Little Island Farm

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Do you like the idea of designing your own wedding flowers? Many brides or event planners consider this option as a means to save money. There's a lot more to consider than cost alone when choosing this option.  Here's a great resource - Are DIY Flowers Right for Me? - to help you decide whether or not to design your own event flowers. Please be aware that what you actually save when you do DIY flowers for your event is the cost of labor and overhead charged by a traditional florist.  Flowers are expensive and although you are saving some cost by buying them in bulk, unless you are a licensed business you are still paying retail prices.

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Little Island Flowers is still a young flower farm in it's eighth year of operation. We are continually adding to our variety of woody shrubs and perennial foliage sources, but some of these take years to establish. So our ability to provide a wide variety of foliage beyond what can grow annually or forage locally may be limited. There are some foliages commonly used in wedding designs and seen on Pinterest or Instagram that we just can't grow.  We also grow an assortment of annual and perennial flowers but do not grow roses or tropical type of flowers also commonly seen in wedding designs on Pinterest and Instagram. We are a flower farm and can only offer what is in bloom and available on our farm at the time of your event.  

 

Based on this, Little Island Flowers offers two options for people who want to DIY their own event flowers from May through end of September. We offer:

 

Option 1 - Farm Buckets  - These are buckets of sustainably grown seasonal flowers and foliage for DIY designs for special events and weddings. Each bucket contains a mix of fresh cut bouquet/arrangement ingredients including focal flowers, filler and foliage that are grown on our farm at the time of your event or foraged from local forests.  Locally foraged greens may include salal, ferns, huckleberry, etc.

 

Prices for these buckets are:

$75 for seasonal flowers/foliage in mixed colors

$95 for buckets with a specific flower color scheme

Note: We'll do our best to accommodate specific requests, however bucket contents are our choice and generally contain between 40-65 stems depending on type and size of floral material in each bucket.

 

Brides and Event Planners who choose the Farm Bucket option should be very flexible with their color options and open to a wide variety of colors. We are a flower farm and can only offer what is in bloom and available on our farm at the time of your event. We haven't figured out yet how to control Mother Nature, so while we can project what we might have available on your date, we can not guarantee we'll have it. We can however guarantee your flowers and foliage will be fresh cut and locally grown. If you are less flexible, want more floral options, color choice and/or certainty, Option 2 might be a better choice for you.

 

If you want quantities (10 stems or more) of premium focal flowers such as sunflowers, hydrangeas, lisianthus, dahlias, lilies, and peonies, they must be ordered separately as they are priced by the stem or bunch. Some premium flowers may end up in your buckets, however if you want a large quantity, they need to be ordered separately. Premium purchases do count towards your minimum purchase requirement.

 

We have a minimum purchase requirement of $250 for Farm Bucket orders.

 

Option 2 - Farm/Market Buckets  - These are buckets and bunches of seasonal flowers and foliage from our farm combined with flowers and foliage we do not grow or have available at the time of your event that are sourced from local wholesale sources, including the Portland Flower Market.  These wholesale sources are not open to the general public.  In this option, we give you access to the product those sources have, although you will pay bulk retail prices for your it.

 

While some of the foliage and filler flowers sourced at the wholesale markets can be included in your "buckets" at no additional cost, premium focal blooms such as roses, tropicals or out-of-season blooms will be priced separately by the bunch.  These purchases count towards your minimum purchase requirement.

 

In this option, we're going to provide as much of our own farm grown flowers and foliage as we can. We expect this to be the bulk of your order since we believe you choose us because you want local flowers for your event. When we purchase off-farm products to sell to you, we do our best to source locally grown, including California grown flowers. However depending on your needs and your budget, some product that meets your needs and may be more cost effective is available from non-US sources. We overwhelmingly support local purchasing! We also understand that some events require specialized needs that we can't meet locally and want to streamline your event flower purchase by providing you with these non-local options as well.

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Prices for these buckets in this option are:

$95 for seasonal flowers/foliage in mixed colors

$110 for buckets with a specific flower color scheme

Note: We'll do our best to accommodate specific requests, however bucket contents are our choice and generally contain between 40-65 stems depending on type and size of floral material in each bucket.  Prices for this option are higher to cover costs associated with ordering and purchasing off-farm as well as additional consulting time needed to confirm off-farm product choices.

 

We have a minimum purchase requirement of $450 for Farm/Market Bucket orders.

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Regardless of the option you choose and given the time commitment of cutting for a bulk flower purchase, we'll only cut for one wedding or event a week during the season of May through mid-October. Plan ahead and reserve your date soon!

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It's also up to you to tell us the types and number of flowers and foliage you need. Although some floral design assistance is included in Option 2 Farm/Market Buckets, it is not included with the Option 1 Farm Buckets purchase. We can provide private design consultations for $50/hour with a one hour minimum.  

 

There are lots of online resources to help you with this question - a quick internet search on "how many flowers should I order for a DIY wedding?" will yield lots of sites with helpful information.

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How do I order Flower Buckets?

Start by contacting us to confirm bulk flower and desired date availability. A non-refundable deposit of $75 for Option 1 and $150 for Option 2 and signed contract is required to reserve your wedding week. Your deposit will go towards your cost for the total order, and you'll pay the remaining balance at least one week (Option 1) or two weeks (Option 2) prior to your pick up date.

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We'll harvest your flowers and have them ready for pick up at our farm on an agreed date (usually  2-3 days prior to your wedding). We'll provide buckets to transport your flowers home, but may suggest you provide tall buckets for any extra long stem requests. 

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Once home, flowers should be stored in a cool room or basement, out of direct sunlight and away from food and pets.  NEVER store flowers in the freezer!

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More questions? Contact us.

 

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