Fresh flowers on a wedding cake....

I offer to order them and get themn but I upgrarge by 20%, so most brides choose to get them from thier florist or get them themselves. I always tell them that if they are providing the flowers that they must be at the delivery site 30 min before the contracted delivery time if they want me to place them on the cake.

I tell them they have to order and have them there when I deliver. I make it clear that nobody but me is to touch the cake, too, so the florist doesn't have license to do it. Nobody has ever batted an eye about my policy...so far so good.

My favorite wedding cakes used fresh flowers to complement the bride's theme. Since flowers were already being ordered from a florist, I told the bride to have them sent to my bakery 24 hours in advance. This time frame gave me enough leeway to call the florist if the flowers didn't arrive before we left on deliveries.

I will provide the flowers and add the charge to her invoice or have her give me her florist's name. I then call the florist to talk about what is needed for the cake and I go pick them up (or have them delivered) the day before the cake is due. In this scenario, the bride is paying the florist. Unless it is just a few stems, I usually charge about $.50 per serving for floral arrangement.

I have the bride provide the flowers, since she has already ordered getting a few more isn't a problem. I have them at the venue when I arrive and place the flowers on site. I have used flowers on three cakes to date, just make sure that they are safe.

I asked a florist the exact question yesterday - she said that a lot of the time the bride will come to her shop complete with photograph or image of intended cake and order the fresh flowers. The florist then deliver to the venue on the day, along with the table centres etc. The florist then like to add the fresh flowers to the cake and if any are required for the stand - they will add these too. She suggested that the bride orders the flowers (and therefore responsible for paying) but the cake decorator then keeps in touch with the florist to ensure that the cake creation will fit with the flower order, plus the flowers suit the cake(s). The florist assured me that only flowers suitable for adding to cakes are used also. Hope that helps.

First, I do not provide flowers. I am not a florist and fresh flower arranging is not my medium. If a bride wants fresh flowers she needs to order them from her florist and have them there for me when I deliver. And only I am allowed to put them on the cake.

BUT: I am seriously considering prohibiting fresh flowers on my cakes very soon. I actually could care less about bugs and dirt or whatever, but the notion that the bride gets to "save money" is starting to really make me mad. I mean, they go with fresh flowers because they don't want to pay me to make anything, then they get un-arranged stems of flowers from the florist because they don't want to pay THEM to make anything, so then what? I get to spend a extra hour arranging flowers on the cake... for free? It's a big freakin loop hole!

I had one bride that I had done a sketch for in the beginning estimating cake with sugar flowers at $850. She asks for no sugar flowers, brings the cost down to $700 because she decides on fresh flowers. 3 days before the wedding I find out that bride expected me to still make MY design with her fresh flowers at the venue... for free! I tell all my brides from the beginning - "if you opt to get fresh flowers on your cake that is where MY design services end, so it is your responsibility to order the flowers, determine the quantity, and tell me how you want them". I even changed my contract to say that they have to provide ME a sketch of what they want their cake to look like. Well, I put my foot down told her my design cost an additional $150 and since they were providing the flowers they can expect an additional invoice for $100 to pay for my time and services at the venue. Sorry kids, my time is money and now you either pay ME or pay the florist. I don't work for free!

+1

I had one bride that I had done a sketch for in the beginning estimating cake with sugar flowers at $850. She asks for no sugar flowers, brings the cost down to $700 because she decides on fresh flowers. 3 days before the wedding I find out that bride expected me to still make MY design with her fresh flowers at the venue... for free! I tell all my brides from the beginning - "if you opt to get fresh flowers on your cake that is where MY design services end, so it is your responsibility to order the flowers, determine the quantity, and tell me how you want them". I even changed my contract to say that they have to provide ME a sketch of what they want their cake to look like. Well, I put my foot down told her my design cost an additional $150 and since they were providing the flowers they can expect an additional invoice for $100 to pay for my time and services at the venue. Sorry kids, my time is money and now you either pay ME or pay the florist. I don't work for free![/quote]

Never really thought of it that way but you make great point! Will keep that in mind on my next order.

Scp, I don't see it the same way. Yes, it takes the same amount of time and eye for design to place the sugar flowers on the cake as well as the fresh ones, but FAR less time to go pick up (or even have delivered) the fresh flowers than it does the sugar ones. When I charge for sugar flowers, the high cost is for the time it takes to make them. As I said before, I may charge around $.50 per serving to arrange them (so I'm not working for free) but I've never had flowers take more than 20 minutes to put on the cake, and that's for a lot of them.

One of the most useful evening classes I did along side cake decorating was a whole year of floristry - which taught me how to wire up a bridal bouquet and how to arrange stuff into a variety of different shapes. I think anyone who is not confident around this skill of arranging - could save a lot of worry for themselves by making sure that the cake was delivered to the venue prior to the florist arriving - and leave it to the flower artists! Then there is no worry about having to cost in for flower arranging time - because it has been delegated to others.

Did you mean me?

That's cool if it only takes you a few minutes to stick flowers on a cake, but is it something you are paid for? That's my point, not that I can't do it. I'm not going to start offering to purchase flowers, that is not going to happen, but I did come to the realization that if the bride was having the florist arrange flowers, she has to pay the florist. Why shouldn't it be a service we also get paid for? Even if it only takes 20 minutes, that's my time and if it's a large cake I can't lift or move by myself, my assistant's time. They don't work for free either, so not only was I not getting paid myself for sticking fresh flowers on the cake on site, I am paying someone to stand around while I stick flowers on a cake.

So anyway, my point is, fresh flower arranging is no longer a free service with me. Sure, it will be less expensive if the bride buys fresh flowers (although I'm not quite sure about this, flowers are pretty expensive, especially organic, edible ones that won't poison anyone), but I now take my time to arrange the flowers into consideration when I quote a price. And I am considering insisting on sugar flowers (but maybe that's also because I'll be taking a Jacqueline Butler class in April ).

Oh, see? That's great! It's the 1st I've seen someone say that they charge for this service. Maybe it was just me that wasn't charging and not realizing how dumb I was being? Which is completely possible.