DIY Brides… (With a little help!)
We’ve all by now noticed a rise in the trend of the dreaded DIY Bride and her DIY Wedding. Now before you “boo” me, let me first congratulate all these women for taking all that responsibility onto themselves. Gone, for now, are the days of the Mega wedding planner and the handful of lighthearted catered lunch meetings to hammer out all the details. We now have the frantic Bride, trying to procure impossible dream stems (in bulk!) a week out from the service. All this on top of securing a venue, entertainment, dinners and drinks! Not to mention all the invitations. By the way, she’s made them all by hand!
“Breathe,” you say as she rattles off all the flowers she’d like and begins showing you pictures of the bouquets and centerpieces she and her bridesmaids are happily going to make the night before the wedding… Sometimes its not until they utter these words to us that they fully realize the growing impossibility of it happening as they’d always dreamed. This is our moment, as she stands there wide-eyed and fully realized; it’s our opportunity.
In my honest opinion, jump at it.
She’s hit “the wall.” She can do no more. Show her what you can do. And keep it within her budget. Trust me, if you can win over a true blue DIY-er, she will be yours for life. Even the “platinum weddings” have gone cookie cutter. In large markets like Chicago, a single monstrous wedding event company can have 60% or more of the high end weddings. That leaves the majority of us undercutting one another and bidding on a small weddings.
So let’s embrace the DIY Bride, make what we can, and make a frantic one-time bulk buyer into a lifelong friend and customer.
–Laura Daluga
Laura is a 4th generation floral designer living in Chicago. She is designing at Chicago Blooms and is a member of the Quill and Scroll Society and the World Flower Council, WFC.
Thanks Laura, Great write-up. And LOVE your designs. The last bouquet is just amazing.
Diy is nice but hiring a professional is always best!