Turks & Caicos - Wholesale Flowers?

sss39 · May 24, 2012

Does anyone know if there are wholesale flower shops on the island? I cannot wrap my mind around having $1000 centerpieces for 3 hours that I can't take home with me...

Wondering if there is a cheaper route...let me know, thank you!!!

Tropical Imaging · May 25, 2012

There are no wholesale flower shops. Remember, the population of the entire country of 9 islands is 20,000 people. It's only in the past 5-6 years that we have had 2 flower shops. All of the flowers except for bougainvillea have to be flown in (and refrigerated along the way, + import duties and clearing fees of over 35%, it's not surprising that flowers can get expensive quickly here). We're a very dry island; Native vegetation consists of cactus and scrub brush and with a limestone rock base and very little rainfall, growing flowers here for a retail base is just not an option. I am always amazed when I see what our flower shops on island do considering how much has to be brought on island and timed exactly for the wedding day (shipping etc). Sorry there isn't another option, we just aren't that big...

I know a lot of brides look at real touch style flowers for bouquets so they can come back home with them, as well as flower pin bouquets and we have even had some made of shells. I have tried to tag a bunch of details from our brides on my Pinterest acct if you want to see some different ideas. I have two wedding specific boards, wedding locations and wedding details...both show lots of reception and dinner set ups along with the resorts etc and a link to the blog post if you want to see who did the work.

Krys

Here are the links to those boards

http://pinterest.com/krysmann/turks-and-caicos-wedding-locations/

http://pinterest.com/krysmann/wedding-details-from-our-brides/

turksbride12 · May 29, 2012

Krys- your posts are so so helpful!

I am using Environmental Arts and we arent doing very flower heavy centerpieces as I cannot stomach $20/stem for peonies. Natalie at EA will work with you based on your budget and while very friendly and helpful, the team isnt that great and getting back to you promptly so it may be a few days/week or so before you hear back but their work is great.

Tropical Imaging · May 29, 2012

believe me, it's cheaper for husbands to give jewelry than flowers here, but refrigeration on airplanes is expensive. Actually, anything on airplanes is expensive these days.

With response time, please be aware that it is CRAZY busy with weddings right now here. For us, All of our photographers are booked out day in and day out and we have numerous days we could have booked over and over if we had more photographers. We've got LOTS of weddings this week alone and EA is probably doing the flowers for the majority of them and others so their main focus is on brides who are on island. Last week we had a number of weddings on Sunday as hotels were fully booked for weddings on Saturday. Know they will give you the same attention when you are here but I do know they are working flat out and emails will be delayed. So are the rest of the wedding vendors on island. It's not unusual for April/May to see long work days and in the case of my husband 3-4 weeks without a day off. Natalie the owner of EA had a baby not long ago and was back on full work weeks within days of arriving back on island.

Be patient, our busiest time is this Apr/May/June period, things slow down some in July and then August/Sept tend to be catch up months. It doesn't hurt to send a reminder email as well. Sometimes our local servers are not efficient so keep that in mind as well. (I have things that have gone into spam that make no sense). I personally don't mind a reminder email, it keeps me on my toes!

Krys

sss39 · May 30, 2012

Thanks so much ya'll. I have been working with EA but I also have a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that flowers are so expensive there!