Image of Ti-Leaf Leis taken by me.
Written by Maritess
You don't know how many times I wanted to say that to get people's attention when we were selling leis last week. I thought it was quite catchy. However we were selling at high school graduations. It probably wouldn’t be appropriate.
June 10th was Independence (San Jose, CA) HS' graduation. We picked our high school Alma mater’s graduation to sell our very first batch of leis. This is what we've learned:
1) Get there ridiculously early to claim the front of the parking lot area.
You get the best visibility there. The ladies out there were probably there around 3pm for a 6pm ceremony!
2) Offer variety of inventory.
I suggested getting Kukui and Ti Leaves leis on top of our orchid leis. And our orchid leis were white so it wasn't your average fuchsia lei. This caught much interest especially our candy leis and Ti Leaves.
3) White orchids appear to welt faster.
After consulting with a daughter of a florist she said that's the con of white orchids. She suggested lightly dyeing the edges to disguise the welts. I might have to try that out.
4) Carry most of your fresh leis in a box.
We wore ours for convenience. Maybe out of the three of us I had the most trouble wearing them. I was stepping on them, dropping them, etc.
5) Get creative with leis.
I saw several versions of our candy leis. Watch out competitors, I have ideas that I hope will revolutionize the candy-lei world. LOL. People were impressed with our Ti-leaves. I am going to put some money origami and ribbon flowers in a couple of them next year.
6) Check with the school months before graduation.
We made the best sale near the entrance but got booted because the school was selling their versions of candy leis.
7) Think about your inventory
We overbought. Thank goodness it's not too much overage. We will break up the orders of supplies for our fresh leis next year.
8) Take pre-orders
I think this will help to get our fresh leis out sooner!
9) Sell with your CRAZY friends.
This experience couldn't be fun without energetic and bold friends.
Leis are really simple to make. But it’s not really worth it unless you can get your supplies at wholesale. Buy it from someone who makes it. They have the tools, supplies, and time to make it personal for you. We are still selling some if you want them for special occasion. I recommend money leis/ribbon leis for wedding, cotillions, quinceaneras, and welcome home. Inquire your ideas and we can try to draft a personal leis. I’ll post more photos soon.
Source of my wedding photo here
Disclaimer: Our wedding leis were not of Crazy Crafter but a friend of ours. I was just using an example of leis being used for special occasion. Please inquire if you're interested in her work.
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