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Making Arrangements
Funeral and Sympathy Designs |
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Written by Rebecca Dumais
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Funeral and sympathy arrangements can bring a sense of peace, and even
a smile, to a client’s face. During this heavyhearted occasion, it’s
important to listen to your customers to determine what they want to
say about their loved ones with flowers, and perhaps inject some
lightheartedness and creativity into your work.
 Funeral and sympathy arrangements can bring a sense of peace, and even a smile, to a client’s face. During this heavyhearted occasion, it’s important to listen to your customers to determine what they want to say about their loved ones with flowers, and perhaps inject some lightheartedness and creativity into your work.
Depending on the age group, requests vary from traditional to creative. “We do a lot of garden-style casket sprays which contain anything and everything and also a fair amount of tropical designs containing bird of paradise or blue delphinium, which I believe is attributed to the age group of my client base,” notes Petra Janssen, owner of Wascana Flower Shoppe in Regina, Saskatchewan. Also, orange tiger lilies, curly willow, twigs – very modern, natural looks, and wheat (of course) are popular in her shop. She sees that a mix of bright, lively colours to celebrate the life of the deceased has become more popular, yet she continues to get requests for monochromatic arrangements in white tones.
 Popular flowers frequently used in everyday design are crossing over, including tulips, hydrangeas, viburnum, twigs and grasses, according to Patti Custaloe, co-owner of Creations by Mom & Me Inc. in Kelowna, British Columbia. “They’re flowing over to funeral work,” she explains, but adds that traditional, long-lasting flowers such as carnations, daisies and gladiolas still have their place.
When it comes to colour, Custaloe notes that older clients prefer traditional red and white, “but we’re finding younger clients prefer modern, earthy looks with lots of greenery - anything that gives off a natural garden style. It’s from one extreme to the other,” she observes. Funeral and sympathy work doesn’t necessarily follow a seasonal colour trend, but “we do get more calls for fall tones for services that might be held anywhere from September to October,” she notes.
Anne Smith, owner of Anne Smith Creations in Fredericton, New Brunswick, utilizes lots of gerbera daisies and other non-traditional blooms. “People are very open and quite happy not to have the standard arrangement and instead have a beautiful arrangement to take home,” she says.
Tips to Working with Funeral Homes
• When delivering wreaths to a funeral home, make sure you provide an easel. Some funeral homes may not have one, so offer your clients the choice to rent or purchase an easel when they’re ordering the arrangement.
• Offer to deliver arrangements from the funeral home to families’ homes after the service. Funeral homes are often asked to deliver them, but they are not equipped to do this. By offering a delivery service before and after the service, you will help the grieving family and the funeral home.
• Send duplicate cards with each arrangement. The personalized card can be given to the family and the second card can remain with the arrangement as identification.
• When delivering, be punctual and courteous. If you are constantly late when delivering floral tributes, funeral directors become wary of using your services.
• Avoid containers that don’t stand up easily or are too heavy. Depending on the number of flowers, funeral staff may have to move arrangements around.
• Most funeral directors are responsible for setting up, moving, cleaning, delivering, and disposing of floral arrangements. Any help you can provide will make a positive impact when funeral directors are considering who to work with for their next clients.
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Colour-wise, Smith says common requests are for monochromatic tones in white, or perhaps the deceased’s favourite colour, such as an urn garden she recently created for a woman who was like an aunt to her. “She loved red,” says Smith. “I created a monochromatic arrangement full of stunning reds. It was a modified casket spray with the urn nestled into the center of what looked like a garden.” She adds that other clients, however, will opt for polychromatic arrangements if perhaps their loved one was a colourful, vivacious person. “We try to reflect the person’s personality in the flowers,” she adds.
According to Smith, “arrangements containing pillar candles have gained momentum, such as an oasis wreath ring, which can be discarded but the candle can be kept and lit in memory of the deceased during special occasions or holidays,” she notes. “We don’t do standard maché containers – in fact, people don’t even ask for them any longer.”
Today clients put much more thought into the arrangements – so they best reflect their memory of the deceased – than ever before. Janssen feels this is because funeral services themselves have become more personalized – not so generic. “I think now our work reflects this, such as what they did, or what their personality was like,” she explains.
Much of this involves incorporating memorabilia of the deceased into an arrangement. “We had one where (the client) brought in a model semi trailer that actually contained the remains, and we built a spray underneath it,” mentions Janssen. Her shop has also begun adding butterflies if the deceased was young and had young children, as butterflies symbolize the loss of a loved one. “The children can take them home as a remembrance,” she explains.
Other types of mementoes used include handkerchiefs, fishing rods, and other sports-related pieces, or in Smith’s case: “We did put a stick in the middle of one spray arrangement for an owner’s dog, because he used to love to play fetch.”
Custaloe cautions, however that accessorizing sympathy work does require a bit of prudence – it must be tasteful. “Sometimes arrangements can be more lighthearted, depending on the feeling of the family,” she explains.
Spending adequate time with your clients to find out about the family and the deceased will help you create a tasteful arrangement that is a visual expression of their loved one. Plus, for many of your customers, it might be the first time they’ve purchased flowers and it’s important to have the right staff member dealing with their needs. “I have one person that does the majority of our funeral consulting work,” tells Custaloe. She advises that all florists should have someone that can specialize in this area, as it’s such an emotional time. “It’s more personal and it’s also a great opportunity to build your business, because that family will remember you,” she adds.
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