I have a bride wanting me to include fresh flowers for the cake in my quote and I will be the one decorating the cake with them. I charge a 15.00 minimum delivery fee regardless. How much over my cost for the flowers should I upcharge for them and my time to set up?
I was taught to use cost ×3 for estimates. So if it took you 2 hours to pick up & prep fresh flowers your charge would be:
Hourly rate ×2 + $50×3 = _______€
Be sure to get stem sleeves for where cut ends contact cake, or allow time to make your own from straws & hot glue. Here in Orlando, with a wholesale license I can buy 50 gorgeous long stem roses for about $30. I've used them on wedding cakes & found them to be quick & beautiful, & easy to work with, much faster than sugar flowers & better looking than the ready made sugar flowers if you don't make your own. Was trying to find a picture but apparently my phone is not speaking to Picasa today.
Good luck!
I offer to place 20 stems for free, and then $0.50 per stem above that on top of my delivery fee. However, I do not provide the flowers. What I get will never match the rest of the brides florals so I tell my brides that the florist (or the bride if they are not using a florist) needs to have the flowers next to the cake table at the time I deliver. If she is not dead set on you providing the flowers, you may want to bring up the matching bit with her.
If I was going to provide the flowers, I would follow AAtKT's formula above.
Usually when I have a cake with fresh flowers the florist provides them and leaves them at the cake table like @melmar02 said. I wouldn't charge extra to place a couple here and there, but based on some of the things I've run into it wouldn't be a bad idea to charge an hourly fee. It's one thing if all you have to do is put a pre-made topper on the cake, but if they leave you with a giant garland that's more appropriate for a mantle and expect you to put it on a cake, that's another thing. I had to spend about an hour once taking one of those apart tp make it work.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%