We need to talk about… QUALITY!
Quality is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart for many reasons. Prior to starting this business, I spent almost two decades in the technology industry, most recently in Quality Assurance. So as you can imagine, when it comes to quality, I care… a lot. If you ask me, anything that’s worth doing is worth doing right. Likewise, anything worth investing in is worth choosing the best product you can get for your money. We all work hard, and we want the things we spend our hard earned cash on to stand the test of time. I’m like this with everything: if I buy a piece of furniture, I spend more to get a high quality item that will last for years - even if it means saving up longer before I can make the purchase. The saying “you get what you pay for” is always in the back of my mind guiding my decision making.
Faux florals are no different. No matter the wedding, I buy the highest quality flowers I can get my hands on. This typically means sourcing your flowers from different places: multiple stores and online. The place that carries the best faux roses is usually not the same place that carries the best hydrangeas. This means more running around and searching on my end… but it’s worth it. You end up with a quality product that 1) looks real and 2) is sturdy and long-lasting. Here’s an example: this morning, I returned several bunches of faux pampas grass I’d ordered online because it looked shiny and fake. I went to two stores to find a dried variety, but didn’t like any of what I found. I went to a third store (further away) that I know sells “the good stuff”. Yes, this takes time, and that’s a quick glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes far before your arrangements are ever built. My point is, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing it right.
Let’s take a few examples. Not naming where I’ve bought these flowers, look at these two peony-style flowers. The one on the left looks real. It’s full, and includes fine details like how the petals curl. Now look at the one on the right. For the sake of this comparison, I made both images look the same size - but in reality, the flower on the right is much smaller than the other. It isn’t just sparse, but you can see the cloth material the petals are made of - it isn’t smooth. It’s also attached to a thin wire instead of a nice thick stem. That’s a NOPE from me.
Next, check out these roses. The one on the left I hand-picked from my favorite supplier. The petals have a velvety, realistic feel to them, the stems are deeply colored with a lifelike texture (minus thorns!), and the way the petals lay in a non-uniform way makes it look incredibly real. I stared at it in the store for a while thinking to myself “if someone told me this is real, I’d believe them.” It’s gorgeous and clearly made it into my shopping cart! The rose on the right was bought online so unfortunately I was not able to see it beforehand, and I was super disappointed when the bunch of them arrived. Like the peony example, it’s really small compared to the other - which means you would need more of them to fill up space in an arrangement. The green portions look fake, and again you can see the fabric. Like the previous example, it’s also held up on a single piece of wire. Simply put, it’s poor quality, and I would never use it for myself or a client.
Possibly my favorite example of all - here are two bunches of eucalyptus. These were both purchased from the same place, and needless to say, I returned the one on the right after using it as an example for this post. Let’s start with the bunch on the left. It's full, it looks real, and the color is true to life. Thumbs up! Now look at the picture on the right. It’s not only a thinner bunch, meaning you can see more stems, but the stems look plastic and fake. The color doesn’t look real. And my least favorite part: the backs of the leaves are a completely different, unfinished texture, as you can see on some of them. You couldn’t use these in an arrangement because you would see the “bad sides” of the leaves constantly from various angles. This is a NO GO!
Hand-picking every flower and piece of greenery that goes into your bouquets is extremely important to me. Quality should be important to any wedding vendor you choose. What I deliver to you represents not just my brand, but it represents what matters to me. And that is: producing something my couples can be thrilled with and proud to call theirs.
