Today, I hope to provide an adequate explanation for why Urban Desert Flora has a minimum spend. A minimum spend is the minimum budget I will work with to design wedding flowers.
Let's get the numbers out of the way first:
Intimate Wedding or Elopement: $800
Destination Event: $1,000 - This increased minimum spend reflects the extra mile I must go in order to make your day come to life. This includes purchasing park permits, along with, the mileage and time required to service your event in the wilderness.
One-time Special Delivery: $300 - This is a steep price, I know. However, it more accurately reflects the value of the work that goes into a single flower arrangement. I will ultimately travel 1-3 hours to source blooms for your order, process those blooms, feed those blooms, keep them safe and pristine in cool storage, then use my design knowledge and skills to create a one-of-a-kind arrangement for delivery right to you! This is usually utilized for anniversaries or other special intimate occasions.
Here's the thought process behind these prices:
Flowers are a luxury product with a luxury price. This is especially true when working with premium blooms and quality growers!
My floral design style is characterized by using premium local cut flowers supplemented with premium and luxe blooms from the global market. I use multiple varieties of blooms and foliage in my designs to create dimension, movement, texture, and full, luscious arrangements.
This look, along with most of the wedding inspiration photos seen on Pinterest, are more expensive to create.
Ultimately, I am providing a specialized floral service in the most sustainable way. I view my business through lenses of sustainability, which means I get to create small opportunities for more sustainable practices. This leads me to spend a lot of time repurposing and reclaiming materials for reuse, and researching sustainable materials to use within my designs.
I provide a specialized service to make sure your flowers are as eco-friendly and make as minimum of an environmental impact as possible. Flowers are grown in favorable climates all over the world. Most flowers that you can buy are grown in Colombia, Kenya, Ecuador, or the Netherlands and shipped to the US for use. Once a flower is cut, it must be kept cold at every step of transport. This requires the use of many refrigerated trucks and other modes of transport. By sourcing as close to home as possible, I am able to cut down the total carbon footprint of your flower order.
I am very mindful of the human cost of globally produced flowers. When sourcing from the global market, I stay as close to home as possible. Whenever it should arise that I need to step outside of the US for sourcing, I make sure to only purchase from farms that have been certified by the Rain Forest Alliance, Fair Trade USA, or Fairtrade. These three organizations support my fellow flower industry laborers by establishing standard wages, pesticide regulation, and labor rights. The organizations offer much more for my industry colleagues working at certified flower farms. Those are just a few of the benefits provided.
Finally, I am not a traditional flower shop. I personally pick out and pick-up blooms for your event from the farms where they are grown. There are no delivery people bringing your blooms to my crib. I have established close relationships with local cut-flower growers, and work hard to maintain them! I determine what region of Arizona will have most of your blooms in the colors you want, and begin connecting with growers to plan and design the pieces for your event. This means I sometimes am spending an entire day traveling this beautiful state with precious blooms in tow. I have to make sure the blooms are cool and fed until I can get them home for processing. Having a minimum spend ensures that ALL blooms ordered are utilized so that none are left over. Because I do not function as a normal flower shop, I cannot sell excess blooms. It is important that I am able to use every single stem ordered for your event!
My ultimate goal is to provide you flowers that you can truly feel good about. When you enter a partnership with Urban Desert Flora you are supporting local people in your community, ethical labor and human rights practices, and lessen the chance of harsh chemical exposure.