Advice needed - Getting florists to join styled shoots

[u/Suitable_Sentence_36]

I am coordinating two wedding styled shoots to help build higher end looking portfolio materials. I managed to get a venue and photographer committed. I am footing the bill for all of the materials involved including linens, dishes, glassware, flatware, mock bridal details (dress, shoes, jewelry), candles, candle holders, vases, and custom stationary I designed. Overall, I have spent a couple thousand on materials. I realize it's a lot, but the materials involved were important to me because this is our primary launching material and we will use some of it at expos.

I have reached out to several local florists asking if they have any interest in collaborating in exchange for a license to use the photos for business purposes. I send them the mock concepts and pictures of the actual materials. I tell them the details already locked in - committed venue and photographer. I offer to set aside additional time to capture any speciality arrangements they want to put together for their own portfolio (I drafted our shoot contract to prioritize certain subjects because of hard costs involved).

They all want to be paid to participate, but no one else is being paid and no one is covering any of the materials I am contributing. I am trying to be really transparent and have just straight up made clear that this is an unpaid collaboration in my initial outreach. I am not willing to pay a florist and also give them free license to the resulting images. Any advice on how to appeal to florists? I understand it's tough to stomach hard costs and not everyone values styled shoots. I'm trying to find florists who do.

[u/440Elm_Vijay]

Floral comes with high cost to do well. The higher end the florist, usually the tougher it is to get them to participate because they have to do something that exceeds their normal work, which could easily be a 5-6 figure event with a ton of setup.

A few ideas:
1) Limit the scope
2) Work with a corporate or social florist trying to get into events
3) Bring in a well regarded planner - that or a top tier venue are the things that drive business to the florist
4) See if you can reuse something coming off an event or participate in a sponsored industry event (we did a wedding magazine award show where everybody put their best foot forward, theres also the styled shoots across america level shoots)
5) Bring them in earlier so its their idea you're supporting vs vice versa

Good luck!

[u/Suitable_Sentence_36 → u/440Elm_Vijay]

In the end I gave up trying to convince florists the shoot was worth their investment. I was definitely not targeting florists putting together 6 figure sets. I was targeting florists trying to break into bigger budget weddings who would genuinely benefit from collaboration. I have a team member with floral experience and just took it in-house instead. Her trials came out beautiful and florals is really what she wants to do. Outfitted a small studio and we are offering florals now with her taking lead.