Ok, when doing a cake, who hand makes their sugar flowers and who buys premade??
If you hand make them yourself, do you charge per flower and how much?

If you buy pre-made, where do you get them and do you charge the customer the same price you bought them for or raise the price??

I make my own. That is one of the most enjoyable parts of this art in my mind, so I'm not going to farm that out to anyone. I charge per flower and amount depends on the flower. Some are more complex and time consuming than others, thus more expensive.

I make my own - I love the art and precision, plus the flexibility of using the colors how I want and where I want. (Not to mention size, etc.). I'm a hobbiest, but I'd pass on more than the simple pre-made price - figure in tax, shipping/handling if applicable, not to mention if you drove to get them gas money and time. Search local bakeries (or ones in a similar economic area) and price similar to their menus if handmade.

I always make my flowers but I haven't made anything too difficult yet. I charge by the overall cake and not by numbers of flowers.. although I should. I've never bought them.

I feel like Karen does about flowers. I make my own and enjoy the process. I research the flower and make my own cutters and texture mats. After a busy week at my full-time job, there is nothing more relaxing than creating beautiful flowers while listening to a good book on my iPod. But I do understand a busy, full-time baker's need to out source their flowers and I see nothing wrong with that.

I also love to make my own flowers! i usually just charge a more per serving price on the whole cake because there are usually only a few, which is enough to cover the time and ingredients involved. If the cake was to have many, many flowers than I guess I would adjust the price accordingly for the extra work.

I ordered flowers one time to see what they are like. They are nice , however to me it wasn't the same as making them myself. That's half the fun plus it's very satisfying to see the finished artwork that I made myself!

I LOVE making flowers and anything sculpted from sugar paste!! I listen to music and just create! I charge per flower based on size, complexity, etc. Sounds like we all are on the same boat!

I don't really have the time to make sugar flowers, and I need to perfect the art before I offer them regularly.

I buy them if I need alot, and that is cheaper for the customer than for them to pay me an hourly wage to work on them. I have four boys and do this on my own (licensed from home), so....I just need to do it that way for now. (I do give the customer the option to pay for premade ones, or pay a higher amount for me to do the work and so far nobody has requested I do it!)

If they just need a rose or two, or of course easy flowers, I do them...I made my own calla lillies for a wedding cake because those are easy to do.

But if a wedding needs extensive gumpaste work done, in floral arrangements...I totally buy them because I don't have all the hours it takes to pull that off.

Maybe in the future.

For now, I order from Oasis Supply (local for me!) or Wholesale Sugar Flowers online.

I make my own.

I second what Kitagrl said (except for the part about having four boys )

I do both, I love making them and if it is a really large project requiring special things done to them, i.e lighting, need to be sprays then they are ordered. I charge individually for mine, sometimes they are just free. If ordered, they have to pay for cost and S&H.
Hamsquad

I make mine as well. I don't do a lot of flowers, but I've made all of the ones I've ever needed I do myself. However, if I ever cant' make one I need, I'm sure Ill be okay with buying it.

I love to make my own flowers but one week I had three hundred roses plus I had a broken finger so I had to buy them, there are times when you just have to buy flowers, such as the bride has a really tight budget or you could be like me and be very accident prone.

I would love to have the time to experiment with more flowers, but right now I just don't. I really envy those that have it down pat!

I usually make my own. Have bought in the past and they are still sitting there as I didn't like them and ended up making my own. I am not good with sprays at the moment, but would like to increase my skill in that.

But like the rest of the CCers here I do enjoy lying back and letting my hands get busy. If there was a lot of flowers to do, I would buy them. In the past did one wedding cake with so many red roses I thought I never wanted to see another red rose again. Kinda red rosed out!

I make my own.

I usually make my own. I really enjoy figuring out how the real thing looks and how it's put together. However occassionally I will see a flower at my local cake store that's so beautiful I just HAVE to buy it. I'm making a birthday cake for a friend this week and I designed it around a beautiful purple orchid I found in the store! LOL! Now next week I have another birthday cake and hand made a magnolia for it. I'd say 98% of the time I make my own and 2% I buy them. When I buy them I charge what I pay, not more. When I make them I add to the per slice charge and not charge seperately.

Cat

I make my own. I really enjoy it.

I make my own. To me that is part of decorating. If i needed more then i had time to make, i would certainly buy them, but so far that hasn't happened.

I quit making them years ago. I have probably 40 boxes of various varieties in my pastry closet right now. My time is better spent marketing my business rather than making flowers, IMO. I keep flowers in white and color/dust them as needed.

I make my own and also buy them, especially fillers.

Leah where do you get your flowers?

Hi ~ I make the flowers, often using gumpaste. Sometimes I will use buttercream or royal, but mostly gumpaste.

I buy flowers mostly from avalondeco.com. If David doesn't have a variety I need, then I order from discountsugarflowers.com. I also buy pearl from avalon.

I do both. I like making them. I like knowing 'where they've been' and I make them without wires (I've made a few using wires...just prefer not using them). Occasionally, a design requires the flowers to be wired. The way I see it, they're not edible with wires in them. So, it really doesn't matter as much 'where they've been (it matters...just not as much (to me) as the ones that are totally edible...they become more like using silk flowers (not that there's anything wrong with that))...and those, I buy.

I make them on my own. I charge based on the amount per cake.