That Valentine's Day week nearly broke me as a florist

Last February, I had 87 custom orders come in over just 3 days. I was working until 11 PM every night and my refrigerator storage was completely full. The worst part was when a bride's mom showed up 2 hours early to pick up a bridal shower arrangement that wasn't even wrapped yet. Has anyone else had a holiday season that spiraled way out of control like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.troy3mo ago

Ray_miller41 I get what you're saying but I don't think a free coffee would have fixed anything. The issue is that people refuse to understand how much work goes into custom orders. Flowers aren't sitting around in a back room waiting. They show up fresh and need to be prepped, stripped, cut, arranged, and cared for over days. The bride's mom showing up early just threw the whole schedule off. Last minute changes and early pickups are the real problem, not the actual workload. People need to respect the timeline that was agreed on.

ray_miller414mo ago

Did you at least give her a free cup of coffee while she waited? That sounds like a nightmare, honestly. I've seen that sort of thing happen to a friend who runs a bakery around Christmas. She had a customer show up a full day early for a wedding cake and got mad when it wasn't ready yet. People just don't realize the chaos behind the scenes. They think we have a warehouse full of flowers just sitting there waiting for them. It's the last minute changes and early pickups that really mess up the whole flow of the day.

kevin_harris784mo ago

ray_miller41 you hit the nail on the head with that coffee thing but honestly I woulda been too annoyed to offer. Reminds me of this time my buddy runs a small auto shop and a guy rolls in at 4:55 on a Friday demanding a full brake job because he swore he called ahead. We checked the log and nothing. People just hear what they want to hear I swear. The last minute drama is always what kills the whole day's schedule not the actual work itself. It's like they think we're just sitting around waiting for them to show up with their problems.