Supplier view: Florist

May 20

Here at Wiskow & White, we’re proud to work with the best suppliers in Italy and from around the world. In this series of blogs, we’ll be hearing from suppliers themselves on how coronavirus has impacted their business and how it might affect future weddings in Italy.

First up, we have the lovely Marta who is the founder of Flower’s Living, a florist based in Arezzo, with a huge team that work on around 200 weddings a year in Italy. We asked Marta a few burning questions -

How has coronavirus impacted your business?

In 2020 we had over 200 weddings booked from April to October. When coronavirus first came, we thought that it might be temporary and things would calm down. But of course now we can see that the situation is really bad and will go on for some time. All our weddings from April to July have been postponed and we are so grateful to everyone for postponing rather than cancelling our service. It allows us to keep our business going, planning for the years ahead and importantly paying for our premises and our staff.

And now, some weddings from August have been postponed. Some are still planned and we wait more news about when there will be the possibility to travel. Of course this is very complicated for each country.

The situation here in Italy is improving and we are out of the lockdown but at the moment we have no work because events are not permitted.

What has been your policy on postponing weddings and why?

We “freeze” the proposal so they don’t have to pay more even if the price of flowers will increase from the growers. The deposit they have paid is still valid and we have asked for a small second deposit at the moment of the reschedule to help keep the business going. All the deposits will be subtracted from the balance.

We chose this policy because it works to support and protect both parties. Everyone has been very understanding.

How do you think weddings might change when they can happen again?

It will be interesting to see how the government decide to open up events. What size will they be? Will we all be permitted to wear masks and make other considerations? We need to think about how to keep everyone, including our staff safe.

How are things looking for Flower’s Living in 2021?

At the moment we have our calendar almost full for 2021 and we also have lots of request for 2022 so we are motivated and very happy to know that couples are considering their future wedding in our beautiful and unique Italy.

Do you think the flower market might change after this?

I don’t think that in 2021 the prices of flowers will increase .. at the moment they are the same as always.

For the future weddings we would love to buy flowers only from local growers because we want to help the Italian economy to raise from a such a dark moment .

Final word?

Together, we are stronger than the virus and we will start again with more beautiful set up and with positive vibes. Your wedding will be even more special when it happens and we cannot wait to celebrate with you.

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Huge thanks to Marta for answering our questions and giving us some insight into how tough things have been. It’s great to see the collaboration between couples, planners and florists to allow rescheduling of weddings so easily, in a way that seems to work for all. We’re also pleased to hear that prices will hopefully stay the same and with even more flowers coming from Italy, not only will that support the Italian economy, but also the environment.

Next time, we’ll be speaking to a wedding caterer.

Thanks always,

Lucy