Make It Blog

I ordered flowers today for a friend of mine. *update: the photo above is of the actual arrangement she received* I’ve had nothing but good experiences ordering flowers for friends and family. And I order flowers at least a few times a year. All the times I’ve heard of others having problems, the flowers were ordered through a fancy webpage. I’m sure they have great flowers, but I’ve always gone local and never had a problem.

Here are my tips for ordering flowers:

Finding a Florist:

• Find a florist near the recipient. I’ve always had much better experiences when dealing with the florist directly. Plus, you save on delivery fees.

1.  
   1. Go to Google Maps and type in the address of the recipient
   2. Click on “Search Nearby” and type “florists”
   3. Check out your favorite review sites (Yelp, Kudzu, Facebook, etc.) for reviews

Before you Order:

• Have information handy: delivery address/phone number (hospital room number if applicable), hours of operation (if it’s a business), and your credit card number.
• Know you’re “out the door” budget. This includes: arrangement, vase, delivery fee, tax and gratuity.
• Figure out what you want the card to say.
• If you’re not familiar with flower types, it’s nice to be near a computer so you can google images suggestions.

Ordering an arrangement:

• Call and say “My best friend just had a baby and I would like to send flowers, do you have a minute to take my order? Or should I call back?”
• Ask what the delivery fee to the address is
• I usually give suggestions and then leave it up to florist:  “something cheerful, with lots of pink because she had a girl” or “her favorite flowers are gerber daisies.”
• I give a price range “I’d like the flowers to be in the $45 range, including a vase” (Sometimes I ask if there are unique vases available – I’d rather pay a little extra for a square vase or something cool that the ugly vases you can sometimes get).
• Do you have a bunch of flowers that are particularly beautiful (ie: affordable) right now?
• I say that I’d rather have a simple arrangement with more flowers than a big arrangement with green fillers.
• I have asked florists to pix message me arrangements in the past and they’ve always been very open to it!

Small touches

• Ask the florist if they have a facebook page or a webpage you can leave positive feedback on.
• Once they give you a total, tell them you’d like to add gratuity for the driver
• For the card, check out www.verseit.com for ideas on what to say
• If there is time, consider overnighting a card so it’s signed by you (ask if this is okay)
• If you don’t need delivery, you could call ahead to place (and pay for) your order.