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Struggling to turn your floral design talent into a profitable, scalable, and stress-free business? Welcome to The Floral CEO® Podcast—the ultimate audio destination for wedding and event florists, flower-shop owners, and creative entrepreneurs who want to book bigger budgets, price with confidence, and lead like a true CEO.
Hosted by Jeni Becht, award-winning wedding florist, event designer, and floral business coach with 25 + years in the industry, each weekly episode dives into:
Profitable pricing strategies: markup formulas and minimums fine-tuned for weddings & events
Magnetic marketing & local-SEO hacks: social posts, blogs, and Google tricks that attract high-budget couples and planners
High-converting sales funnels: inquiry replies, proposals, and follow-up scripts that turn curious leads into dream clients
Streamlined systems & smart outsourcing: workflows, templates, and hiring tips that free you from the design bench
CEO mindset & sustainable growth: leadership habits and eco-friendly practices that keep both you and your business flourishing
Jeni pairs real-world success stories with actionable strategies you can implement today, so you’ll spend less time hustling and more time designing breathtaking bouquets, installations, and arrangements.
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Flower friends, do you get this question a lot? Give me a ballpark. Give me a ballpark of what that thing costs. Give me a ballpark of what that, you know, flower installation or whatever. And this is frankly something that I steer clear of, and the reason being is that are you getting married in the exact same or is your thing in the exact same order, um, same place, same everything, same color scheme, same flower choices?
Like, it- we're comparing ... Anytime somebody's asking for a ballpark, we're really, if we then look at their Pinterest board, and of course it looks different, we're comparing apples and oranges, you guys. But once you throw out numbers, you're kind of stuck around those. When I am explaining, when somebody wants to have a understanding, I never give them a ballpark of a whole event.
I think that could be a recipe for disaster on so many levels, and some of those levels are, like, things that you might not even contributed to, but in their head, they were there, and they were part of the look. And so then they think drapery or elevated, uh, you know, chairs or elevated, uh, you know, tabletop, um, you know, like really beautiful plates and, uh, upgraded silverware and all of these things.
So your, your ballpark, if you do throw one out, becomes an anchor for whatever was in the vicinity. And I ... You know, if, if for some reason you do do this and you're doing a range, probably somewhere around 7 to 9,000, they hear 7. So then they add 40 guests more, a hanging installation, a ceremony, um, s- a second ceremony location of all things.
They want better candles, bigger candles. They want 12 per- people in their wedding party, cocktail flower, flowers, and a million other things like a room flip, a tear-down, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So then your proposal came back at 13,500, but you told us 7.
then that casual number became a very serious expectation. The client remembers that number. They rarely remember all the assumptions made and attached to that number So then you become the bad guy. But this could be a very educational piece in teaching these people that wedding A and wedding B were very different, and that's why their investments are different.
So we could have wedding A that has a hundred fifty guests, fifteen tables with small centerpieces, a simple ceremony, one venue, an easy load in, and no tear down 'cause the guests took the flowers home, to wedding B could be a hundred and fifty guests, has long estate tables with lush floral runners, a ceremony installation, a ceiling installation, a cocktail flowers, a room flip, multiple spaces, and a midnight tear down.
Same guest count, not remotely the same price. I don't price the guest count. I price the wedding you're asking me to execute. So de- design and details changes pricing. If a client says, "I just want a centerpiece." Hm. Groundbreaking. Okay, what kind? Bud vases, compotes, tall centerpieces, floral runners, Ikebana-inspired or Ikebana-inspired pieces, candles mixed in?
Um, are you wanting premium flowers, seasonal flowers, imported flowers, twenty varieties of flowers, five varieties of flowers? You want custom mechanics, foam-free? You could say there isn't a button on your computer that says hundred and fifty wedding, um, person wedding for eighty-seven forty-two. Then, of course, the logistics also change that.
This really, the logistics are so much of this, um, 'cause a florist is not only selling flowers, they are selling the execution of the flowers. So delivery distance, parking, loading docks, elevators, stairs, venue restrictions, set-up windows, multiple locations, room flips, installations, ladders, lifts, staffing requirements, transportation, tear down, and late night labor.
All of those things dramatically, uh, impact what the price of that wedding is going to be. The same flowers at two different venues may cost me the same amount to execute, or it might cost considerably more just from labor. That's why ballparks are dangerous. Timeless changes to pricing is also or timeline cha- um, changes to pricing.
This is a really good example of, imagine they show you an installation With four hours to install it. Great. What about with 45 minutes to install it? Now you need four extra people, same design, different price. This is such an easy way to explain this to clients. Like, "Hey, variables count, and here's why.
Staffing." And what if they... Like, I love how people are like, "I really want this, but, like, a cheaper version of it." And you're just like, "There is no cheaper version of that flower. I don't know what you're talking about. It is what?" But they don't get it, so it is our job to help guide them. So sometimes you aren't just paying more for flowers.
You're paying more because I have to compress four hours of labor into 45 minutes. Also, repurposing changes things, too. Someone might say, "Can I just move the ceremony flowers?" Maybe. From where? To where? How far? During cocktail hour? Who is moving them? Do you we have access to that area? Does the second location have the same mechanics?
Do the colors, designs, et cetera, still make sense in there? Does the installation have to be dismantled? The assumption, using it twice should save money. Reality, sometimes yeah, but sometimes that's a big fat no, because we change the variables. We added complexity. We added labor, and that can seriously impact their overall budget.
Then the season and availability also matter. The inspiration photo may include flowers that aren't in season, are expensive that week, need to be imported. Like, expensive that week. You guys, if you're trying to find white mini callas right now, good fucking luck. It is crazy out there. I hopped on Hollix to look, and they are anywhere from $56 to $110 a bunch.
That is 10 stems. I'm not talking about a box. I'm talking about a bunch. 56 was the cheapest that was available on Holl- Hollix, which is a Holland auction platform, and $110 was, like, the next kind of highest point. But there were some on there for 80, 90, 95. It seems bananas to me. So those things matter, too.
The week matters. That matters if we're all speculating that Taylor Swift used a bunch of white mini callas in her wedding. Pricing changes. That's why you need to have substitutions, um, in case there's unpredictable availability, you know, you need to import things, and just expensive that week. Scope creep also starts very innocently.
At inquiry, we're having and keeping things very simple. Three months later, "So we're thinking about a floral installation over the dance floor. Um, we added 50 guests, we decided to a- add cocktail tables. We would like some flowers on the staircase. Can we move everything after the ceremony? And we're adding a welcome party."
Um, suddenly, simple has left the building. And actually, this exact thing just happened to me. I had a $12,000 Indian wedding that turned into a 25,000 wedding because we added this and we added that, and then we added doing the luncheon flowers, and then we added, um, doing the entryway flowers, and then we added...
I mean, it was just was like on and on and on. So scope creep is a real thing. Another reason why ballparks, because then they think... When you give somebody a ballpark, they sometimes think that, "Oh, I just want it to be bigger or different." And the audacity in them thinking that it shouldn't cost more is a real thing.
So I... Like, what do I- I really like to give is, like, a starting investment. Full service weddings begin at X. Most of my full service clients invest at between X and X. Our wedding minimum is X But you, you know, they of course they think they, they think they're different. You know, they think that they, these things don't apply to them.
But, you know, that is different than saying, "Your wedding will probably cost $8,000," or looking at a picture that was like $8,000. What if they fell in love with a picture of purple alliums and a bunch of daffodils and spring-inspired flowers, but they want that at their fall wedding? That's, like, gonna be way more expensive, and we need to keep those things into consideration.
So I think before we give numbers, we ask better questions. You could share what you need to understand first, like the venue, the guest count, the wedding party, the ceremony needs, the reception design, the table count, layouts, installations, inspiration, floral priorities, set-up timing, repurposing, the tear-downs, the rentals, the transportations, all the things.
And then simple scope framework would be we got the vision, what are we actually creating; the scope, how much are we creating; logistics, what is it to take to execute this badass plan; and then we can price from there. And I would repeatedly reinforce price comes last, because we need to know all the variables.
All the variables come in front of that. So some, you know, ways to reply to this would be, "Hey, you know, I, I don't like to give ballparks because I've personally never done two identical things," and especially if it's at a different venue or if it's at a different, um, you know, re- just anything. Anything is different, that makes it so hard.
You also could say, I don't want to give you a number for a wedding that doesn't exist yet, that I don't understand all the variables. You know, uh, the client remembers the number, but not the assumptions behind that number. Um, a casual estimate can really become a contractual feeling expectation in someone's head, and I would just avoid that.
Um, same guest count does not mean same wedding. Uh, same flowers do not always mean the same execution cost. Your inspiration photo does not tell me how many people I need at eleven AM on wedding day to put this together. A price execution is not a Pinterest picture. I'm not hiding my prices. I'm protecting the accuracy of it.
A starting at investment is not a ballpark. It's a qualifier. So if somebody's looking at a broken arch, uh, you know, like the two pieces of an arch, you could say, "My starting at price for a broken arch for something very simple and, um, elegant is twelve fifty." And then we go up from there depending on the exact flower choices, the, um, you know, colors, the sizing that you want it to end up to be, et cetera.
Like, that is a way easier because I can show them something that is twelve fifty very easily. Um, pricing should come from reality and not assumptions. So when someone asks you for a ballpark, I'm not gonna be evasive when I don't throw out a random number. I'm actually trying to serve them better. I would rather understand your vision, understand your scope, understand your logistics, and then give you a number I can stand behind, not one I just pulled out of thin air, because a, a guess isn't helpful.
Accurate expectations are. So let's make so much of our conversations about reality, about being, like, wanting to serve them, because that's what our job is, is to serve people, to, to help them have the best day ever, and to give them the information. And if we're just trying to throw out numbers, they're just shopping us, and that is something that I have no interest in, and I hope you don't either.
So I hope a few of these little tidbits were helpful. Thank you for following along, flower friends, and you have an amazing flower-filled day.