SANDAKAN – There are various ways to give someone a cash gift, other than putting it inside a red packet or through online banking. Why not try giving them a cash bouquet?
Wrapped in decorative papers and large ribbons, the notes would be shaped into flowers and set in an attractive arrangement. It could be further decorated with artificial flowers.
For the past couple of years, people have started replacing flowers in bouquets with other items that are more "useful”. It started with chocolate bouquets, but increasing demand from Malaysians saw money bouquets trending from early last year.
The popularity of money bouquets can be seen by many social media posts of people receiving these gifts.
On November 3 last year, several photos of a woman receiving a RM29,000-worth money bouquet for her 29th birthday in Tawau went viral on Facebook. The present was a gift from her husband, a local entrepreneur.
With the bouquets being marketed on social media widely, more people now want them as gifts.
Entrepreneur Siti Nur Fadhilah Mohd Fajeer, 33, has been making flower and chocolate bouquets for her customers since 2015.
In 2019, she received a request from a customer for a money bouquet.
“It was trending at the time. I had never made a money bouquet before, but I decided to try. Because it was my first time, it took me about an hour to complete the RM300-bouquet, but it was a success. My customer was happy with my work, and she gave it to her boyfriend, here,” she said.
Fadhilah then started promoting her service on the Facebook page named Kasih Dla, and she has received more than 40 orders to date.
She said customers' requests consist mainly for birthdays and wedding anniversaries, and she is charging from RM80 for a bouquet.
“Depending on the amount of cash in the bouquet, I usually take about 30 minutes to two hours to complete one arrangement.
“The toughest request that I have completed was a RM10,000 bouquet. It was so big that I had a tough time wrapping the bouquet. My customer gave it as a 10th anniversary present for his wife,” she said.
Fadhilah thinks that a cash bouquet could be a special gift regardless of how much money is in it.
“For me, a money bouquet is a special gift. This is because we do not know how much effort a person has put in to earn the money. So, it could be a significant gift,” she said. – The Vibes, January 8, 2021
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