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No matter who it is, every bride has a flower budget in mind, but every bride hasn’t considered all the ways flowers can be used in a wedding. That’s where you come in and where your expertise will shine and make your customers glad they chose you to be their florist.
To help brides understand how important flowers can be to the overall décor and feel of a wedding, it actually works best to start at the end – the reception – and work your way back to the beginning – her bouquet. The reasoning for this is to allow brides to immediately think beyond their bouquets.
By sticking with conventional thinking – allowing the bride to begin telling you her vision for her bridal bouquet and those to be carried by her bridesmaids – you will take up a sizeable portion of her budget. By the time you get around to flowers for the reception, her budget has been all but depleted and she is headed for disappointment.
It’s far more practical to start with the reception and let the bride “dream big.” It’s easier for a bride to trim back on a big dream than to figure out how to decorate a reception with $25 left in the original budget.
Top Load, Then Trim
Assume that every bride has already been to another florist (or several) before sitting down with you. That means they’ve probably gone through a fairly standard florist checklist and expect you to ask about the venue, the size of the wedding party, the number of guests, and where the reception will be held. Then it’s time for a discussion of the bride’s dress and the bridal bouquet, followed by other personal flowers, church décor, and reception flowers.
Try this: don’t do what every other florist does. You do need to get an idea of her budget by asking about the venue, guests, etc. But next, throw her a curve and don’t ask about her dress or the flowers she envisions for her bouquet. Most brides have this part down-pat by now, having discussed it at length. Instead, ask her about the reception and whether it will be a sit-down dinner, buffet, or something else. Discuss the table décor, the bride’s cake and groom’s cake, the styles of vases, and the dance floor and/or stage.
Receptions have become as important as the wedding site for many of today’s brides, so waiting until the end of the consultation to go over it diminishes its importance and also severely limits the ideas you might have for it, when it’s apparent most of the bride’s budget is already committed.
Most brides don’t want to trim back on bouquets. They aren’t going without the bouquet of their dreams, but they may go without their dream reception unless you discuss it first. When you work your way back to the bouquets, they will be more than willing to find a way to either increase their budget or judiciously trim it in other areas (or both) to get what they want.
Be Ready with Choices
Modern technology allows you to be armed and ready with photographs loaded on your tablet or laptop to show brides the different floral treatments you can do for her particular wedding. Show her the top of the line first to get an idea of the colors and styles she’s attracted to and let her choose from these “over the top” displays and arrangements.
If she voices concerns that the décor might be outside her budget, encourage her to select what she likes and then you both will tackle the finer details to fit her budget. In other words, give her free rein to dream and show you her dream so that you can help her make it happen – or come as close as possible. This makes for a more positive experience. Instead of having to say, “You can’t have that because it’s not in your budget,” you’ll be saying “We can still achieve that look with different flower choices and smaller vases.” You can see how the latter is much more positive.
Always have scaled down floral décor
Have images on your tablet or laptop that you can show brides who need to trim for budget considerations. You should also be ready to show the photos of other less expensive flowers and foliage that give them more “look” for their money, such as mini carnations and variegated ivy.
Show them flashy add-ons that will provide a lot of glam on a smaller budget, such as crystals, prisms, and colored gems. Include photos of unusual containers and floral treatments, such as mason jars, votive candle holders, swags, and potpourri bundles.
Go to your Pinterest page where you’ve displayed different weddings you’ve done and photos of other wedding décor that you could do for them.
The more choices you give them, the easier it will be for brides to find ways to meet their budget demands while still getting their dream wedding.
Say “Yes” More Than “No”
A wedding consultation should always be exciting and energizing. You don’t want to be the “bubble burster,” which is an easy role to drop into if you start off wrong. When you allow the bride to build her bouquets first and eat up most of the budget, then it’s inevitable that the end of the consultation will be full of disappointments. You’ll be saying “you don’t have the budget for that” and “you’ll have to increase your budget parameters” too often.
When you start with the reception and work back to the personal flowers, then the bride can immediately see that she’s going to have to increase her budget (which she is more willing to do for her own bouquet than for any other article) or trim back on some of the “add-on” floral treatments. You can show her ways she can still have her “look” by making other selections or how upping her budget a little will get her everything she wants. It’s her choice.
No matter what the bride intends to spend, it’s important to go over all the places that flowers can be added to the wedding and reception. Then you can sell the look and color scheme and finally go over price ranges. You never want to tack on a specific price to anything and you can easily explain this to your customers by noting that flower availability and the season or day of their wedding can impact pricing. For example, a Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day wedding requires more logistics and prices will be different than they will be during the summer.
Always be positive and upbeat, especially when you’re assisting her in trimming her initial selections or in choosing different flowers that will give the same “look,” but be more in line with her budget.
As she closes in on final selections, write them down and repeat them – “Okay, so you’re going with roses and orchids for your wedding bouquet and spray roses in the silver bowls for your reception tables.” In this way, you’re buttoning up the choices and closing the deal. This makes the bride feel that she’s already chosen you and that you’ve worked with her to personalize her choices.
Let her know that you have the date open for her wedding and can lock it in with her deposit. If you’ve made the experience enjoyable and she feels that you’ve lent your expertise to make her wedding all that she envisioned, she will want to put a period on this transaction.
If you want more brides to choose your shop, then focus on giving them a positive consultation and delivering on their dreams. It’s their journey, but you’re the guide and you should determine what direction to take to reach the best result.
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