Why do wedding flowers cost so much?!!

Good question. I'm glad you asked : )

Especially if you've gone to flower wholesalers like the famous Far East Flora or Ji Mei at the Thomson region, your eyes will widen in amazement at how much a bundle of rose cost.
And then the next question you'll ask is...why do your bridal bouquet cost $100 or why do your centrepieces cost $80.

You see, its one thing to buy wholesale flowers....

Its really quite another thing to turn these flowers into this...

So having recently gone through my version of "Hell Week", when my colleague wasn't around and i had to man the fort with a number of weddings within a week, i honestly felt very justified with the prices charged. To say the least, its was labourous, back-breaking work.

(you'll have to understand that i made a career switch from desk-bound office job to callous causing florist job...so i confess that i ain't used to the labour intensive work during peak period without my comrade around.)

I thought i'll share a little of what goes on "behind-the-scenes" of preparing flowers for a wedding.

First, you start off with the design concept in consultation with the customer.



Using a table top stand, wires are necessary to secure the flower arrangements.
Safety (of the flowers) is important!

Next comes the cutting and slicing of floral oasis aka sponge.



The point is to fit the oasis nicely and snugly into the container (this is for the base of the stand).
When there is a huge number of arrangements, we can spend an entire day just preparing the oasis...i kid you not.

Now we prepare the oasis for the top part of the stand.

Tying it securely - again...safety of flowers is number 1.
You really don't want flowers to be dropping off or toppling down.

Little details like adding a piece of foil to the base means the oasis can better retain water
because the water don't drip away when flowers are inserted into to the oasis.
This means the flowers have more liquid to keep them fresh.

Once the oasis is prepared and secured properly, the foliage aka leaves/greens are added first.

Followed by the flowers.

Until the arrangement begins to take shape.

Flowers added to the base of the stand.

After many hours, the centrepieces are lined up and ready to go.
The final phase will be delivery to the venue and set-up.

The final product.

The above centrepiece is a fairly simple one. There are more challenging arrangements which cost hundreds of dollars, e.g. huge arrangements for churches or hotels. The reason they cost so much, besides the obvious fact that more flowers are required, will be because only very experienced and skilled floral personnels are able to create those beautiful displays.

(i'm definitely not one of those, but i do know one or two of 'em floral Jedi)

Here's another behind-the-scene for a large arrangement.

Its always best to do the arrangement at the spot where they will be displayed.
Which is why often times "floral Jedi" have to work after midnight to create the huge centrepieces in hotel lobbies.

Foliage (Jungle Bush) are inserted to form the shape outline.

Long and tall flowers (red gladious) are added to the outline.



More tall flowers (yellow Matthiola, orange gladiolus) added to enhance the outline.



Finally white lilies, red roses, eculyptus leaves and green pom are added to fill up the arrangement.

Hope you enjoyed this "behind-the-scenes" entry.  Feel free to leave your comments and   If you will like to see more of these, just drop me a comment.