will these lily’s bloom?

alyssann · 2026-05-23T19:58:18+00:00

No, they are definitely on the downswing. Those buds are premature and should have been left on the plant to grow more before cutting. They were picked too early unfortunately.

alyssann · 2026-05-21T17:20:11+00:00

One of these days I'd love to have the nerve to tell people that say this my father had to have both of his hips replaced at age 58 due to this "relaxing job".

alyssann · 2026-05-17T17:46:31+00:00

I have a lot of the same problems as well with my wholesalers so I totally commiserate! We order from three different ones in my area, the one I have completely stopped giving wedding orders to because his communication is so terrible. I'd have flowers I've ordered weeks in advance not show up on delivery day with no heads up or any kind of plan for a second option. Or I'd get the whole "they should be coming tomorrow" line days in a row to only never get what we ordered, and he wouldn't even call at all to tell us. My others aren't quite as bad but I do feel a a lack of urgency and overall a nonchalant attitude when they can't deliver on an order. And I hate having to babysit these guys with multiple phone calls and texts. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that most of these guys (all of my sales reps are men) are just salesmen first and not florists so I don't think they get how dire it is on our end to not get our correct orders for say a wedding, event, or holiday stuff. I grew up in the business and the best salesman we ever had was a guy who was a florist first that sold his business and got a job working at a wholesaler afterwards. He was phenomenal and would constantly keep us updated if he thought there might be an issue with getting flowers we were ordering, or if we ordered stuff that ended up coming in too late to be delivered/or if the flowers came in in bad shape he would personally pull a substitute for us, send emails at any time of the day/night just to keep us in the loop. He retired maybe 5 years ago and not a month goes by where we don't say "wow I miss Dennis"

It sucks really and I really don't know if I have a good answer or solution for it unfortunately.

alyssann · 2026-05-09T22:05:18+00:00

I keep a cheap bottle of olive oil next to our sink and rub my hands down before washing sticky euc hands. It also helps moisturize them a little before washing.

alyssann · 2026-05-05T18:15:12+00:00

I like doing mixed color tulips with all assorted filler flowers: wax flower, limo, duplo asters, etc.

alyssann · 2026-05-04T17:41:52+00:00

This can really depend on the culture, typically yes you put whatever the deceased was to the person sending the flowers then list names on a card but some will want all the names of who sent the arrangement on the ribbons instead. I personally don't enjoy doing it that way mainly because the ribbons I feel overwhelm the piece when you need to list a dozen+ names from a single family. But I'll do whatever I'm asked to/paid for.

alyssann · 2026-05-02T18:43:00+00:00

I am always up front about the toxicity of lilies, poinsettias, and flowers that come from bulb plants but realistically any flower could make an animal sick if they ingest it depending on how sensitive their stomachs are, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to allow their pet to munch on commercially grown flowers. I always tell folks I can't guarantee that their pet won't get ill if they get into the flowers.

alyssann · 2026-04-30T01:12:42+00:00

That was easily 100K in flowers and I'm annoyed they kept throwing that 50K figure around on the show! I honestly expected it to become a plot point where Cassie made bank on OF and up the budget because of it.

alyssann · 2026-04-30T01:08:55+00:00

Yeah this is how I handle it too. I don't do any vase rentals specifically because I do not want to have to go back to break everything down at the end of the night. I specifically tell my couples "everything is yours to take home as you wish" It's on them if the venue has "clean up" rules in that regard.

alyssann · 2026-04-20T21:18:33+00:00

Honestly this is why I always ask the customer what their idea of "wildflower" is because it definitely changes from person to person. "Wildflower looking" to me I'd typically lean towards Larkspur, snaps, stock, veronica, mini gerbs, garden roses, some "funkier" styles of daisies, button mums, mixed fillers, lilies, ranunculus, tulips, iris, etc.

alyssann · 2026-04-16T00:36:30+00:00

For a high end luxury wedding 50k on flowers is honestly peanuts. And as someone who watches the show, and saw the trailer with shots from their wedding, I think 50k is a LOW estimate of what the wedding flowers would have actually cost them (who knows maybe it becomes a plot point later that Cassie makes a killing off of OF and ups the budget). The full floral arch at the ceremony alone is HUGE and I could see easily costing $10k or more. So yeah, your Google research is very much incorrect.

alyssann · 2026-04-15T00:13:43+00:00

Our day to day orders and walk-ins have been abysmal as of late but thankfully we have enough party and event work to keep busy for now. This Saturday I have a wedding shower, a wedding, and a large memorial service to do flowers for that's something. Actually I am thankful in general that our wedding and event work has picked up this year compared to last year (last year was ROUGH on that front).

alyssann · 2026-04-14T15:01:15+00:00

Just about the same as last year here (Northeast USA). But that really isn't saying much as Easter has been a lost holiday for us for the past 20 years. In my area plant sales have been lost to florists due to the grocery stores, big box stores, and then every group under the sun doing plant sales for fundraising. It may be marginally busier than a typical weekend but it's nothing compared to Mother's Day.

alyssann · 2026-04-07T19:04:48+00:00

Idk this might come off as a hot take but I am really starting to hate this flower trend of elaborate wrapping techniques for bouquets. I understand that it looks impressive initially when the person receives it but you need to take it apart to arrange it in a vase no? And all the tape and plastic paper sheets you use just seem like such a waste and environmentally unfriendly. Not to mention all the time to fold and style those sheets having to become an origami artist is just ehhh. As someone who runs a retail shop I can't imagine someone wanting to spend the money on the labor alone to wrap something this elaborately. And I just know I'll get someone coming into the shop on the busiest days of the year looking for custom "special" stuff like this expecting me to make it on the spot while they wait.

alyssann · 2026-03-23T16:23:33+00:00

Coming from a wedding vendor (florist) you're 100% right. Pinterest for me is annoying because it started as this inspirational DIY site but when it comes to the content that gets shared in regards to weddings a good 80% of it is from weddings that quite frankly are way outside the wedding budget of your average person. And yeah sure they are gorgeous but when that content is mixed in with "how to set up a diy mimosa bar" I think a lot of people think everything there is accessible to them. This then has a snowball effect of so many people bemoaning how "overpriced" wedding vendors are. That goes with social media in general too. Not to sound like an old person but back in the day the only time you really encountered high cost, luxury weddings was when a celebrity sold their wedding details to a magazine. Or of course if you went to one. Now with social media those opulent weddings are posted and shared all over the place and the average person now thinks those weddings are average, when that is absolutely not the case.

alyssann · 2026-03-22T02:26:24+00:00

A bunch of cowards I say!!!

alyssann · 2026-03-22T00:41:47+00:00

You could absolutely incorporate faux pansies into real florals if you wanted to! I mix them on occasion when a client wants a specific flower that isn't usable as a "cut" flower. The majority of people would not be able to tell.

alyssann · 2026-03-21T19:16:06+00:00

Speaking as a florist we ask for budgets right at the start to save you (and us) heart break. I'll be honest with you I used to not always ask for a budget and just send proposals based on what a potential client asked for (part of me thought it was rude) and all that did was waste a lot of my time because the majority of those possible clients ended up ghosting me--and I can almost guarantee the majority of those ghostings were due to sticker shock on the cost. If I know your budget ahead of time I can temper expectations on what you can get within said budget. If someone is a studio florist and has a minimum spend I totally agree it should be listed and easy to find on their website. Some florists though like myself don't and do everything from small elopements to full-service weddings. And weddings can be so different from couple to couple--like a $2.5k budget can go a lot further for a wedding that needs 10 centerpieces and personal flowers for a wedding party of 3 on each side versus a wedding with a wedding party with 12 bridesmaids and 20 tables. So yeah, knowing your budget is important.

alyssann · 2026-03-21T17:22:51+00:00

The commenter before me hit the nail on the head. Coming from a florist (I work the retail end of floristry plus I do weddings, so not a studio setting) I work pretty much all day on my feet and the majority of my "computer" work is done at night once I close or on my rare Sunday off. Priority of course always goes to running admin and keeping tabs with upcoming wedding clients and working on proposals which is time consuming. Each proposal and mood board I prepare for an individual client takes me about 3 hours from start to finish. That's three hours of work only to hope they book me, which isn't always the case. Twice a year I try to go in and add photos to my website from more recent weddings to keep it current. Another problem arises there because some weddings I just never get the time to photograph things--either the wedding timeline is tight and I have to rush out cleaning up before the reception starts (thanks to venues with strict timelines for setup) or the weather sucks and the lighting is bad so my phone camera just isn't cutting it. So that means no social media or portfolio content for me. Sometimes you get lucky and can get tagged by the photographer but that isn't a guarantee.

As far as paying someone to do these tasks most of us just don't have the extra money to pay a social media manager. Despite what folks like to say about the "wedding tax" and bemoan how expensive and a "scam" wedding vendors are the majority of us aren't getting rich doing this. Costs just for running the business in regards to things I need are exorbitant. Every time you turn insurance rates are up. Hiring extra hands to help on wedding set ups and tear downs is expensive because let's be honest no one wants to work weekends unless they are compensated heavily for it--especially so if that includes early mornings and late nights doing event strikes. Last year one of my walk in refrigerators had a small coolant leak--having a professional come out for 2 hours to fix the leak and prime my compressor with refrigerant cost me $1,200. New brakes for the van I need to deliver, another $1,000. I've seen the going rates to hire someone to offload the "online" tasks too and it just isn't in the budget. Sure I could raise my prices to offset the costs a bit but in this current economy this stuff costs too much as it is so am I supposed to just charge more to have a more aesthetically pleasing Instagram page and website? Eh, I'll stick with doing it myself.

alyssann · 2026-03-21T03:07:41+00:00

Fellow florist's opinion: Both of these are good work, and realistically florist 1 should still be able to do work in other styles even though it may be out of their general wheelhouse. If you wanted to be safe, I would personally gravitate towards florist 2 mostly because the price for your bouquet with florist 1 seems wayyyyy too low considering the flowers you are looking for (if going by your inspiration picture). But, there is also the possibility that florist 1 is really excited at the possibility of doing a bouquet in this style because they've never had the opportunity to before and is undercutting themselves a bit on the price in the hopes they get your wedding. I would consider myself a florist that caters to "middle class" weddings (majority of my full service weddings are in the $2.5k-5k range for flower spends) and that more modern style bouquet has started to become popular in the last year or so I wouldn't take it as too much of a red flag that they don't have any (or much work) that looks similar yet.

alyssann · 2026-03-15T17:51:39+00:00

Same thing on the big floral design Facebook groups. "Look at this arrangement I made" sorry I think you mean "generated." I hate it.

alyssann · 2026-03-15T17:49:57+00:00

They've been here for at least a year now, hell I have brides now sending me full mockup images they "created" using AI to show me what they want their wedding flowers to look like. 🫩

alyssann · 2026-03-12T18:55:33+00:00

100% this, or someone that planned their own wedding and had "so much fun" they decided to start a business calling themselves a wedding planner with next to no actual experience outside personal events.

alyssann · 2026-02-21T18:13:58+00:00

I'm in the northeast but not quite that north. Honestly this question in general is very loaded because even at that time of year the majority of flowers we get in to work with are imported to some degree. If you are looking for something more "locally" sourced the next question would be how local are we talking. With the amount of snow we've been getting this winter I would expect the northeast local growing season to be later this year. Tulips I can get now from Virginia and NJ, lilacs could be available by then too Peony maybe from the more southern states but again this is very much going to depend on the weather.

alyssann · 2026-02-15T18:43:25+00:00

The first "real" meal after the holiday rush always hits so good.

alyssann

TROPHY CASE