Wedding Planning Decisions, This vs That with Kelly McWilliams

Affordable Elegance: The Rise of Rental Wedding Florals

• Kelly A McWilliams • Season 6 • Episode 4

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Ever dreamt of a budget-friendly, sustainable, and no-hassle solution for your wedding flowers? Meet our guest Lauren, the co-founder and CEO of Something Borrowed Blooms, a game-changer in the wedding industry. They've brought the revolutionary concept of renting wedding flowers to life, saving couples up to 70% on their floral arrangements. 

This concept is a GAME CHANGER for our industry and such a budget-friendly way to have a gorgeous day. And so great for your other wedding celebrations too (Really! It's not just about weddings, their service can be utilized for rehearsal dinners, welcome parties, engagement parties and more). 

Something Borrowed Blooms has already been a part of over 25,000 weddings. From bridal bouquets to corsages, centerpieces and decor, they offer an assortment of over 17 different collections, all delivered to your doorstep three days before the event. Plus, with prepaid shipping labels, all you need to do is pack it back in the box and ship it back after your big day.

Special series season in partnership with Coded Agency

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Something Borrowed Blooms was founded in 2015 with a mission to revolutionize the wedding flower industry. Recently married, we knew how expensive and complicated the fresh flower market could be. Since then, we’ve been dedicated to providing the highest quality and on-trend floral designs and decor to couples from coast to coast . With our rent-and-return system, you’re guaranteed to have the flowers you love without the high price tag of traditional wedding flowers. Our constantly expanding rental options include bouquets, boutonnieres, garlands, flower combs and crowns, centerpieces, aisle markers, and so much more for your special day.

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sbblooms/

Places to go - People to see:

Kelly's Site: http://www.kellymcwilliams.com
Kelly's Blog: https://www.kellymcwilliams.com/blog
Instagram: @kellyamcwilliams


About Kelly:
Kelly knows how incredible a well planned wedding can be. Every moment counts and every decision plays a part. Wedding planning should be fun and as easy to do as possible. Besides planning weddings, Kelly travels the globe as an industry speaker. Kelly is a Martha Stewart Top Wedding Planner & this podcast won Brides magazine and WeddingWire's best podcast.

Need a little help planning your wedding?

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to this versus that making wedding decisions with Kelly McWilliams. This podcast is for you if you're making a wedding decision and want to know what to consider before saying I do to all the things that will make your wedding experience a great one. I'm your host, kelly McWilliams, and I'm so glad to be a part of your wedding planning journey. In each episode, you can count on me and my expert wedding co-hosts to give you everything it takes to make the best decisions for the wedding that you're dreaming of. Hey, it's me. We're back to this mini series that we are recording in the middle of New York Bridal Market Fashion Week at Melange de Blanc. We're brought to you by Coded Agency, which built this incredible studio for us.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so this is the. I think it's the one interview that wasn't just designers, this is Something Borrowed Blims and I had the pleasure of speaking with Lauren, who blew my mind during this interview. You guys, I had no idea, like none. So enjoy, be inspired, look them up, push all the buttons, say yes, I really. I was just blown away by the brilliance of these two ladies. Lauren was with us during the episode just as a again as a reminder. Hundreds of people walking by you guys. There's even a coffee station like 15 feet right outside, and so you might hear like it sounds like hammers, but it's really like the espresso getting pressed in and coffee beans being ground. It's insane here, but it just feels the vibe. So, but I'm so excited for this episode. Okay, I'm so glad you're here with me today, because we were supposed to be remote doing this and now we get to do it in person I know so much better.

Speaker 1:

Everything happens very recently. Yeah, except for now, we're sharing a microphone and, like, our faces are like three inches from the microphone. So, guys, as you know, we're in Milan, st Blanc, in New York, at the bridal market, and there will likely be lots of noise that you're hearing in the background, as we've heard all morning and all day yesterday, but I'm so excited to have you in the show because you have something so different from everything else. So, if you want to tell everyone kind of just like, well, let's talk about what it is that you have available to engage couples, and then I want to talk about you specifically and how something borrowed from being something borrowed blooms.

Speaker 2:

Okay, perfect Can you repeat. Yes, so happy to be here with you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, I'm.

Speaker 2:

Lauren, I am the co-founder and CEO of something borrowed blooms, and we specialize in rent and return wedding flowers, so that means we use premium silk flowers to build up collections that we offer to couples for the weekend of their wedding, saving them about 70% off of fresh, warm prices. Oh my gosh, that much, yes, like mega savings.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I didn't know you'd come at me with that.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Everyone's ears just perked up, wait what?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so we are helping couples save thousands of dollars in the wedding budget. In fact, an average order with something borrowed blooms for the wedding is about $500 to $600. Yeah, it's mega, mega savings.

Speaker 1:

See, this is the one thing I hate about podcasts, because no one can see my face when.

Speaker 2:

I do things like that.

Speaker 1:

But what you heard, my face also gave that.

Speaker 2:

Yes, okay.

Speaker 2:

I know right. So, yeah, I mean really, when we started this company, that was like our mission was to offer more affordable but also convenient and sustainable solution for wedding flowers. So we're just really proud of what we offer and how it all works, and also the fact that we've been part of over 25,000 weddings at this point, and couples all over the country are just really resonating and just appreciating this option of renting flowers rather than spending so much on these beautiful florals but at the night they literally end up in the trash. So just the more, I think, just overall, better solution to something that has been very segment for a while.

Speaker 1:

I had no idea first of all, 25,000 weddings. So how?

Speaker 2:

long have you guys? We've been in business for almost eight years.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really, yeah, we have so first few years I know right.

Speaker 2:

So first few years that it was very much like. Is this going to work? Is anybody going to want to rent their wedding flowers? And since then we've been growing pretty crazy. So we're doing about 1200 weddings a month right now and we ship them all throughout the US and Canada. Are they all coming from one place? Yes, we are actually located in South Louisiana.

Speaker 1:

Oh get out of town. I know another one of those reactions. Who would have thought?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, yeah. So we're based in Louisiana, but we're able to ship nationwide and the process is super simple. So couples are able to go to the website. We have over 17 different collections to choose from. Each collection has everything you need for the wedding day. So you have bridal bouquets, bridesmaids bouquets, boutonniers, corsages, flower garbles, dog collars, centerpieces and the three different sizes garlands, and we have a full line of decor. So like think candlesticks and lanterns and all the other beautiful things you want. But what do you even do with 24 lanterns after your wedding day? So you rent them for you know much better pricing and send them back, and so everything gets delivered to the customer three days before the event date, so they have it for the weekend of the wedding. We include prepaid shipping labels, so all they do is put it back in the box and show it back to us on the following business day.

Speaker 1:

So Okay, that sounds so easy. Yeah, right, and it just I'm thinking, not only can you do it for your wedding day, you can do it for a rehearsal dinner or a welcome party.

Speaker 2:

engagement parties, all the things, all the events. Exactly that's what we're seeing, a lot more. We've been super focused on weddings, but now we're seeing people say, hey, I want to use this for my bridal shower or after the wedding day, and they're now hosting a baby shower for a friend and they want to use it for a baby shower. So definitely lots of ways you can use it. We've been, like I said, very focused on weddings. You know we have a big goal of capturing 10% of the US wedding market.

Speaker 1:

That's like what we're going after that's a great goal, I know right, but I think about it all the time and I keep telling myself.

Speaker 2:

If we had 10 brides in this room right now and give them all the options for wedding flowers, I guarantee one of them would say yes.

Speaker 1:

Oh, for sure, For sure. So that's what we're changing, even if, like I said, even if you approach it from maybe you didn't think that you could have florals for all of your weddings, this would allow you to do that. Yeah, absolutely, it's like 100%.

Speaker 2:

Or, if you know, we also see a lot of couples renting like mixing, like fresh and fresh. So you know they have a sizable budget, they know where they want to prioritize fresh florals. But they're realizing, hey, I can like still maximize my budget. Get like maybe the larger grand and centerpieces or maybe a lot of garland for a beautiful arch install. That, would you know if you went fresh, would cost you about tens of thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1:

Sure.

Speaker 2:

Whereas you can rent it and it'll call you, cost you maybe like a couple hundred, maybe $1,500, most you know. And I think that's the way that people are kind of realizing like wait, okay, I have, this is my budget. How can I make it go further? Right, and you can make it go further by renting from something Barre Blooms, yeah.

Speaker 1:

That is so cool. Okay, so can you explain the whole process? Sure, just like start to finish. Okay, someone goes to the something Barre Blooms website and then what happens there? There's like oh, you pick a collection and is it that you like? It's like one package like it just comes automatically with all these things, or do you pick the pieces that you need?

Speaker 2:

You can pick and choose. So everything's rented individually. Oh, okay, so we believe that every bride has different needs and we don't want to fit anybody into a box, so it's really meant to be curated to exactly what you want. No more, no less. So that means every single item is individually, like, available for rent, or some items are purchased. So when you go to the website, you can look at all the collections we offer. But even if you're still kind of getting familiar with this, a great place to go is our Instagram page at.

Speaker 1:

SB Blooms.

Speaker 2:

We have so much content from like real weddings, you'll see the collections that like stand out to you, so you kind of get a feel for what we offer. And then we also have a private Facebook group called SB Blooms Insiders where we have a ton of bride to bride collaborations that brides posting questions brides posting wedding pictures from their own weddings, and it's a really, really good community.

Speaker 2:

So if you go to the website and you want to like just kind of get started, you can browse.

Speaker 2:

That way. You can also take a Bloom Styler quiz and we have this little quiz where it asks you like what's your theme, what's your color palette, and you go through all the questions and answer those and then, based on your answers, we recommend what we believe would be like your top collections that you should consider. Yeah, and it also builds at your cart, depending on how big your wedding party is. So you like tell them how many bridesmaids do you have, like how many guests do you have, and it'll suggest like a certain number of centerpieces, a certain number of boutonniers or Christages or whatever it might be. So that's a good way to kind of just get started. Like, if you are kind of like I have no idea what I want, don't know where to go, that's a good like starting point. And then, once you kind of get familiar with the collections, you also can rent a preview pack if that's something you wanted to do, so you can see the items in person ahead of time.

Speaker 1:

I really wish everyone could see my face right now, because I can feel my face like that's so smart. Yeah, I feel so much better just to like, because you only hear silk flowers and they can't really be good Exactly, but then to be able to see it in person and be like oh no, this is better than that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome, yeah. So Preview Pack is any two items you can choose from, either Bridesmaid Spokasus or Cinderpieces, and you can mix and match collections or pick one from the same each one. And it's a good way to get them in person, get your hands on them, kind of get comfortable with. Ok, it's the style, the quality, the color I was expecting. It's also great to use as the planning tool. So if you have, like Bridesmaid's dress color swatches and you're trying to figure out, your florals with your colors.

Speaker 2:

that works. You can also use a centerpiece, like make a mock tablescape and like take photos and like hand it off to your day of coordinator and say this is how I want my tables to look. You know, it's a really good planning tool for that as well. And then, if you do the Preview Pack, you also get $20 and rewards points to use towards a wedding flower order. So once the Preview Pack's done you haven't thought of it all, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean, look, we're trying to make this like super, like convenient and stress free for couples. That's obviously the goal. So, yeah, we're trying to do everything we can to make it easier. So Preview Pack is definitely something that you can do if you want to kind of see it ahead of time, but then, once you're ready to place your order, you add items you want to your cart. We have a lot of couples who also mix and match among collections, so it's a lot of collections that kind of like coordinate with each other.

Speaker 2:

So, for example, if you wanted an all white bouquet for yourself, you could go with, like, the Eloise Blanc bouquet, and then if you wanted more colorful centerpieces, you could go with the Marlowe centerpieces, you know, and they kind of work together. So it really allows a couple to really feel like they're getting you know something really custom and really what they want, and not having to stick within just one collection. However, if you are someone who's like I don't know, just like, tell me what I need and you stay within one collection, then you know that every single piece will coordinate beautifully and you can absolutely do that and you'll have a very cohesive, beautiful look as well. So you add the items to your cart, we place you, you want to check out, you are a charge of a few percent deposit that holds your items for your event date, and then we also have a feature where couples are actually able to edit their order up until 10 days before their event date. This is something we're super passionate about.

Speaker 1:

We know things change.

Speaker 2:

You know you have a bridesmaid that drops out or oh, now you need an extra table counter, whatever it might be, and rather than having to email somebody or, you know, make sure that the vendor knows you need more product, you can just log into your customer portal, add the items to your cart or delete items or change collections or whatever you need to do, and you have, like, full control over your order during that time and then, once it's time to ship your order, you're charged the remaining balance and then the order gets shipped and delivered to you three days before the event date and then, once you receive those products, we'll have a prepaid return label inside. You can also select to have your florals scented, if you want, for your wedding day. What so? When you open the box, it smells like beautiful florals. The whole experience is really amazing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I need to know how that came to be.

Speaker 2:

Okay, is there a story behind that I mean it's not very amazing, but yes. So the first time I ever went to Dallas Market to source stems, like to go to look for florals, I was walking through the temp section and there was this guy there selling drawer liners like in these boxes, like drawer liners and I just happened to smell one. I'm like, oh my God, this smells amazing. I'm like we could use this to scent the flowers. It was just like one of those like aha random moments and then I've been buying from him for like eight years and now we have them branded with our logo and it's a whole thing. Wait, so do you just put it at the bottom of the box? Yeah, it's actually at the top of the box. When you open it, it just like smells like flowers. It's so great we get so much viewer customers like, oh my God, I wish I had this like scent in a bottle or something like that.

Speaker 1:

I have goosebumps and that is not where I thought this interview was going to go. Like that is so smart? Yeah, because it makes you feel more real.

Speaker 2:

Even Exactly we never wanted this to feel like this is something that you were sacrificing. You know we wanted this to be like An amazing decision that you felt so good about, and that you know you were getting the same experience, if not better, than you would have gone with a traditional florist, and so that was the part that we wanted to make sure we got right.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my gosh, I'm so blown away. Okay, so tell me how this whole thing Really came to me.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I started the company of my cousin Lincoln so we're first cousins and we started about eight years ago and we were really just inspired to start a business together and originally rent the runway is what just like kind of really Got us motivated about something that was different and that was just taking off at the time, and we love the idea of being able to rent a high ticket item for a fraction of the cost.

Speaker 2:

And we're like, how can we apply this concept to a different industry and what this point in our lives we were going to weddings every other weekend felt like and we were seeing friends and family trying to save money in the wedding budget and a lot of times that fell in the floor on florals, but the outcome was never really great. You know, it's like maybe some baby's breath and like a little mason jar or something like that just wasn't a good outcome and so we started talking about that and that's kind of how this idea collided. And then I reflected on my own wedding day and I had a really bad wedding flower experience.

Speaker 1:

You know, oh dear.

Speaker 2:

I had to, like. You know the whole thing like take him off of work to meet with multiple florists to get several quotes and you finally just slide on one and then you show her the pictures and you assume you're on the same page. And then they have. The wedding shows up with this box of flowers that were not what I expected, and you know by that point it's hours before you're walking down the aisle. So what are you gonna do?

Speaker 2:

nothing, there's nothing exactly, and you've spent the thousands of dollars and then at the end of the night they literally get thrown away. And I had major buyers remorse. I was like this has got to be better, we have got to fix this. And so it's kind of like reflecting on that and the written return concept in the weddings and it all just like collided and we're like we're gonna do, we're gonna rip wedding flowers right, and I think that you know the main thing was like we have to make sure they're beautiful and on trends and they aren't like your craft store. How do you want to be flowers?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that's been like part of our main mission to like sourcing the highest quality beautiful florals. We also employ a lot of actually trained florist.

Speaker 1:

Put the products together and refresh them between every rental, so they look just like you would expect a fresh bouquet to look so and you said something earlier that Takes me off like okay, this is not just exactly what you said, like hobby lobby, right? I mean nothing, I guess I'd be like yeah right immediately. That was what was in my head exactly. But then you said I want to Dallas, yeah, to pick the blooms of the stems, yeah, oh, like you really work on this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is not just so. Can you tell me how all of that like, how do you come up with your collection?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, so we usually we usually launch one new collection every year, okay, and it's usually about an 18 to 24 month like process in the in the making.

Speaker 2:

So, wow, it's like we start, you know, kind of conceptualizing either a gap that we have in our current offering, like what are we missing that our customers are asking for, or what are we seeing trending that we think can be popular, you know, for the next few years. And so we really spend a lot of time just kind of researching and deciding, like what it is we want to offer. And then from there We'll go to market, we'll source the stem. So we'll spend a couple days sourcing like maybe 10 different individual stems, like not a lot of products, but we spend that much time, wow, scouring every potential option. And then we also work with our vendors to customize those Stems for us specifically, so we'll have exclusive designs, like we'll, you know, change the color or the petals shape or the material type, whatever it might be, to make it sure it's exactly what we need. Now this is something we've been able to do as we've grown. We've already.

Speaker 2:

We weren't buying that yeah, much product, so we didn't have that much buying power, but now that we do, we can get really, you know, a lot more involved with the Whole process of like creating that, the product, which is really great. And so we'll do that. And then we'll come back and we'll have our design team start building out designs For each product. So it's like the bouquets, the boutonniers, like every single item in the product line or in the category it's built, and then, once those are approved, then the recipes are in place and then we start like producing like several hundreds, sometimes thousands of those pieces, so, and then we get them ready for lunch and then we launch it. In your relationship, I'm dumbfounded.

Speaker 1:

Did you know that was gonna happen? Is it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, is this everyone's reaction yeah, if you, I can tell, like if they, if they really aren't familiar with who you are, what we did. When I start talking about it like wait, what? Yeah?

Speaker 1:

I just didn't realize it was that expensive. Yeah, like this. Yeah, this feels so cultured to me. At the same time, like I did, I thought something completely different. I'm blown away. I cannot wait to like, dive more into this yeah. And you can have a snipe and just flowers, like there's like Full line decor.

Speaker 2:

So I mean like centerpieces, we have like lots of different candlestick options with LED, beautiful LED candles that look so realistic. You rent all of those. We have lanterns, we have like neon signs, we have I'm trying to think all the things Bud bases oh my gosh. Yeah, we have greenery garland. You know different kind of products like that as well, and so everything gets like okay, let's take your like your average order.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Is it like one big box or several boxes? Just want to give everyone kind of heads up Like this usually looks like An average order is about three boxes, okay, and our box sizes are normal.

Speaker 2:

Our average, our wedding box size, what we call it, is 2020 by 16. Okay, and we have a centerpiece box size which is 26 by 20 by 16. So it's a little bit bigger, but that's about. Average is like three boxes. Now we also have orders that are like 40 boxes.

Speaker 1:

But you know what? It's those weddings that they're able to have that wedding Absolutely, because they're able to do it.

Speaker 2:

This way Absolutely Like. If you look at an order that would be 40 boxes, you're probably looking at a four to $5,000 order with us, but that literally would have been probably $25,000.

Speaker 1:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. That's the difference, you know, and so, yeah, it's insane. It's crazy how much people can save and it's crazy how much product you can get for like a really reasonable amount of money.

Speaker 1:

And beautiful too, Absolutely. I mean, I was just able to look at the website a little bit, but everything looked so pretty and I'm excited for everyone listening to like. Go on your Instagram and be like what is happening right now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, check out Instagram at SV Blooms. And then also like one of the things that we hear from so many of our customers which to me, like just makes my heart like explode, is that they say that using something for our blooms was their best wedding decision. Really, and we know how many decisions brides make along the wedding planning process.

Speaker 1:

So many, I made a podcast about it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and if you were ranking something for our blooms as number one, like to me, there is no higher compliment Like I'm like. My work here is done.

Speaker 1:

I can die now.

Speaker 2:

This is fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Don't stop.

Speaker 2:

I know.

Speaker 1:

This is absolutely amazing. I am so, so happy that you came in Thank you. I just really didn't have any idea, and if I didn't have any idea that I know that everyone listening did yeah, a few of them are. But this is like game changer. Yes, I'm so excited about this, and that I mean, you know, when the brand's been built up enough, where there's so much available to choose from, they're really very excited.

Speaker 2:

Thank you me too.

Speaker 1:

All right, thanks so much.

Speaker 1:

I'm so glad to be able to share my wedding experiences and expertise with you, and that my co-hosts are so giving it theirs. We truly do want you to have the best time at your wedding, and our hope is that this podcast is helping you to make your engagement time while planning your wedding that much easier. May I ask a favor of you? If this is the case, would you just take a moment to leave a review of this podcast on your listening platform? It helps people just like you to find the podcast and to also find out their answer so they can make decisions. I would also absolutely love for you to give this versus that podcast a shout out on your social media. You can find us at this versus that wedding podcast on Instagram, and if you would like me to help you with a specific question, a wedding decision, please by all means ask, send me a DM. I would love to hear from you and maybe, just maybe even have you as a wedding guest on a future episode. How fun. We'll see you soon at another great wedding.