Penny’s By Plaza Flowers
Receiving timely and complete flower orders from growers has become an extreme challenge for many florists in the past three years. It is now very important that if you are needing to have Wedding Flowers in the next 6-9 months, you should start contacting a florist like Penny’s By Plaza Flowers today. We have a wonderful selection of flowers and a professional team of wedding planning experts. We would be honored to get started with you in planning your wedding.
The flower shortage facing all florists is a culmination of several factors. One thing is for sure, many florists are feeling the pinch and doing their best to find ways to continue servicing their client base.
Global Pandemic – We all understand the impact this horrific event had worldwide. This 2020 event snowballed into effecting many different industries including Wholesale Flower Growers. Many had to shut down farms due to quarantine requirements. This in turn resulted in laying off many workers and destroying tons of flowers. Some farms have not reopened and appear to have gone out of business.
Breaking it down further to real numbers, the National Association of Wholesale Distributors reported that there were 5.64 million employed in the US floral industry at the end of December 2020. That equates to 247,717 jobs lost between 2019 and 2020. That is the lowest level of floral industry employment in the past seven years. Then furthering the problem was the reduced number of flowers that were grown.
As people have gotten back to normal and begun planning events again, there are now fewer flowers and workers to load trucks. Sadly, many flowers are left to die in the heat because they cannot be loaded onto trucks.
Environmental Changes – Climates in some regions where flowers are grown have changed. In South America, they are reporting colder nights and more rainfall which has negatively affected flower production. Then domestically, many farms are located in California which as we know has been suffering from severe drought conditions.
Foreign Political Pressures – In many parts of the world there is current political unrest. This is true in Ecuador which is a major supplier of wholesale flowers. There are many protests that have blocked major transportation routes. Numerous flower farms are unable or finding it difficult to transport their flowers to shippers.
Increased Number of Weddings – There is a huge increase in the number of weddings. Many were postponed due to the Pandemic. The U.S. Wedding Report study reported that in 2021 there were an estimated 1.93 million weddings scheduled. That number for 2022 has climbed to 2.47 million. This increase in the demand for wedding flowers coupled with the supply issues is making the problem worse.
Like the majority of US Florists, Penny’s By Plaza Flowers has adjusted normal day to day procedures in order to best serve customers. Below are a few of the steps we have taken best serve our customers in these difficult flower supply conditions.
Accurate Expectations – The last thing we want to do is over promise and under deliver. When we set up a wedding consultation, we will provide honest and reasonable time frames to ensure your wedding flowers arrive on time and looking beautiful.
Early Wedding Bookings – Your wedding is a very important day. Due to the issues, we are all faced with regarding fresh flowers supply, we strongly encourage advance wedding planning.
Possible Substitutions – Unfortunately, it may be necessary to be flexible with wedding flower choices. While you will have first choices for your dream wedding flowers, it may not be possible in all cases to obtain those exact flowers.
Our mission is to do our very best to find alternatives to try and meet your expectations. One thing we are good at is flexing flowers. This is a technique that makes different varieties of flowers appear similar to the variety you are wanting. For example, Roses can be flexed to look like a Peony or Tulips to look like Gardenias etc.
Penny’s By Plaza offers the best wedding flowers in Philadelphia. Our wedding and event team is one of the best in the state. They have years of experience and can handle weddings and events of all sizes. We have designed and handled venue set-up for many of the areas to wedding and event venues.
Our firm creates gorgeous wedding and event flowers, that are affordably priced. We can provide you with a complete turn-key floral solution. Our expert staff will help you plan everything, right down to the finest details. We handle the floral design, flower delivery, venue flower set-up and take down after the event.
Plaza Flowers has been creating gorgeous wedding flowers and bridal bouquets for many years. Our flower shop has been voted best in Philadelphia on numerous occasions. We employ a team of incredibly talented wedding and event planners. If you are getting ready to plan your wedding, we encourage you to reach out to one of our expert wedding planners. We offer FREE Wedding Consultations. Our wedding planners can help you with every step of the wedding flower planning process.
When you come in for your initial wedding consultation, we will ask you to share your vision for wedding flowers with us. We want to understand the exact floral ambiance and atmosphere that you are hoping to achieve. Once we understand your vision, our staff can help you select the perfect flowers, design and presentation styles that will work best in the wedding venue you have selected.
The bridal bouquets that we create are fabulous. We buy many of the flowers we sell direct from flower farms. Buying direct from flower farms ensures that we can offer a wide variety of flowers. It also ensures that every bouquet we create will be fresh and beautiful. Our award-winning floral designers specialize in custom designs. Each custom bouquet that our team creates will be unique, luxurious and absolutely stunning.
Bridal bouquets come in many different styles. We create traditional designs, contemporary designs, luxurious cascading bouquets, ultra-popular nosegay bouquets and gorgeous custom hand-tied bouquet designs.
Our firm is one of the most trusted floral brands operating in the Philadelphia area. We have been in business since 1983. Over the past 30 years, we have quickly become one of the premier wedding and event flower design firms anywhere in the state. For years we were known as Plaza Flowers. A few years ago, we purchased Penny’s Flowers. Today, we have merged the two brands and operate as Penny’s By Plaza Flowers.
We operate two flower shop locations in the Philadelphia area. Our Plaza Flowers location is at 417 Egypt Road, Norristown, PA 19403. Our Penny’s Flowers location is at 263 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, PA 19038.
