Floral Installations KNOWLEDGE DROP from Sweet Root Village

Posted by Ali Powell on 3/9/18 3:02 PM

Floral Installations KNOWLEDGE DROP from Sweet Root Village

Posted by Ali Powell on 3/9/18 3:02 PM
Ali Powell
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I met these lovely ladies from Sweet Root Village this week here at the Team Flower Conference and you know what I love about #GIRLBOSSES like this... I had no CLUE how cool and fabulous they are (they are speaking here). I mean when you get speaker status you are officially BOSS STATUS? Am I Right?!?!

So please go ahead and follow them here on their website at Sweet Root Village and on Instagram here.

floral installation guide

I love humble people like them who you wouldn't think are such great artists and business people because they are not braggy and not snobby. They are down to earth and truly truly want to help others around them. So without further ado here is some knowledge smackdown on floral installations via their amazing presentation.

Floral girlboss inspiration

FINDING INSPIRATION for Floral Installations

  • Pinterest
  • Other designers
  • Fashion World
  • The Venue and Architecture
  • The mechanics of the place and space you are working in
  • Budget - how much can you afford from your budget on what to buy and dream up what something that they can afford

RECIPES AND PRICING

1. How do I figure our what to buy and what to price?

2. How do you actually do an installation?

PRO TIP: Break everything into 1 foot of increments of the floral installation.

  • Do 1 foot or 1 block of the space to see how much that will cost and then multiply that amount by the space you have.
  • Flower Wall costs for their market
  • 10 foot flower wall. 8 Feet high and 10 feet wide.
  • $8000 for this is what they charge the client
Flower Wall Installation

HOW TO DO A FLOWER WALL

  • 20 oasis tiles
  • Flower wall structure
  • Tubs to transport tiles
  • Zip ties

Then add in delicate blooms on site for the wall.

They use a super cool other #GIRLBOSS called Amanda Veronee who makes floral structures that are easy to break down and put up. Check out her floral structures that you can buy from her here.

RECIPE for an 8 fee high by 10 feet wide flower wall installation

  • 545 roses
  • 400 spray roses
  • 300 carnations
  • 375 salal
  • 15 bales of southern s milax
  • 2 salal garlands

Here is a blog post that shows the floral arch that they talked about doing in their presentation at the conference.

Floral arch installation

FLORAL ARCH Installation

12 feet high by 4 feet wide

Mechanics of the floral arch installation

  • 1 metal arch - 6 foot
  • 2 cement columns - 5 feet
  • sand bags
  • chicken wire
  • zip ties

Product used in the floral arch

  • 2 bales of southern smila
  • 80 cedar
  • 100 juniper
  • 50 true blue eucalyptus
  • 250 spray roses
  • 300 spray roses
Hanging floral wreath installation

Hanging floral wreath

4 feet high by 8 feet wide

$5,800 total cost to the client.

Mechanics of the hanging floral wreath

  • 8 feet metal hay bale ring
  • carriage bolts and nuts
  • chicken wire
  • zip ties

Product used in the hanging floral wreath

  • 5 bales of southern smilax
  • 100 hydrangea
  • 150 spray roses

Good greenery for floral installs

  • southern smilax
  • busy ivy
  • ruscus
  • camelia
  • salal
  • eucalyptus
  • mountain laurel
  • plumosa
  • asparagus fern

Good flowers for floral installations

  • roses
  • majolika spray roses
  • hybrid delphinium
  • carnations
  • dried flowers of any kind

Ideas for the bones of the floral installations

  • Hay bale rings
  • Electrical conduit: shiny silver, thin, long pipes
  • Grid panel: when you go into a retail store and there are metal, cross hatch for their shelving. You can buy from store supplies and home depot has it in the home section of the store.
  • Wood: good for suspending things through it.
  • Chicken wire: love hate relationship. Great for installations but painful...
  • Welded frames: welding is not the most accessible but it is a lot easier to do.
  • Purchased structures: sometimes we buy arbors. A lot of their stuff is bought on amazon. You can also have custom structures made for you. Then you can re-use these and charge hourly fee for the rental of it.

Smaller tid bits to help you with your floral installations

  • Chicken wire
  • Zip ties: find some with weight limits on them. Go for the thicker plastic the better :) They buy them in white, green, browns etc and you can spray paint them for the right color they want.
  • PVC Pipes: it bends so be aware of that. If you aren't worried about the weight of the installation bending them you can use pvc pipes. If you want something white this works well too. Use white duct tape to cover any writing on the PVC pipe too.
  • Wire: 20 gauge is a good one. Thick, sturdy wire is a good investment to help you with the floral installations.
  • Bind wire: more comfortable on your hands. It is not thick though so not good for weight.
  • Fishing line: not great for weight but nice for hanging things when you don't want to see the wire.

The tools you need for floral installations via their bag of tricks for floral installations

  • Ladders
  • Stepstools
  • Sand bags
  • Staple gun
  • Drop cloths: for your trash and your stuff you want to throw out. Good for your breakdown of your floral installation too.
  • Drill and bits
  • Handsaw: small handsaw.
  • Home Depot: know where your hardware stores are so you can get their quickly.

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THEIR PROCESS ON DOING FLORAL INSTALLATIONS FOR CLIENTS

  • They don't always do a walk through. Will do them with the space if they have not worked there before. They don't do the walk through with the client. Talk to the venue coordinator about what you are going to do in your floral installation so you can get the venue comfortable about what you are going to do in their space.
  • Outsource rigging: If you are not comfortable with doing something and you want to get help for rigging then you need to price this into your budget and process. A lot of venues charge for things to be hung so make sure you know this.
  • Setup time: make sure you know how much time you have for the setup time at your floral installation and then price accordingly.
  • Water source: do you have a water source there on site? Make sure you are aware of the water source. If you are hanging floral installations then try and avoid water for these.
  • Custom builds: If you aren't comfortable building something then hire people you know for the project you are working on. Charge for the price of the custom build. For example: if you get a custom piece built and it cost you $750 you should charge the same fee for the rental on the piece for the floral installation too.
  • Weight: know the weight of things so you can be prepared for it.
  • Transportation: How are you going to get things there? Do you need to rent something to get your stuff to the venue?
  • PreDesign or OnSite

Rememeber that things will go wrong. Stay calm if something goes wrong and know that you bring extras and that you can figure it out. You figure it out and you figure out why it fell. Figure it out and stay calm and redo it. 

Thank you so much for your amazing insight into floral installations ladies. You two are amazing and the DC floral market is so lucky to have you two. You are my inspiration for growing my business this year and so thankful that I met you this week. These girls are the definition of GRIT, HUMBLE, HARD WORK and MAKING IT HAPPEN to get to your dream job and dream life. I want to be like you two. If you have a wedding in DC I highly recommend them. You can reach out to them here on their site for DC weddings. 

 

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Topics: floral tips, floral installations, floral knowledge

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