As I have written previously, I am of the opinion that luxury-brand retailers, restaurants, hotels, and other places of business should consistently have fresh flowers in their establishments. For a luxury brand, flowers display an unspoken message that you are above the rest, and they provide a multi-sensory client experience. Not only can floral arrangements transform any space, lowers reduce stress, and increase happiness by triggering our brain's "feel good" neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin) - further enhancing the experience.
Installing a gorgeous arrangement or two in your space is a great place to start, and there are so many other activations to engage consumers and guests for an experience they will remember for a long time. When creating your budget, consider these factors to be investments, like you would advertising and marketing. Imagine the impact a display like this would have on your guests:
Establishing a budget for your floral elements is a useful tool that your florist can help you with. Flowers are a perishable medium that come from Mother Nature and are harvested by humans, or machinery that requires human input. Please keep in mind some wiggle room in your budget for events that affect the flower supply-chain such as a drought or a pandemic that might affect the flower farmers.
Another factor to consider when setting your floral budget is that during certain times of year, flower prices increase. You could be paying three times as much for a red rose during Valentine’s Day week. Mother’s Day and Winter holidays are also seasons when flower prices will increase. Again, your florist can help you with these numbers.
There are ways in which you can maximize and stretch your floral budget, two of which I will share with you here. The first is to use flowers that are long-lasting / have a longer vase life. Some examples are, in no particular order, roses, anthuriums, tropical leaves, chrysanthemums, orchids, carnations, alstroemeria, protea, freesia, snapdragons, calla...just to name a few. Group these types of flowers ‘en masse’ for a sophisticated and dramatic look!
Second, mix ‘permanent’ (faux) flowers with your fresh. Faux/silk flowers are not what they used to be, if you invest in the right product. The manufacturing process nowadays creates a product called “Real Touch” that look like the real thing. They are not inexpensive, as it can take one hour to make one flower. However, you can keep these in your decor inventory and re-use them over and over. Discuss these types of products with your florist. This arrangement is made completely of 'forever flowers':
If you would like to learn more, or have topics you’d like to see us post about, please fill out the form below with your email address. To reach Claire Rathbun Floral directly, visit the "Contact Us" section of this website ...and thank you for reading!
