Repurposing that doesn't suck - Mini Episode

In this episode of The Floral Hustle, Jeni Becht dives into the world of floral repurposing at weddings—when it works, when it doesn’t, and how to ensure your designs stay stunning from ceremony to reception. As an experienced florist, Jeni shares her insights on avoiding common pitfalls, maintaining design integrity, and effectively communicating with clients about the realities of repurposing floral arrangements. If you’ve ever struggled with clients or planners pushing for repurposing that compromises the aesthetic of your work, this episode is a must-listen.

Key Takeaways:

• Purposeful Repurposing: Learn why designing with repurposing in mind from the beginning is key to maintaining a cohesive look.
• Avoiding Tacky Transformations: Discover the top floral elements that often get repurposed poorly, such as arch flowers and bridesmaid bouquets, and how to prevent them from ruining the overall aesthetic.
• Expert Communication: Tips on how to have difficult conversations with clients and planners about why certain repurposing ideas might not work and how to offer better alternatives.
• Maximizing Value: Strategies for repurposing florals in ways that provide value without compromising the design, like turning aisle meadows into head table runners.

Why This Matters: Repurposing florals can save costs, but without careful planning, it can also result in lackluster designs that undermine the overall look of an event. Jeni shares her expert tips on how to balance budget-conscious requests with the need to keep your designs looking polished and professional.

What is The Floral Hustle?

Are you ready to grow your floral business not only in profits but in creativity and fulfillment? Listen as Jeni Becht a wedding and event designer of over 25 years shares all the juicy details of growing and evolving her floral business into one of passion, purpose, and financial freedom. She shares all the secrets with actionable tips and strategies so you can wake up inspired and on a path to profitability while feeling lighter and more aligned in work and life. Join Jeni in building your business while ditching the overwhelm, avoiding burnout, and feeling fulfilled in work and life.

  📍 Hello flower friends, this is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast. On this week's episode we are going to talk about repurposing that doesn't suck. One of the things that like I kind of almost cringe is when I have a couple or a wedding planner that is plotting all of these repurposes of things that honestly some of them just You know, are going to be tacky and you're like, I don't want this.

Wedding was so good. This wedding was looking like the aesthetic is what you want, all these things. And then somebody is coming in and driving the repurposing train. To make this wedding, frankly, suck. So I want to talk about how to make repurposing not suck and how to have difficult conversations that this is not going to look good.

So let's talk about repurposing that doesn't suck. Some things that I think when you design something purposefully to repurpose it. That is going to make that easier. One often that people want to repurpose is arch flowers. If you make it in pieces that they are independent so that they can go on and it doesn't look like you took part of a sausage and place it on a table, that is purposeful repurposing.

Repurposing. Um, and I use that word purposeful repurposing because I want my clients to understand that repurposing for the sake of repurposing, if it looks like crap. Is going to really almost make their wedding uglier than, than it should be like you don't, you want things to look good. And so I am, as the expert, I'm going to make recommendations on how we can make this look better.

So I will tell them if they send me a picture or they've shared a picture or, you know, something along that lines, or we're, we're looking at, you know, their inspo. and they want to repurpose it that I will need to design this differently with repurposing in mind. Same thing is like aisle pieces, meadow pieces.

I will often have somebody say that they want to repurpose those. Okay, how big are they wanting it? Because you can't repurpose it very easily to a centerpiece. If it is this like huge 24 inch 3 quarter sided metal piece that you've put up against the chair. Like that is not very repurposable, but if you have kind of a low end lush that is all the way around designed not 3 quarter sided.

That is more repurposable. Yes, it could be lower to the ground, so it's not going to be quite as impactful if they had that two foot metal piece, but it is going to be a step in the right direction of repurposability. And you positioning like, I want this repurposing to look really good for you. You making recommendation is like spread, putting little breadcrumbs down of you positioning yourself as an expert because you are, you are an expert, you know, what's going to look bad and what's going to look good.

And honestly, you probably don't want to be a part of when it looks bad. I know I don't, I don't want to be seeing the images afterwards. That it looks like a train wreck occurred because somebody, some wedding planner thought that they were super crafty with their clippers and Took all my stuff down and put it somewhere that it really didn't belong So I want to make sure that I talk to them about like asking People what are you going to be doing with the arch afterwards?

If they're saying, saying and like not saying it right away that they're going to repurpose it. Well, I just want to make sure that if you are repurposing it somewhere that I'm making sure that it looks good in that repurposable moment. Because then maybe they're like, well, we were actually going to tear those down and like use them somewhere.

Okay. Totally understandable. I just don't want it to, you know, I want it to look good. And so I would just design them a little bit different, which would make it look a little bit different from your inspiration picture. Okay. Okay. Then from there, you need to make sure that you are going in and talking to them about like if they are really value focused and they are asking for something, you could also bring that suggestion up.

Hey, you know what? I know you said metal pieces and I know you said you were looking for a head table runner. What if I design these metal pieces that are going down your aisle to also be double duty as your head table runner? They're going to be like, that sounds amazing. You're a genius. Like you're offering valued input that maybe another florist, especially a newer florist might not have that insight into.

And. Then you can also strategize, like, I will put that on my proposal. So I'm on my proposal page that has the metal pieces. I create a separate page if I, like, have a head table page that is going to be, like, buying my, let's just say buying my, uh, renting my candles. So I have my taper candles, my pillar candle vases, all of those things.

Like if we're going to be reusing them, you know, I can put that in two places and I'll just put like candle rental and then repurposing and then I try to find an inspo picture. that shows like meadow ish type pieces going down a head table. Because then they can visualize that and they're saying, Oh yeah, that's how that's going to be repurposed.

And so then they also think they're getting like double the value on those flowers because they were already wanting a meadow going down their head table. And now you've figured out how to do both. So you are positioning like extreme value in this situation, which more value to me, the better. And I also, I love the way a head table meadow looks.

So if I can figure out how to make that transition and use it, I know I'm going to get better pictures. Then, thinking of things that really do matter. You don't want to repurpose. My biggest one is I don't want to do a wedding that is repurposing bridesmaids bouquets. I absolutely think that if it goes on the head table, fine.

If you want to put the seven bridesmaids in your bouquet on a head table, And we got nice candles and all the things that is totally fine. I am not going to be a part of the train wreck of reusing those on as a centerpiece. And so I explained to them when they bring that up, which surprisingly a lot of wedding planners bring this up and they shouldn't, but they do.

I say, here's the reasons in my past experiences where I don't recommend doing that. For one, bridesmaids often are laying their flowers down, they're keeping them out of water for extended amount of times, and they are not looking their best by time it comes to after four hours of photos and a ceremony and them laying it down on the ground everywhere.

Two, it naturally is a bouquet that is meant to be carried, not a bouquet that nicely sits on a table. So it isn't really designed to be a centerpiece. It is designed to be held in photos. So I really don't think the aesthetic is something that, um, you know, looks super great. I have had a bridesmaid forget hers.

So you could also have the table that either A, the centerpiece never gets there and so they feel like the red headed stepchildren at the wedding, or B, it got there when guests had already arrived because the bridesmaid was doing extra photos or trying to help you or doing something. So, like, explaining to them, these are the things that could happen, and for a hundred dollars or, I mean, you could do a three hydrangea in a Dollar Tree cylinder vase for fifty dollars.

That would be better than repurposing a bridesmaid bouquet, in my opinion. And I have lots of florists in my market that do it. And every time I look at it, I can tell it was repurposed. So I also share with them, I don't want your guests to, to know when we are getting more value out of your flowers. Like I want that to be subtle and unseen.

Like this was just intended on how things were going to be. So if we have bridesmaids bouquets for, for some reason, like that is going to be harder to hide because that's pretty obvious that it's the bridesmaid bouquet based on the shape and people have been staring at them now for several hours during a ceremony and pictures and all of these things.

So. That's one way. I explain to them like my past experiences and problems that could arise. I also tell them that they want their head table to look good as well. And so this is an easier way that isn't critical if something goes wrong. If one bouquet didn't make it out of the seven, like there's still going to be content on that table.

It's not going to be empty. And so that is a safer bet to make sure that their head table is still impactful. But we also don't have, you know, it's the only thing. So if it doesn't show up, the people feel like they got the short end of the stick from the table centerpiece or that they aren't as important or.

you know, that, that you didn't care for them to have a nice centerpiece. I mean, it, people can be gamey. It's kind of crazy. If you don't feel something is a good idea to repurpose, like, just explain why. I don't think you're trying to be difficult. You're trying to, like, make sure that things don't look bad.

And especially for room shots and things like that, often that is, like, before. When maybe the bridesmaids aren't even, and honestly, do you want a room shot with a bunch of bridesmaid repurposed bouquets? Because I don't. But, you can stick up for yourself. You can come up with creative ways to make repurposing not suck that looks tasteful.

Just by thinking it from the beginning, I'm going to design this. In a way that doesn't suck for this. Thank you so much for listening flower friend and you have an amazing flower filled week. 📍