Today we’re going to talk about how to place an order for flowers and actually get what you’re ordering. This article is the transcript from the helpful video by our friend and pro florist, Robbin Yelverton.

Too much to read? Robbin explains it all in the video at the bottom of this post! Don’t miss the video!

Good Clear Communication

A lot of times things seem to get lost in translation. For example, there are 3 words that people use all the time when placing an order, which are: Flowers, Bouquet, & Arrangements. It’s funny how they will use those 3 words, and in a lot of cases think those words mean the same thing. These 3 words are not synonyms. They are not the same thing when you are talking to a florist.

• Flowers refers to the actual flower. If you are talking about tulips, that’s a flower.
• Bouquet, often people will use the word bouquet in exchange for arrangement, but to us as professional floral designers, a bouquet is something you carry, like a wedding bouquet. In some cases, we refer to an arrangement of loose flowers gathered together and presented as a wrapped bouquet that someone then takes out of the wrap and places in a vase for arranging.
• Arrangement or design. Now that implies that it is flowers arranged in a container and then sold together in the container.

So most of the time when people call in to order flowers, they’re really calling to order an arrangement. So remember to be clear.

The thing about ordering flowers, it’s sorta like playing the game of 20 Questions. You have to provide enough information that the person taking the order understands what you’re saying and then is able to transfer this information to the designer to make sure it gets created the way you wanted, and then gets delivered to the person it’s supposed to go to correctly.

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