements. The less wiring and labor involved with your bouquet, the less expensive it will be and it stands to reason that a smaller arrangement with fewer flowers will cost less than a large elaborate one.
  • Don’t get married the week of Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. These two holidays are when flowers are most in demand but short in supply because of the time of year. The prices direct from the grower skyrocket and florists have to raise their pricing to cover the increased cost. So you get a lot less for your money than you would on any other day of the year.

Reality Check

Over the past couple of years, I have had many conversations with my brides that go something like this,

Bride: I adore this bouquet I saw in Martha Stewart magazine. I love the peonies, the roses, the trailing vines…Can you do something like that?
Me: Of course. Now what’s your budget?
Bride: Oh, I don’t know. I want to keep costs minimal but I really want the flowers to look amazing.
Me: Ok, well that bouquet will probably cost around $350.
Bride: how much?????

And I sympathize. I really do. Until they start planning their wedding, most brides have never purchased flowers outside of the farmers market or the grocery store. They have no idea of the cost involved for the basic materials, time or labor that goes into creating a single bouquet.  Flowers are rare, perishable and imported and those words never describe a cheap, mass produced item. They start out expensive and then they are hand crafted into bouquet or centerpiece or boutonniere.

I recently came across this article on Pink Blossom List, a blog for vendors in the wedding industry, that asked florists in different areas of the country how they would price  three types of arrangements. Here’s an excerpt,

How much would this Martha Stewart bouquet cost in your city?

From Flower Divas to Soiree Floral, Studio Stems to A to Zinnias, this is what they would charge for this beautiful, marigold, grey, and soft green bouquet featuring ranunculus,freesia, mini succulent, berzilia, dusty miller and finished with vintage inspired seamstress ribbons.

How about a medium sized full, vintage inspired centerpiece like this one?

From California to Connecticut, Utah to Michigan, this is what florists would charge for this eco-green centerpiece of anemones, brown berzilia baubles, scabiosa pods, leather fern, sword fern, scented geranium and jasmine vines in a glass cylinder created by Lewis Miller of LMD Floral Events in NYC.

And what about a large, lush, lavish centerpiece like this one that appeared in Brides magazine?

It’s a classically styled centerpiece that would work for any season. The uniformity of the blooms and the near monochromatic color palette make a strong statement. This striking centerpiece uses a variety of deep red and dark plum-red flowers including deep red roses, reddish plum rananunculus, dark reddish plum mini callas, and red orchids. And the cost…?

 

Tomorrow I’ll discuss what accounts for the varying costs, where Seattle falls in the price range and what you can do to lower the cost of your wedding flowers. Stay tuned!

Bride’s Choice Awards 2011

I am thrilled to announce that Finch & Thistle has been awarded a 2011 Bride’s Choice award by Weddingwire.com!

Here’s the official press release:

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Finch & Thistle Event Design stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Finch & Thistle Event Design for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Finch & Thistle Event Design is among the very best floral and event design companies within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

2010: A Retrospective

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Maacama Ranch, Healdsburg, CA, on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010

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Maacama Ranch, Healdsburg, CA, on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010

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Tremendous thanks to all my wonderful clients, colleagues, friends and family for making this such a fantastic year. Finch & Thistle wouldn’t exist without you and for that, I am truly grateful.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year filled with love, laughter and flowers!

– Rachel

Chelsea and Jamie: Part II

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The bridesmaids wore different shades of blue dresses from J.Crew and Kenneth Cole and the groomsmen all wore white shirts with blue and orange checked ties. 

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Chelsea wore a Nicole Miller gown, accessorized with a multi strand gold and pearl necklace from Macy’s, and carried a bouquet of white and orange garden roses, blackberries, thistle, dahlias, stock, freesia and green hypericum berries.

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Jamie wore a custom suit from Nordstrom.

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Family members dressed in jewel tones and I made their boutonnieres and corsages to coordinate.

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The ceremony took place on the patio of the Oddfellows hall in Eastsound, overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound and surrounded by native Madrona trees.

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Penny the Labrador served as flower girl and ate her corsage halfway through.

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Outside on the deck we set up a photo booth complete with props and I decorated with hanging flowers in varying shades of blue glass.

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Guests enjoyed cocktails on the deck while the wedding party took photographs and then guests dined on barbequed salmon and chicken with cupcakes made by the island’s only bartender for dessert.

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We used white linens to show off the burlap and the blue mason jars. I used cherry brandy and orange roses, dahlias, stock, hypericum, seeded eucalyptus, blackberries and blue thistle in the flower arrangements.

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I loved how the light shone through the blue glass as the sun set!

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A gift table displayed an antique leather suitcase and the cake topper was from Chelsea’s grandmother’s wedding.

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The bride and groom entered the reception to a taped recording by one of the groomsmen mimicking the starting lineup for an NFL football game and guests danced the night away under a ceiling draped with pennant flags in vintage fabric while lanterns and jars of flowers hung in the windows and from the railings of the patio.

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{all * pictures courtesy of Jonathan Steinberg Photography}

And yes, in addition to designing this wedding, I am one of the bridesmaids :)

For those of you who have been following the blog for the last few months, you will remember that Chelsea guest blogged about her experiences planning her August wedding on Orcas Island. Here are all the details and pictures from the big day!

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Chelsea grew up on an apple farm in Wenatchee, WA (the epicenter of Washington state’s apple growing region) and in her senior year of high school she was nominated Apple Blossom Queen (an honor that meant she had to bring her tiara and gown to college with her so that she could be ready to attend a parade at a moment’s notice).

On a weekend trip to Lake Chelan right after Chelsea and Jamie got engaged, Chelsea and I found a pile of vintage apple label postcards in a roadside antique store and inspiration hit. We would design her upcoming Orcas Island wedding to have a country, organic theme based around vintage apple posters.
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Chelsea was a very hands-on bride. After I put together a mood board to help with the design direction, she immediately started scouring the blogs for ideas to make their wedding day special on a budget. She made the burlap table runners herself, spent a weekend sewing pennant flags, collected crates and crates of coveted blue mason jars and vintage bottles and glued lace cutout blue paper onto recycled cans for centerpieces.

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We even assembled the glass cake plates ourselves from platters, ashtrays and sundae glasses we purchased for pennies at Goodwill.

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Then Chelsea’s sister Erica had a *brilliant* idea. She had been to an event for the WA wine commission and seen apples “tattooed” with logos for a sponsor company. We had been tossing the idea around of using apples grown by Chelsea’s father as place card holders but this took things to a whole new level. Erica found a small indie sticker company in Seattle and commissioned them to design a small black heart shaped sticker with a C & J cutout in the middle. Two weeks before the apples were to be picked, Chelsea’s dad and stepmother stuck the stickers onto the apples while they were still green. Apples turn red right before they need to be picked so the sticker blocked out the sunlight leaving a stencil in green on the red apple. They turned out perfectly!

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We added small paper leaves to each one and we had the perfect escort card display.

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{all * pictures courtesy of Jonathan Steinberg, others by me}

Cake Toppers

The wedding cake is often the focal point of the decor at a wedding. If the invitation sets the tone of the day, then the wedding cake (or dessert display) is the sweet denouement. 

At Finch & Thistle, we are more than a little obsessed with the popular resurgence of vintage bunting in the last couple of years. Here’s a fun and unexpected way to incorporate it into your wedding cake.

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A paper wreath adds a sweet touch to a handcrafted, rustic wedding. This sweet wreath and garland comes with DIY instructions from Martha Stewart Weddings.

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Love birds have always been popular but these examples from Etsy are a little different from the white lace doves that adorned our grandmothers’ wedding cakes.

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Or how about no topper at all? These cakes* are so beautifully designed and decorated that there’s no topper necessary.

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{*All from Martha Stewart Weddings}

Gone to the birds

I have been a fan of local crafter Laurie Cinotto for years now. I recently saw her gorgeous bird cages at a craft show and almost bought up the entire stall. Wouldn’t these be perfect favors for a wedding or baby shower?DSC_0163
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DSC_0182You can see Laurie’s work at the Tacoma Holiday Craft Sale next weekend –Holiday Craft Sale

Fab Find: Milkpod Studios

These adorable handmade bouquets, boutonnieres and garlands are all made from fabric. They would be perfect for a rustic, hand crafted wedding or a bride who wanted a permanent keepsake of her big day.

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 { http://www.etsy.com/shop/MilkpodStudio/}

Google Does Weddings?

Google and Style Me Pretty have teamed up to offer a complete wedding planning manual as part of Google Docs. Brides can use templates to plan out their budgets, produce guest lists, maintain RSVP lists, make seating charts and even put together a wedding album after the big day. So what do you think? Will you be using Google’s wedding templates to plan your big day?
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Check out the rest of the wedding templates here