Raining Petals at the Wedding

By Peng Chunxia Translation： Yu Lan

Raining Petals at the Wedding

By Peng Chunxia Translation： Yu Lan

W ang Qian, the owner of a flower shop,once attended the wedding ceremony of a friend.Seeing the falling plastic petals at the site, she couldn’t help but asking the bride: “Isn’t it more romantic to use real petals?”

The bride smiled and said:“It is too expensive. How much more money would be wasted on it!”

This reminded Wang of the flower baskets sent back to the store after events. The leftover flowers and petals were just thrown away. Why not make use of them? She wondered.Collecting the petals of those deserted flowers and selling them to wedding planning companies would not only achieve the dream of real petals raining at weddings but also turn waste into wealth.

Without delay, Wang started to collect all the flowers that were sent back to her store. She found out, however, the petals were not enough. After calculating, she decided to use two thousand yuan per year, purchasing used flowers from ten other flower shops.

Together with her peers, Wang tore off the petals and put them into different bags according to color. There were the light pink petals of China roses, the violet ones from hyacinth, and the burning red petals of roses.Staring at the bags of petals with delightful fragrance, Wang saw her prosperous future.

However, things didn’t go as planned. Instead of bright future,Wang encountered big trouble.

Fresh petals only last a few days, but weddings only happened every few weeks. Large amounts of petals withered and dried out.In order to maintain freshness,Wang had to water these petals frequently. As a result,customers complained that the water-loaded petals were too heavy and fell to the ground immediately, which failed to produce the effect of confetti.Many regular customers stopped purchasing from her store. Two months later, the total loss caused by this service reached ten thousand yuan.

鮮花店店主王茜參加朋友的婚禮，看著現場撒下五顏六色的塑料花瓣，她不禁問新娘：“用鮮花瓣豈不是顯得更浪漫？”

新娘笑著說：“鮮花那么貴，一場婚禮撒下來得多少錢啊。”

王茜想到店鋪平時回收的花籃，鮮花都扔進了垃圾箱，如果把這些殘花瓣收集起來賣給婚慶公司，在婚禮上下起真正的“花瓣雨”，豈不是變廢為寶的美事？

說干就干，王茜開始收集店鋪所有回收的鮮花。但她發現僅靠自己的花店，花瓣量遠遠不夠。初步核算后，她決定以每年2000元的費用，與10家花店簽訂收購殘花的協議。

王茜和員工把那些色澤鮮艷的花瓣一片片撕下后，再按不同顏色分別裝進塑料袋：淡粉的月季、淺紫的風信子、火紅的玫瑰……看著一袋袋散發著清香的花瓣，王茜仿佛看到了美好的未來。

但美好的未來還沒有如期而至，王茜就遇上了一個大麻煩。

因為花瓣的保鮮期只有兩三天，而婚禮十天半個月才碰到一次，大量囤積的花瓣逐漸干枯腐爛。為了延長花瓣保鮮期，王茜不得不頻繁地給它們灑水，卻很快收到客戶反饋：“花瓣的水分太重，向上一撒，馬上就落到地面，很難在空中營造出五彩繽紛的意境。”很多老客戶停止了購買，兩個月下來一核算，這項業務，王茜凈虧損一萬多元。

痛定思痛后，王茜苦苦思索，她想，如果把鮮花瓣加工成干花瓣，既能長期保存，又能減輕花瓣的重量，所有問題不就都解決了？

王茜開始查資料尋找加工方法。由于前期囤積了大量的花瓣，在急于求成的迫切期望下，她最初決定采用烘干機搭配干燥劑來制作干花，但這種理論上的速成干花法，很快便以失敗告終。花瓣不是烘得太干而變形失色，就是水分沒有完全蒸發，繼續腐爛。

實驗一段時間后，王茜逐漸沉下心來，不再考慮盈虧的問題，只想一門心思解決眼前這個大難題。經過一次又一次的試驗，她最終借助制作葡萄干的室內自然風干法，成功地讓鮮花瓣變成了干花瓣。

這些散發著淡淡清香的干花瓣制造的浪漫氣氛，很快，就贏得了新人們的喜愛。一位女白領說：“婚禮現場，當五彩花瓣在空中劃著優美的弧線飄落時，我感覺自己就是童話中的公主……”此后再無懸念，王茜的干花瓣勢如破竹，順利開啟了婚慶市場的大門。

王茜索性不再做鮮花生意，把店名也改成“花瓣專賣店”。

She started to probe ways on solving this problem and came up with a new method: drying the fresh petals. This way, the petals cannot only be preserved longer, but also become lighter.

Wang searched online for the method. With a great amount of petals waiting to be processed, she was anxious for success and decided to dry the petals with dryers and desiccants. However, this method only worked theoretically and failed to bring the desired effect. Some petals were faded and lost shape due to the strong heat, while others failed to dry out completely and continued to decay.

After the experiment, Wang decided to de-prioritize profits and losses aside, and focus on the project. After countless trials, she succeeded with a method of indoor natural withering—turning the fresh petals into dried ones.

These dried petals had a light fragrance and created a romantic atmosphere. Soon, they won people’s hearts. One bride said at her wedding: “When I saw the petals falling down gently, I felt like a princess in a fairy tale.” Wang’s dried petals swept the market with irresistible force.

Then, Wang stopped her fresh flower business and changed the name of her shop to “Petal Shop.”

After researching the market,she found out crafts using dried petals might be a commercial opportunity. Soon, she purchased some delicate bottles and put flowers in them according to the twelve constellations. In the advertisement, a small bottle became a lucky keepsake that would bring happiness and joy. Buying a“Constellation Petal Bottle” soon became a new trend among young people.

Wang decided to seize the opportunity. She soon built her own processing factory which mass produced “Petal Bottles,” and turned her main business from retail to producing and wholesaling.

Wang also started an online wholesale service and registered her own company, producing and selling classic products while also developing new ones. Three months later, new petal tea bags, petal bath bags, and petal masks were launched on the market.

When the 25-year-old girl talked about how she carved out her career, she said: “The number of ways to make use of the petals depends on your wisdom; the amount of wealth you make out of these petals depends on your efforts.” ◆

她調查市場后發現，干花瓣的工藝品，在全國的市場上還屬空白。很快，她就訂購了一批漂亮的工藝瓶，然后以“星座幸運花”為銷售主題，分類組合，銷售給對應星座的人。廣告中，一只只小瓶變成了能帶來幸運和祝福的“吉祥物”，一時間購買“星座花瓣瓶”成了年輕人的一種時尚，銷售極為火爆。

王茜決定乘勢成立一個小型加工廠，讓工人大批量制作“花瓣瓶”。此時，她的主營業務也由零售變為生產和批發。

王茜還開啟網上批發業務，并注冊了自己的公司，一邊加工和銷售經典產品，一邊研發新產品。3個月后，公司生產的袋裝花瓣浴、花瓣茶、花瓣面膜等產品成功打入市場。

25歲的王茜談到創業的成功，她說：“你有多少智慧，這些不起眼的小花瓣就有多少種賣法；你付出多少努力，這些花瓣中就蘊藏著多少財富。”◆

婚禮花瓣雨

文/彭春霞 譯/于蘭

(From Eastern Youth, Issue 6,2017)

（摘自《東方青年》2017年第6期）