Florist Shares Screenshots Of Conversation With Rude Bride That Expected Her To Work For Exposure
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It’s one of the most monumental occasions in a person’s life – their wedding – but unfortunately, it can also be one of the priciest, all for those Instagram worthy shots. According to The Knot’s 2017 Real Weddings Study, Americans spend, on average, $33,391 on their weddings, and that doesn’t even include the amount they spend on an engagement ring. Well, one woman found out a bit too late in her wedding planning process just what one of these decadent occasions can set you back.
In an Imgur post, someone shared screenshots of an interaction between a bride and a florist “negotiating” the price of some floral centerpieces and it’s safe to say the conversation did not go how either of them thought it would.
A bride tried to get a florist to ‘negotiate’ her prices for her wedding and things got pretty thorny pretty fast
The conversation started out simple enough with the bride sending some inspiration photos to see if the florist would be up to the task. The woman ‘Mimi’ sounded happy to take on the request and even gave her an estimate of $18 per foot for the table garlands.
The bride was thrown off by the pricing, so ‘Mimi’ was happy to give her a cost break-down. For 8 foot handmade garlands, it would take her three and a half hours to complete and for all 18 tables the bride had requested – 80 hours in total. Los Angeles wedding planner Tessa Lyn Brand of Tessa Lyn Events told Bride magazine she has seen wedding flower budgets as high as $75,000 and recommends allotting 10 percent of your overall budget to flowers as a good rule of thumb.
Soon it was clear to the florist that the bride was not intending to pay her, with the excuse that she had already spent $10,000 on her other wedding expenses. While it is not specified at what stage in the planning she is contacting Mimi, it appears it is late enough she had not thought about her flower budget. The Wedding Wire recommends hiring your wedding florist at least eight months before your wedding day.
As you can imagine 80 hours of work for no pay is not something that any sane person would agree to, so the florist politely declined the offer. The average cost of wedding flowers in the U.S. is around $1,400 with most couples spending between $700 and $2,500, according to The Wedding Wire.
Other creatives shared in the florists frustration
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"flowers is the last things I need" Looks like you are lucky, it will be a wedding without flowers for you!
Some grammar lessons are what she really needs!
We planned on doing our own flowers for our wedding. Getting married the 2nd week of June. PLENTY of peonies. Right? Yeah.....colder than average spring and they didn't bloom until 2 weeks AFTER the wedding. The only flowers we had were my bouquet and his single rose. Guess what? No one noticed. That said, NO ONE should ever work for exposure. You cannot claim "exposure" on your taxes. You CAN claim advertising. There is a term for people who agree to work at cost or free.....BANKRUPT.
The groom to be--should look into her conduct as a preview of coming attractions. Take it as the warning that it truly IS and make a RUN for it now. Before the cost of a divorce outweighs some flowers that will die off in mere days.
People should start appreciating handwork. And really acknowledge, that handcraft isn't only the materials, but firstly the time and commitment. That's what you pay for. Just like you are paid for your work (your time and effort).
The time, the commitment and the most important ingredient: the skill. It can take a person many years to become skilled in certain crafts. It's a long training that requires a lot of technical knowledge and thousands of hours of practice. I'm a really clumsy person so I really admire people who can create beautiful things out of basic materials, from florists, to people who decorate cakes, or embroider, or thousands of different professionals.
Which is WHY i hate to sew for others for pay. IF they really pay for my skill,and time--I am accused of cheating them. So I much prefer to to do so on my time as a gift. If and when I and ONLY i choose to do so.
I think some people very much appreciate and desire handwork and craft; they are just too cheap to pay for it.
Then they DO NOT appreciate the handiwork at all,nor the high level of SKILL and years behind the development of those SKILLS. None of us where BORN with these skills. Just the desires and inclination that drew us towards them.
I could not completely agree with you more. I make jewelry, circlets &head pieces as well as other items such as seashell tiaras. Which not surprising are very popular especially with beach weddings or mermaid themed weddings. I had two brides contact me in the same month both wanting seashell tiaras w/crystals and pearls . I made two of the most incredibly stunning tiaras both different and unique. But this was when my ‘business was in early states of development (2years ago) back then I made custom items in advanced before getting paid. I was paying upfront for cost of materials after getting burned by people who where no more than (window shopping) for custom made items and saying oh I can’t afford to pay now I’ll get you next month but they never paid. I literally only charged. $40 for my 5 hours labor & material cost only. About $100 they never paid. I eventually sold both crown within 9 months to two completely different brides for $250 each. VALUE YOUR WORK OR NO ONE ELSE WILL! A5B43A2F-7...0-jpeg.jpg
I had the opposite situation. I got married in '89. My mom introduced me to a retired judge who became a florist and was a friend from her church. He came it meet my husband and me and asked what we wanted. We had no clue. I didn't even want a wedding, I wanted to elope. So I said this is how much I have just do whatever you'd like with that budget. He said that's a little low and I said it's truly all we have left., it was $1,500. We were having a small, intimate wedding, I didn't want or need thousands of dollars worth of flowers. All I can say is the guy went above and beyond. He made these huge flower balls on pedestals that were about 6 feet across. He put pearls in every tiny white lily in my bouquet, he made my wedding so elegant. I cried when I saw his work, it was stunning. I felt bad we didn't have more money to give him but he didn't care. He stayed and partied with us to our delight. A few weeks later he died of AIDS :(
What a sweetheart he was! He wanted you to have something really special for your wedding and he made it happen. I’m sure he enjoyed doing it for you.
"flowers is the last things I need" Looks like you are lucky, it will be a wedding without flowers for you!
Some grammar lessons are what she really needs!
We planned on doing our own flowers for our wedding. Getting married the 2nd week of June. PLENTY of peonies. Right? Yeah.....colder than average spring and they didn't bloom until 2 weeks AFTER the wedding. The only flowers we had were my bouquet and his single rose. Guess what? No one noticed. That said, NO ONE should ever work for exposure. You cannot claim "exposure" on your taxes. You CAN claim advertising. There is a term for people who agree to work at cost or free.....BANKRUPT.
The groom to be--should look into her conduct as a preview of coming attractions. Take it as the warning that it truly IS and make a RUN for it now. Before the cost of a divorce outweighs some flowers that will die off in mere days.
People should start appreciating handwork. And really acknowledge, that handcraft isn't only the materials, but firstly the time and commitment. That's what you pay for. Just like you are paid for your work (your time and effort).
The time, the commitment and the most important ingredient: the skill. It can take a person many years to become skilled in certain crafts. It's a long training that requires a lot of technical knowledge and thousands of hours of practice. I'm a really clumsy person so I really admire people who can create beautiful things out of basic materials, from florists, to people who decorate cakes, or embroider, or thousands of different professionals.
Which is WHY i hate to sew for others for pay. IF they really pay for my skill,and time--I am accused of cheating them. So I much prefer to to do so on my time as a gift. If and when I and ONLY i choose to do so.
I think some people very much appreciate and desire handwork and craft; they are just too cheap to pay for it.
Then they DO NOT appreciate the handiwork at all,nor the high level of SKILL and years behind the development of those SKILLS. None of us where BORN with these skills. Just the desires and inclination that drew us towards them.
I could not completely agree with you more. I make jewelry, circlets &head pieces as well as other items such as seashell tiaras. Which not surprising are very popular especially with beach weddings or mermaid themed weddings. I had two brides contact me in the same month both wanting seashell tiaras w/crystals and pearls . I made two of the most incredibly stunning tiaras both different and unique. But this was when my ‘business was in early states of development (2years ago) back then I made custom items in advanced before getting paid. I was paying upfront for cost of materials after getting burned by people who where no more than (window shopping) for custom made items and saying oh I can’t afford to pay now I’ll get you next month but they never paid. I literally only charged. $40 for my 5 hours labor & material cost only. About $100 they never paid. I eventually sold both crown within 9 months to two completely different brides for $250 each. VALUE YOUR WORK OR NO ONE ELSE WILL! A5B43A2F-7...0-jpeg.jpg
I had the opposite situation. I got married in '89. My mom introduced me to a retired judge who became a florist and was a friend from her church. He came it meet my husband and me and asked what we wanted. We had no clue. I didn't even want a wedding, I wanted to elope. So I said this is how much I have just do whatever you'd like with that budget. He said that's a little low and I said it's truly all we have left., it was $1,500. We were having a small, intimate wedding, I didn't want or need thousands of dollars worth of flowers. All I can say is the guy went above and beyond. He made these huge flower balls on pedestals that were about 6 feet across. He put pearls in every tiny white lily in my bouquet, he made my wedding so elegant. I cried when I saw his work, it was stunning. I felt bad we didn't have more money to give him but he didn't care. He stayed and partied with us to our delight. A few weeks later he died of AIDS :(
What a sweetheart he was! He wanted you to have something really special for your wedding and he made it happen. I’m sure he enjoyed doing it for you.