I'm Allison, the owner and designer at Hydrangea Bloom, a luxury wedding florist in Iowa City. I used the same floral software for 10 years, and I loved it. If you run a big production team, it's probably still the best option out there, and if what I use now isn't a fit for you, I'd recommend it first. My business changed, and the way I'd always sold weddings stopped working for me.
Couples shop differently now
There's been a massive shift in how couples buy and in what they need to know before they make a wedding decision. My software didn't change much, and its new release moved away from how a florist actually works.
So the marketing and sales side of me came out, and I did the market research to find the industry's pain points. Everything came back to prices. Couples' biggest frustration with the wedding industry is that they don't know what anything costs or how to budget for it. You could say every wedding is custom and a phone call is easy. Now multiply that call by every vendor category, and then by the three vendors they're comparing in each one. That's a lot of calls.
I was making a proposal for everyone
For years, every inquiry got a beautiful curated proposal. I thought that was what set me apart, but really it was a waste of my time and the couple's, because plenty of those couples were never going to book at my prices. That was on me to fix. You know what they say: don't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
What I do now
1. Prices first, with a calculator on my website
Couples build their own estimate from my real prices before they ever reach out. The ones far outside my range move on, and the ones who inquire already know roughly what their flowers will cost. I truly believe it's a waste of time to turn every inquiry into a proposal before the couple is qualified, and qualifying them is what the calculator does.
2. A proposal in 20 minutes, from the estimate they built
When a qualified couple sends their estimate, it becomes the start of their proposal, and I can finish one in 20 minutes or less. I've cracked the code on a proposal that's beautiful and still books at about 90%.
3. Design work after the retainer
I don't spend time on mockups or detailed design until the retainer is paid.
What happened
I booked $163k in 9 weeks, and my booking rate is around 90%. Instead of doing more, I do less now, and it has given me my time and my passion back. Couples tell me they love how simple it is, how it looks, and that everything from their first estimate to their signed contract happens in one place.
If you're thinking about switching
Whatever you're considering, these are the questions I'd ask:
Does it start before the inquiry? Can couples see your pricing on your website and build an estimate, or does everything begin with a contact form?
How long does one proposal take? If it's hours, you can't afford to send one to every inquiry.
Can the couple do everything in one place? Estimate, proposal, contract, signature and payments behind one link is a lot easier on them than five tools and five logins.
Does it fit the size of your team? A big production team and a one-designer studio need different things.
Can you change your own prices? If they live in a PDF or with a developer, they'll go out of date.
The setup I use now is Flowery florist software, which I built for my own studio and now share with other florists. It covers the pricing calculator on your website, then proposals, contracts and payments in one place. See how it works for wedding florists →
