Jewel Phon
F L O W E R S & S T Y L I N G
FAQ
Do you charge for a ‘styling session’ or initial consultation?
We do not charge for the initial consultation as it is the best way to ensure that we are a “good fit” to work together on your event. Typically an hour or so will ensure that we can get a clear idea of your vision and provide a detailed quote on your event.
Do I need a theme or a style for my wedding before we meet?
Not necessarily. The styling team at Jewel Phon Flowers will make the process extremely easy whether you know exactly what you want or if you need some help with coming up with your styling ideas. We have a wealth of experience that can help you make styling your event easier and ensure the end result will be beautiful. Any pictures that you can bring to your styling session that represent colours, styles or themes that you want to inspire your designs, are helpful as they will ensure that we have a clear idea of your vision, so we always encourage you to do this where possible.
When should I book my wedding or event with you?
Once you have decided on a date for your event or wedding contact us to work through your styling requirements and secure us for your date as soon as possible. Unfortunately the nature of our industry means that dates get booked out for up to 2 years in advance (particularly in the peak wedding seasons). We always recommend 6-12 months in advance if you can, it also allows us enough planning and preparation time to deliver the very best for you. We will always try to accommodate bookings if we are able to service your date.
How much will my wedding or function cost?
Our pricing largely depends on your flower choice, size and complexity. Providing us with pictures of the types of arrangements or styles you would like us to model your floral event styling on, will help us get you a more specific quote early in our consultation process.
Can you work with my budget?
We take absolute pleasure in bringing all sized events to life, from very modest to grand scale events. Your floral stylist will appreciate you being open and honest about your budget and what you expect for it. Our stylists have creative options to help you work towards your ideal styling within your budget. Remember to be realistic and be open to feedback from your stylist; they will always do their best to meet your budgetary needs, whilst trying to balance this with the quality of finish that you would expect at your wedding.
Do you offer specific packages or is everything customised?
Unfortunately no event is the same, so most of what we do is customised to each client’s theme and budget. It can frequently be more economical to customize your quote as we can scale the florals bigger or smaller depending on how much you want to allocate to each item.
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What happens after I have secured my booking with Jewel Phon Flowers?
After placing your deposit and confirming your booking, we will get in touch with you as required. If we do not have any specific information or points to clarify with you, we will contact you approximately 14 days before the date of your function to confirm delivery and or set up times, and ensure no changes have been made to colours etc. Final payment will also be due at this time. At any time if you have any questions feel free to call or email us.
Can I change my flower order?
If you would like to make any changes to your current order please let us know as soon as possible, for fresh floral items we normally can accommodate changes up to 14 days prior to your event as we do not stock or prepare these items earlier. Silk floral installations, and other hired styling items typically take much longer preparation and planning (and sometimes purchasing new stock in order to customize your event) so we request that these changes are made no earlier than 2 months prior to your event. As always we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Please remember that changes to your order may affect the overall quoted price.
What are Jewel Phon Flowers Terms and Conditions?
All quotes and hire security forms have the relevant terms and conditions appended at the end of each document. You can also view our standard terms here.
How long is the hire period? Do you allow DIY hire?
We are a “full service” floral stylist, so we do not offer “DIY” hire for all of our items, all hire periods are for the duration of your event unless otherwise specified in your quote. We will arrange delivery, setup and pack down of all hire items.
Do I rent the vases and candleholders and hire items from you or do I get to keep them?
All provided items (besides the fresh florals) are hired for the duration of your event, we encourage your guests to take the fresh florals home after your event, however remind them that everything else (tea light holders, vases, table numbers, etc.) are not to be taken, as any missing or damaged items will be replaced by you at full replacement cost.
Do you charge a fee if I need you to stay throughout the ceremony to move arrangements to the reception site?
There would usually be a fee, this can be determined depending on how long the ceremony is (20 minutes or 2 hours) and how far away our staff member would then have to travel to your reception venue.
Can you provide me with an itemised quote for all the items we've discussed, along with prices?
After an initial consultation or quote request we will happily send you an itemised quote with a breakdown of prices for each item. Please bear in mind that we are quoting on the entire package offered (which takes into consideration many varying factors) so any modifications to individual items, including quantities may adjust the overall quoted price.
Why do the prices of the flowers vary depending on the time of year?
The prices of flowers vary due to the seasons, and supply and demand in the market. Generally, we will quote our prices to reflect this. Events near to a major floral holiday (Mother’s day and Valentine’s Day) will incur extra cost as our raw materials are vastly more expensive at this time.
What are service fees? (delivery, setup and packdown)
Service fees factor in the labour and complexity required to setup your event, and will consider the time frame the function centre allows us to setup prior to the event, and how quickly it needs to be packed up that night. This requires varying levels of staff at different times in the day with commonly 5-6 hours between setup and pack down. It also takes into consideration parking, and accessibility of your venue as this all adds to the time required. We try to minimize these costs where appropriate, however it is a necessary part of delivering a high quality service to you.
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Can I request a site visit?
Normally from the information obtainable from the venue, pictures and prior experience we can ascertain the important information for the space. We may conduct a site visit at our discretion. If a client requests a site visit, a fee will be charged to account for the time and travel required.
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Wedding flowers seem expensive. Why?
It’s no secret that wedding flowers can cost more than a regular bunch of flowers. Selecting quality blooms, labour, intricate wiring and construction all add to the cost. When you factor in the consultation time, the individual time your stylist will spend designing and planning your florals, along with the frequent contacts with our flower growers and vendors, you’d be surprised at how much time goes into making your event look it’s absolute best! We always try to minimize our costs so that we provide value for the high quality service we deliver.
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HOW WEDDING FLOWERS ARE PRICED:
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Creating a Quote
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When you first meet with your florist/stylist, you’ll likely discuss your vision for your wedding—your venue, style, colour palette, flowers you love, flowers you don’t love. You’ll also talk logistics: how many floral arrangements you’ll need—bouquets, centrepieces, corsages, buttonholes, altar arrangements, and more. Then, your florist will create a custom proposal just for you, based on your needs and wants. Creating a proposal can take hours of a stylist’s time. Not to mention the hours they will eventually spend attending to your emails and queries leading up to your wedding day..
The Flowers
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This may be the most obvious part of a florist’s pricing—ordering and obtaining the actual blossoms that will be used for your wedding arrangements. In fact, it can take about three hours for a florist to put an order together, as well as multiple 5am trips to the flower markets each week. And there’s a difference between the flowers that your florist purchases from a wholesaler or grower, and the flowers you might find at a grocery store, say. These flowers are grown with the expressed purpose of being featured at events and are specifically hand-selected for their colour and quality, to make sure that they will perfectly match your colour scheme and are the quality you would expect for your wedding.
Your flower selection will play a big part in the pricing as well. Florists source flowers from all over the world. If you select flowers that are not in season or difficult to find, you’ll likely end up paying more. And some flowers are just more expensive than others (hello, peonies!). It’s best to flexible and trust your florist to help you choose blossoms that will best work with your style and budget.
Flower Processing and Storage
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A lot happens between the purchase of fresh flowers and when they are arranged into bouquets, centrepieces, and more. This is called “processing” the flowers, and it includes removing any packaging or wrapping, washing and cleaning each bloom, administering flower food (which is expensive!), taking thorns off roses, counting the flowers, and removing excess greenery when necessary. This prep can take up to eight hours and starts several days before your event. Without processing, your flowers will start to wilt sooner and won’t look fresh and gorgeous on your big day.
This has to be done a few times a week as some flower varieties have to be purchased earlier in the week to allow time for the blooms to open. Some blooms actually require physical labour time to “flex” the petals open in order to get the desired effect, again adding to the preparation time for your event.
Your flowers will be kept in a cooler and cared for until they are ready to be arranged. Large refrigeration like the one your florist has require a lot of electricity—another expense.
Labour and Production
Now it’s time for your flowers to be skilfully arranged into beautiful bouquets, centrepieces, and other décor and personal flowers. Each item takes time—even small buttonholes are particularly labour-intensive, taking about 20 minutes each to create. Every wedding is different, so your florist will be able to determine how complex and labour-intensive your arrangements will be and how much time they will take to create—and in effect, how much each one will cost.
Decor, Vessels, and Supplies
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There are a lot of extras that go into creating wedding arrangements—some you can see and some you can’t. From the wire that keeps buttonholes from drooping to foam which is the base for many centrepieces, floral tape to hold a bouquet together, and more, these supplies are an important part of the “mechanics” of your floral décor—and part of the reason why professional florists create arrangements that hold up so well. There are also the more obvious accessories—vases for your centrepieces (florists are constantly looking for new vessels to add to their collection!), candles and other accessories for your tablescapes, and the ribbon that ties bouquets and buttonholes together. All of these supplies cost money and are a little-known part of a florist’s pricing.
Large hire items like arches, candlesticks, drapery, silk florals, flower stands, candelabras, chandeliers, charger plates etc. require significant storage space so incur a significant rental cost to the business to warehouse and maintain these items. Another expense that is factored into what you pay.
Delivery and On-Site Production
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Not all of the prep for your wedding can be completed in advance—a lot has to be done on site. On the day of your wedding, your florist will have to carefully package the flowers and arrangements in a special vehicle that has been rented or purchased, and transported to your venue. Sometimes, multiple vehicles or trips are required to make sure everything is transported properly.
It then will likely take several hours to set everything up, depending on how labour intensive your wedding décor is. Floral designers and workers may have to build ceremony structures, hang garlands from the ceiling of your venue, decorate each of your reception tables, and generally make sure that all of your arrangements look amazing and are delivered and set up correctly. This can take several hours before your wedding even begins. This needs to be done for both the reception styling, as well as any ceremony styling which can be at a separate location. As well as factoring in the bridal party flower deliveries (the bouquets and buttonholes etc.), it can take a team of 4-10 people just set up a single wedding.
Pack down
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After your floral arrangements are beautifully set up and your wedding begins, your florist’s work is not done. Your florist will head to the venue at the end of the night to remove all of the arrangements, stands, vessels and other decor. This can sometimes take separate team of people of between 1-5 people, who typically only have 1 hour to safely deconstruct every aspect of your styling. Indeed, a wedding day is a very long day for you—and your florist/stylist, too!
And don’t forget there will be plenty of cleaning and sorting done by your stylist following your event, to ensure the décor is prepared and ready for the next client.
Business Expenses
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There are lots of expenses associated with running a business—from rent, electricity, internet, insurances, accounting fees etc. all to ensure that your florist is able to easily operate and do business with you, as well as marketing and advertising costs, so that you and other couples can find and hire your florist.
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