I found out that pre-orders are wishful thinking. I did get some, but people will call you for Valentine's orders the day before and the day of. I guess people just don't think about it until it's in their face. Another thought was that I'm still not super established in the community. I did get feedback that others were no longer taking orders which meant that the excess came to me. I don't love the idea of being second or last, but at the time I was grateful to have the orders fill up my anticipated goal of 36 orders. From the weeks leading up, I think I had about 10 orders by the 12th. The rest came from two days. Someone at the market told me "it's a last minute holiday". They were right. I think for future years I would still like incentivise people to order as early as I can get them to with discounts and advertising. For one, my preorder was massive! Much bigger than anything I've ever ordered before and with no indication that I'd make it back it was nerve racking as heck. Then also, it wasn't easy to pay for it all myself without any of the orders to help me front that kind of cash. Thanks to the 10 or so orders I did have, I was able to swing it with a credit card. Well here we are on the other side of the holiday. My feet and fingers hurt. My bank account is looking pretty. My house is thrashed. I think I might sleep through the weekend.
