What to charge for wedding pillars?

[CatlinPM]

I strictly make palm wax pillars, and for regular customers that are ordering scented pillars I charge $10 for a 3" pillar $14 for a 6" pillar and $18 for a 9" pillar, a set of three is $40. I'm assuming I should be offering some kind of discount to do wedding pillars since they normally order quite a few of them and they are usually unscented:confused:? I had considered offering wholesale pricing (50%) but I don't want to shortchange myself either since making the number of pillars required for a wedding can be somewhat labor intensive. For those of you that do weddings, what do you charge for pillars? I'm open to any suggestions!

[Bernadette]

I do alot of wedding candles, and I don't know if this will be helpful to you or not, because I custom color to match wedding colors. I've been doing weddings for over 5 years now, and I know it's a stressful time for the bride and her family, but most can be very demanding and want everything absolutely perfect, which I can understand, but they call so often to see how the order is coming along, it's hard to get the orders done! I had to purchase a bluetooth so I can work while I'm talking to them! Matching colors can be very time consuming at times besides making the actual order, packaging, packing, and shipping. I don't make palm pillars(which are gorgeous); mine are paraffin, but have ornate, raised flowers and accents on them, so there is extra work involved. I think your pillars are already priced very reasonably, and a 50% discount would be too much if you face some of the above challenges. I require a minimum of 20 candles to offer a discount, and it is only 10% for that quantity. A couple of large online wedding candle sites sell the same pillars for more than I do already at the regular price, and don't offer custom coloring. Just my two cents!:tiptoe:

[beekeeper_sd]

I thought 50% sounded about right but then I was thinking 50% more than retail pricing!

It's been my experience that nothing you can do will ever completely satisfy a bride-to-be and her Mother! Especially if you are trying to match colors. You've seen Bridezillas? Yeah, keep that in mind!

Good luck!

[CatlinPM]

I thought 50% sounded about right but then I was thinking 50% more than retail pricing!

It's been my experience that nothing you can do will ever completely satisfy a bride-to-be and her Mother! Especially if you are trying to match colors. You've seen Bridezillas? Yeah, keep that in mind!

Good luck!

That's pretty much what my husband said! Except I think he called it a bull$&%t surcharge

[deb426]

I just read this post last night and boy am I glad I did. I was at a craft show today and a woman comes to me and wants to know if I could make candles for her wedding. She needs a soy votive, "just a little bigger than the normal votive." She whips out her fabric sample and says she needs it to match "this exact shade of lavender."

I immediately thought of what you guys said about Bridezilla. I thought it would be rude to run screaming from the room so I explained that I didn't think I could provide her with what she needs and steered her to the next candle booth at the show.

I feel like I dodged a bullet. I wouldn't have thought about all of the headaches a wedding order would bring.

Thanks!

Edited October 18, 2009 by deb426

[nursenancy]

Some people can be really nice, though. I recently made 200 plain unscented flower pots for a couple. I gave them a really good price and they knew it. So I asked them if they would be open to recycling some of them back to me after the wedding. They gave me back every one and they were still half full. So I was able to use the wax and the holders. Essentially they rented the candles from me....

That said, I surely would hate to try matching an exact color for someone

[Slowburn]

This is just my measly 2 cents, but I've never been the type to give discounts on anything I sell (maybe that's just me :smiley2:).

Instead I just add more value to what I do by giving away some really nice freebies along with their purchase. That way customers could complain, but usually the really nice freebie(s) keep them from throwing tantrums.

Here's an idea for a freebie. Give the couple a pretty, wrapped wedding gift of samples of your other candle varieties with a card. Inside the card you could put your wedding wishes and a certificate from Candeo that entitles her to a free candle party in her home (the bride to be will be totally caught off guard because she's not expecting a wedding gift from a stranger).

It's a nice gift for the bride a groom, but it's also another way for you to gain more exposure and get more customers. Because when you host the candle party for her later, you set yourself up for another opportunity to do business with the new bride and potentially gain new customers from the people she invites to the party.

Good Freebies=More Exposure and business

I hope that maybe this gives you some alternative ideas to wholesale pricing.

Edited October 18, 2009 by Slowburn

[Wildcrafter]

Your cost times 5 is retail. Half retail is wholesale.

So, if it costs you, say, 2.25 to make a candle, you would charge 11.25 retail, 5.63 wholesale.

There is a program: soapmaker.ca

that allows you to enter your ingredients, packaging, labor and everything else involved in your product, you also plug in the size/weight of the product and it will give you your cost per item. Plus it keeps inventory of both end product and materials and gives you a heads up when it's time to order/go into production.

It doesn't have to be just soap. I use it for all my products.

[CatlinPM]

This is just my measly 2 cents, but I've never been the type to give discounts on anything I sell (maybe that's just me :smiley2:).

Instead I just add more value to what I do by giving away some really nice freebies along with their purchase. That way customers could complain, but usually the really nice freebie(s) keep them from throwing tantrums.

Here's an idea for a freebie. Give the couple a pretty, wrapped wedding gift of samples of your other candle varieties with a card. Inside the card you could put your wedding wishes and a certificate from Candeo that entitles her to a free candle party in her home (the bride to be will be totally caught off guard because she's not expecting a wedding gift from a stranger).

It's a nice gift for the bride a groom, but it's also another way for you to gain more exposure and get more customers. Because when you host the candle party for her later, you set yourself up for another opportunity to do business with the new bride and potentially gain new customers from the people she invites to the party.

Good Freebies=More Exposure and business

I hope that maybe this gives you some alternative ideas to wholesale pricing.

I really like this idea! The bride to be that wants to order candles from me wants 60 pillars and I haven't given her a price quote yet, although she has visited my website and come to our market location to see them. I will definitely be charging full price, but I really like the "freebie" idea, thank you very much!