As prices climb and some budgets shrink, flowers are one of the first things to be scaled back, or cut completely. Here are designers who planners say get more bloom for the buck.
When Keiko Okutsu, development associate of events at the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation, needed 30 purple bouquets the day before the Unicorn Dream Dinner fund-raiser, she turned to Fa the Flower Shop to deliver the floral arrangements on time and on budget, for $35 to $50 each. She says the company helps her cut costs by letting her return vases after an event and by creating centerpieces that double as gift bouquets. “It’s important to give creative flexibility, so I give Fa a budget and tell them the things I can’t budge on, like colour scheme and style,” says Okutsu. “Then I let them do what they do best, which is design great arrangements.”
Jasmine Taulla, special events manager at the AIDS Committee of Toronto, recommends Boeket Floral Boutique for its cost-effective floral arrangements. For Snap!, a contemporary photography fund-raiser the organization holds in the fall, the flower shop provided large arrangements—almost four feet high and eight inches wide—of orange gladiolas, exotic greens, and blue rocks in rectangular glass vases for $85 each. Boeket also provided smaller centerpieces with orange roses and blue hydrangeas for $25 apiece. Vases, which aren’t included in the cost, can be rented for half the retail price.
Sunnybrook Foundation special events officer April Hazan helps plan 130 events each year for the hospital fund-raising organization, including the Women’s Health Golf Classic. At last May’s tournament, Hazan sourced seasonally appropriate pink azalea arrangements with shiny pink wrapping from the Summerhill Market for $20 apiece. “They were really efficient, which is great when you’re planning a golf tournament because you have so many other things to think about,” says Hazan, who bought raffia from a craft store to add a finishing design touch to the centerpieces.
