Raining Petals at the Wedding

2017-11-01ByPengChunxiaTranslationYuLan

Special Focus 2017年10期

By Peng Chunxia Translation： Yu Lan

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.

鲜花店店主王茜参加朋友的婚礼，看着现场撒下五颜六色的塑料花瓣，她不禁问新娘：“用鲜花瓣岂不是显得更浪漫？”

新娘笑着说：“鲜花那么贵，一场婚礼撒下来得多少钱啊。”

王茜想到店铺平时回收的花篮，鲜花都扔进了垃圾箱，如果把这些残花瓣收集起来卖给婚庆公司，在婚礼上下起真正的“花瓣雨”，岂不是变废为宝的美事？

说干就干，王茜开始收集店铺所有回收的鲜花。但她发现仅靠自己的花店，花瓣量远远不够。初步核算后，她决定以每年2000元的费用，与10家花店签订收购残花的协议。

王茜和员工把那些色泽鲜艳的花瓣一片片撕下后，再按不同颜色分别装进塑料袋：淡粉的月季、浅紫的风信子、火红的玫瑰……看着一袋袋散发着清香的花瓣，王茜仿佛看到了美好的未来。

但美好的未来还没有如期而至，王茜就遇上了一个大麻烦。

因为花瓣的保鲜期只有两三天，而婚礼十天半个月才碰到一次，大量囤积的花瓣逐渐干枯腐烂。为了延长花瓣保鲜期，王茜不得不频繁地给它们洒水，却很快收到客户反馈：“花瓣的水分太重，向上一撒，马上就落到地面，很难在空中营造出五彩缤纷的意境。”很多老客户停止了购买，两个月下来一核算，这项业务，王茜净亏损一万多元。

痛定思痛后，王茜苦苦思索，她想，如果把鲜花瓣加工成干花瓣，既能长期保存，又能减轻花瓣的重量，所有问题不就都解决了？

王茜开始查资料寻找加工方法。由于前期囤积了大量的花瓣，在急于求成的迫切期望下，她最初决定采用烘干机搭配干燥剂来制作干花，但这种理论上的速成干花法，很快便以失败告终。花瓣不是烘得太干而变形失色，就是水分没有完全蒸发，继续腐烂。

实验一段时间后，王茜逐渐沉下心来，不再考虑盈亏的问题，只想一门心思解决眼前这个大难题。经过一次又一次的试验，她最终借助制作葡萄干的室内自然风干法，成功地让鲜花瓣变成了干花瓣。

这些散发着淡淡清香的干花瓣制造的浪漫气氛，很快，就赢得了新人们的喜爱。一位女白领说：“婚礼现场，当五彩花瓣在空中划着优美的弧线飘落时，我感觉自己就是童话中的公主……”此后再无悬念，王茜的干花瓣势如破竹，顺利开启了婚庆市场的大门。

王茜索性不再做鲜花生意，把店名也改成“花瓣专卖店”。

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.” ◆