7 ways to use your broken stems and wow your clients!
Let's review 7 ways that you can use broken stems in your wedding designs to wow your clients.
Let me start by saying it is totally worth the time and effort it takes to save your short and broken stems while you are processing and designing your event flowers. As long as the bloom itself looks good, all is not lost. You'll find a constructive way to use it in your event. I'm going to give you 7 options here today.
Start out with a few small vases or jars filled with a bit of water. Then, begin to process your flowers. When you come across a broken stem cut it right above the broken point, and plece it in one of the jars. As you work through your designs keep these shorties within eyesight. That way you'll remember to use them when the opportunity strikes!
Spray roses make great boutonnieres
Pro Tip: Make your bouquets first! Then, make your boutonnieres. That way you can use all the little off shoots you trim from the bouquets in the boutonnieres and maximize your resources!
1. Use them in your boutonnieres. Broken stems are perfect for these tiny works of art.
You can sell what I like to call "mix and match" boutonnieres. What does that mean to your clients? The best way to explain it to them is this. I'll use a mix of the flowers we have planned for the bouquets and arrangements to build unique and fun boutonnieres. Each person who gets a boutonniere gets a unique design and you get the opportunity to use up your broken stems! It's just awesome.
2. Add them into your flatlay designs.
It's great to be a team player. When you work with vendors that have your back you want to reciprocate 10-fold. By showing up at the wedding with a few blooms for the photographer to take amazing pictures with you are doing a couple things right. You are showing them you want to make them look good and in turn hopefully they'll hightlight your flowers, recommend you more often, and share/tag you in their images. Lots of word-of -mouth referrals from other vendors are a huge part of what made my business so sucessful. Nothing beats a beautiful image of an invitation suite, bridal details, wedding rings and broken stems shot from above!
3. Surprise your clients with bonus place settings at the head table.
Broken Stems make great place settings at a wedding
Pro Tip: Save your broken stems of greenery. Then, use them as little place-settings for the head table like I did here.
This is such a sweet little bonus for the head table! You can use anything from spray roses to greenery sprigs. If you only have a few broken blooms, stick to decorating just the place settings for the couple. It's the little details they notice that show you've gone above and beyond to help.
I know your thinking about going over budget here. It can be easy to overbuy when your concerned about broken stems and having enough to fill out all your designs. . If you tend to struggle with overbuying flowers on many of your weddings, EveryStem can help. It's an amazing system I developed after over 15 years in the floral design industry. It helps you to price your flowers correctly, order accurately with your wholesalers, and even helps track your profitability. That last part is so fantastic. Let me tell you. If you are using EveryStem to calculate your profits. The costs of all of your flowers are included in the profit margin the system automatically calculates for you. That means you'll have practically no waste, achieve your margin goals, and add a little suprise for the couple at their reception. Now, that is a win!
Use broken stems on your cake
Pro Tip: Use toothpicks to extend the stems of broken blooms as you decorate the cake!
4. Have a lot of broken blooms? Decorate the cake with them!
You will most likely be cutting the blooms for cake decorating quite short. So, here is the perfect opportunity to use these little shorties up. Broken stems are ideal for cake designs. If you need to add back some legnth to the stem use toothpicks instead of floral wire!
5. Make flower confetti out of your broken stems.
Flower children can toss confetti as they walk down the aisle. Or guests can toss it while the coupe exits the reception. This project does take a little more time and space than the others because you need to dry and store the petals until you have enough, but it's totally worth it when the right client comes along!
6. Don't forget your little bud vases.
Every Stem Floral Design Pro Tips
Pro Tip: I ordered 6 bunches of tulips for this event. Half of them snapped about 6 inches from the bloom. Those are the ones I used in my bud vases leaving the longer stems for my installation piece.
You can design those broken blooms right into the bud vases. Also, use them as filler in tucked low inside compotes and centerpieces. They are perfect for creating depth!
7. Broken blooms work well on signage too!
Last, buy certainly not least use them on the wedding signage! Dig deep into your toolbox for glue-dots. Oh, and if you don't have glue-dots in your toolbox go buy some tomorrow! They work amazingly well. You can attach spray roses, sprigs of greenery, orchid blooms, ranunculus, and other smaller blooms to seating charts and welcome signs galore!
I hope these ideas spark your imagination! Did I miss a great way to use broken stems? If you know of one I didn't mention, please comment below!
Until next time,
LuAnn