A wedding barometer: Eucalyptus is in high demand.
Michelle Boleski, a wedding and event floral designer, says the wholesale price of eucalyptus has soared from $8.95 for a 10-stem bunch in 2016 to $13 to $14 now. Part of the reason: After two years of pandemic, couples are finally planning weddings again. With that comes some shortages and price increases, especially in fashionable flowers and greenery, and eucalyptus is very much in fashion, she said.
Boleski, owner of Petals Floral Design in White River Junction, can sometimes solve a supply problem by buying locally. But this year, she said, a local farmer who normally supplies her has not been able to get starter plants, so she has been starting plants from seeds herself. But the one seed she cannot get is eucalyptus, because it is seemingly in demand everywhere.
A major trend in weddings right now “is to do local farms, local flowers, really organic big bouquets, loose,” Boleski said. “And so that’s a good thing for the farmers in Vermont, but it was hard to get products this year from them.”
The price of other greenery, such as Italian ruscus, is also going up, Boleski said.
Boleski specializes in Vermont destination weddings, mostly for couples from out of state. She designs floral arrangements for weddings at resorts such as Killington, Stowe, Quechee and Manchester. She also founded a nonprofit, Wedding & Event Vendor Alliance, to promote diversity in wedding planning.
Boleski has booked about 20 weddings this year and she has already quoted prices for most of these weddings. She now worries she may have to tack on a surcharge as some flowers and greenery become harder to get and more expensive.
But Tom Jennings, who owns Green Mountain Florist Supply, a wholesaler in Middlesex and South Burlington, sounds a bit more optimistic about the supply-side issues.
“So far I haven’t heard of any problems, shortages or otherwise,” said Jennings.
Jennings expects a “crazy” wedding season starting right after Mother’s Day and lasting until October. He said he works with one floral designer who is booked for 56 weddings this summer.
As Jennings sees it, flower supply problems often stem from later orders: The happy couple doesn’t give the wedding designer enough lead time to obtain the flowers.
“They wait so long that it becomes a freight issue because you have to FedEx stuff in,” Jennings said. “You have to jump through hoops to get stuff.”
He said he asks wedding floral designers to give him 21 days’ notice before they need the flowers.
“We’re dealing with artists,” Jennings said. “They’re last-minute people.”
Jennings said wedding floral designers are also responding to last-minute changes from their customers.
“The brides are changing their minds,” he said. “They’re adding on. The flowers are the one thing they feel they can change. You can’t change the booze. They can’t change the food. They can’t change the table settings.”
Ask Rick Trahan, innkeeper at The Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms, to describe the wedding volume this year, and his response leaves little doubt: “Absolutely off the charts.” Trahan said the inn has booked 21 big weddings this summer, almost twice as many as last year. From late May to October, he said, the inn has weddings every weekend.
“It looks like it’s going to be a really good year,” he said.
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