I have a bride who has requested a large flower cascade on the side of her cake. I've never done the cascade thing before so I'm not exactly sure how many flowers it will take so I'm hesitant to quote her a per flower price, in case I'm wrong on my estimate. Do I need to do that or can I do a flat price for it?
It's your business. Price it however you feel the most comfortable. Just remember that this is going to be very time consuming (especially if it is gumpaste flowers, not piped flowers), so charge accordingly!
Agree with prterrell.
I never charged extra for BC roses cascading down the sides. If I had used gumpaste flowers, there would be an extra charge, of course.
But I wouldn't charge "per flower". You KNOW there are brides out there who would count the flowers and heaven forbid you were ONE short, which in her mind would mean she should get the whole cake free because you RUINED her wedding!
Nope. Not even going to open that door.
Any "above and beyond" work was billed under "Design Fee" and it was a flat fee for any of the extra's (gumpaste flowers, my city skyline in hand-cut chocolate, my glass-n-mirrors dessert stand)
I do charge per flower and if I have to use a few extra I just do.
PS I charge enough per flower that I'm really OK, cost-wise.
If you charge per flower, just make sure that you make up some extra's. - cause like Indydebi said, if you are ONE flower short....
You never know when one will break and you can take it off and it still looks good- but if you promised 387 flowers, and she only counts 386 you are gonna hear about it. LOL
I try to figure out how many flowers I'm going to need and add that cost into the cake...so if I figure the flowers are an extra 100 for a 100 person cake then I would just add $1 more per slice to the price. The only time I spell it out in the contract is if there are under 20 flowers needed for the cake. Then I put something like "20 1 inch sugar roses at $2 per rose = $40". That's so I don't end up with odd pricing. Hope that makes sense!
Love the advice - never thought to ask that myself, always just stumbled over a number to quote (indydebi should be yelling at me now ).
Pricing per arrangement sounds like the way to go (Murphy says if you don't, you'll find that one bean-counter bride!). You gotta figure on making a couple extras for each cake anyway though, right? The "just in case" ones....
What about sorting them into small, medium, large or accent, cascade, topper categories for pricing? Just a thought....
Paul,
I tend to ballpark it. Big roses (3" +) $4 or so, Callas, $2.50. I generally know how much the standard flowers cost from avalon deco and just multiply times 5.
I do the same as Leah...........I also let the customer know a round about number that they'll need. I use silk flowers that are a similar size to what I need in gumpaste to arrange on dummy cakes to get a good idea of the number I need, it's usually RIGHT on!
Correction, callas, $3.50. And frankly, since callas are $10 per stem fresh, that price needs to go up. Because customers like to save money!
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