Empty-Nest Chronicles: The $50 Corsage

My son, who is my youngest child, is a few months away from leaving the nest. For the last couple of weeks we've been preparing for the joyous event by celebrating his 18th birthday, suiting up for his cap and gown, selecting housing for his college dorm and breaking the bank for his senior prom.

Ah, the senior prom. Suit, tie, shoes, socks, haircut, prom tickets and portrait packages can all add up to a hefty bill. The last thing I wanted to do was spend $50 for a corsage. Yes, you read that correctly. I wrote $50 for a corsage. That's what I spent at a floral shop last year when my son went to the junior prom. I later learned that everyone ends up taking off their corsage after pictures and before they hit the dance floor.

This time around I skipped the local floral shop near my corporate job in the city and I found another way. 

At first I was going to make the corsage myself. After tallying up the cost for the material I would need I found that it would be cheaper just to purchase a corsage from a florist. 

Instead of heading to the overpriced floral shops or the sad cheap ones that had half dead flowers in the window, I pulled into Whole Foods. Yes, the pricey natural organic grocery store, Whole Foods. You would think their floral department would be expensive but I found out that you can get a corsage at half the price or less. The starting price for a corsage at Whole Foods is $20. 

The key is to know exactly what you need. Traditionally corsages comes with four tiny barely opened flowers, baby's breath and some sort of green foliage. I asked the Whole Foods florist to make the corsage with one full red rose, baby's breath, greenery, and a white ribbon. 

"Is the young lady small?" the florist asked. "Yes. Her wrist is slender," I responded. "OK.I'll give it to you for $10 since you're only getting one flower," said the florist. 

That's right! $10 dollars for a corsage!  And as you can see below the corsage is simple, beautiful and elegant.

I sense my inner Nate Berkus coming out of me. (see item No. 11 of: Nate’s 6 Home Items Worth Splurging On and 8 That Aren’t)

To see more snapshots of my son's #Prom2k15 head over to Instagram and follow me at @TCsViews.