The Importance of Writing Recipes for Your Designs

I’ll admit - I used to NOT write recipes. I’m embarrassed. Why should I be embarrassed? Well, now that I write recipes RELIGIOUSLY I know now that I was throwing money down the drain. 

When you finish a wedding or event and you have buckets of flowers left just picture those buckets as bags of money sitting in your studio. Money that should be in your bank account!

My former technique for estimating and placing orders would be that I would look at the number of centerpieces and guess how many bunches of each flower I’d need. Of course I’d pad it a bit to ensure I had enough stems. I always had too many leftovers. Sometimes, I’d have to make a last minute dash to my wholesaler to get more of something - so stressful!

I can’t recall the exact time that I changed my ways. Maybe it was when I subscribed to my first proposal writing software - good old Ularas. It took me some time, believe me. 

Now I use another software and it makes recipe writing so easy! You do not need software to write a good recipe but it does make it much easier. 

So, how do you start writing a recipe if you’ve never done it? One easy way is to look at the inspiration photo and literally count the stems. You can assume the same number of stems are on the other side of the arrangement if it’s a centerpiece, etc.  

We also have a short cut for you! Check out our recipe shop and buy a recipe you can use those stem counts as a guide for your own recipes. 

Once you know your typical stem counts for each design - bouquet, centerpiece, etc. it’s so easy to write a new, original recipe! How many stems of foliage, filler, line, focal, etc? Create basic recipes for your design style and customize them for each design - done! Now you have a library of recipes to pull from. 

So - why is it so important to write detailed recipes? Profit! 

We are all experiencing the higher cut flower costs and they keep climbing. You may think your typical or average centerpiece price is fine at $200 or $250 but when is the last time you actually sat down with a current price lists and actually did the calculation? Don’t forget to add in your design fee, hard goods and supplies. You may be surprised at what the prices should actually be. 

One of the arguments I hear from my flower friends about why they don’t write recipes is because they like the freedom or ability to select special stems. This is important especially if you use mostly locally grown flowers - how do you know what’s going to be available when you’re writing a proposal 6 months to a year in advance? I get it! I’m a grower too and I love adding special stems of things that are available that I didn’t think of. Here’s a tip - make sure you get your suppliers weekly price lists and save them, you now have a historical record of availability. 

I have a category I’ve added to my library that I call “special seasonal” with an average stem price. Some people call it “Sprinkles” - whatever you call it, have it in your library! Sometimes my recipes are 20-25% “special seasonal” and I know I have the freedom to add from my own farm or from other local growers. I do the same for foraged items. Foraged items are not free. You took your precious time to source, cut and condition those wild stems, you have to charge for them. 

Do you want more money in your pocket? Write recipes!