How to Write Recipes Using Local & Seasonal Product
We believe in recipe writing! It really is the roadmap to accurately place your flower order for a wedding or event and the real key to PROFIT - money in the bank.
It can be a challenge to write recipes and create an accurate proposal when you primarily design using local, seasonal flowers and you love to buy the best, unusual flowers at that moment.
Lucky you! Floral designers who are designing with local, seasonal flowers are killing it. We love to see how creative and unique your designs are, sustainability is so important in the floral industry today and supporting flower farmers is the best!
Here is a Step by Step process to write recipes and create an accurate estimate when using local, seasonal floral product:
Create a stem count for your typical centerpiece, bouquet, installation, etc.
Create floral categories - foliage, line flower, focal flower, filler, vines, texture, etc
Pull out your suppliers price lists and figure out your AVERAGE pricing for each category. (I typically price at the higher end of average)
Now go back and create a recipe with pricing for your typical centerpiece, bouquets, etc. This is your minimum for each element. You can pull together an easy and quick estimate with this information.
Now as you write a proposal you can create a recipe with each floral element, the average price and do all of your mark ups (don’t forget all of your supplies- chicken wire, etc.) and your design fee.
This process should keep your buying in check. When you see that gorgeous bucket of perfect dahlias at your local flower farm - you’ll know exactly how many stems you can afford without blowing the budget.
You may even want to create a category for the unexpected elements you like to buy - that gorgeous berry or flowering branch - I have a category called “fun extras”, some people call it “sprinkles” - I price this stem a bit higher and this allows me to purchase those gorgeous stems that make a design unique and include it in my recipe so that if I buy it - I don’t eat away my planned profit.
The goal here is to buy what you need for each event and not have a ton of leftover product. All of those extra stems at the end of production could have been dollars in your pocket!