PUMPKIN CO.Nine questions to ask, and our answers to all nine.
Our own answer sits beside each one, so you can put the same list to anyone else you are considering.
Before hiring a fall decorating service, ask how many pumpkins arrive, whether installation is included, what delivery costs to your address, what removal costs, and when the display goes up. Penn Pumpkin Co answers all five.
Why these nine.
Every question here has a checkable answer. None of them asks a decorator how good they are, because the answer to that is always yes.
If a decorator cannot answer the first one with numbers, the rest of the conversation is guesswork. Counts are the one thing you can hold two quotes against.
The nine questions, answered.
What arrives, and in what quantity?
A decorator should be able to give you counts, not adjectives. Each of our packages names its large, medium, pie, and specialty pumpkins, and every one also includes white ghost pumpkins, minis, and gourds. Our smallest display counts 22 pumpkins by name and our largest counts 52.
Is design and installation included in the price, or charged separately?
Included, in all four of our packages. Ask this early, because a materials price and an installed price can look similar until the second line appears.
Can I buy the pumpkins and place them myself?
On our two smaller packages, yes. The DIY delivery takes $75 off the price: we choose the pumpkins and deliver them, and you arrange them. Our two larger displays are installed by our team as standard.
What does delivery cost to my address?
Ask for the actual rule. Ours is free within 45 minutes of Worcester on our three larger packages. Those are drive minutes, the way you would actually get there.
Do I need to be home for the delivery or the install?
With us, no. Delivery, installation, and removal all happen without anyone home. If your entrance is behind a gate, tell us when you book.
What happens at the end of the season?
Removal is a separate add-on. Ours runs $75 on the two smaller displays, $125 on Pumpkin Paradise, and $175 on Pumpkin Palooza, and we collect the display around Thanksgiving.
Where do the pumpkins go afterwards?
Ask, because it is several hundred pounds of produce. The displays we remove are donated to a local animal farm.
Can I add to the display after I choose a package?
Ask what the extras cost before you commit to a size. With us, ten more pie pumpkins are $75, a mum assortment is $125, and two pumpkin stacks for a gate or a garage are $100.
When do you deliver, and can I choose the week?
Our delivery windows run from mid-September through late October, and you choose your window when you book. An earlier window gives you more weeks with the display; a later one puts fresher pumpkins on the steps for Halloween.
The tenth question: what holds the date?
Ask it of everyone, and ask what happens to that money if the date moves. For a pumpkin-patch party with us, a $250 deposit holds your date and is credited against the final invoice.
Porch decorating works differently: there is no deposit. Once we have agreed a display and a delivery window, we send you a payment link, and paying it in full is what confirms the booking.
Comparing two quotes.
Put both on the same footing before you read the totals. Counts, installation, delivery to your address, and removal are four separate lines, and a quote that folds them into one number is only shorter.
What each of our four packages costs, and what each step up buys.
More in this guide.
The full guide is What porch decorating costs, and what you get for it, which covers the lot in one place.