Whether you’re looking for a few simple bouquets for your maids or an complete floral arrangement for your venue, floristry is something that will almost absolutely play a part in your wedding. But how much should wedding flowers cost?
With so many differences of orders, it’s really hard to put price brackets on how much your wedding flowers should cost, but to give you some guidelines we’ve spoken to a variety of expert florists, who offer all kinds of services, to give you the best idea of wedding flower prices.
Before you determine any floral plans, be sure to start with your wedding flower budget early on. This will give you a better idea of your must-haves, wants, and pieces of traditional floral design that you may want to skip. But how much do wedding flowers even cost? Where’s a couple to begin in building that budget? Read on for a few tips and tricks from floral and wedding planning experts to help better understand the average cost of wedding flowers, how to save on flowers, and a few sample budgets to get you started.
Wedding Flowers: Average Cost
This is almost an impossible question to answer, with levels of services ranging so much, but some experts say: “We find that weddings tend to start on an average of £1,200-£1,500, although we offer bespoke packages for all weddings.”
Coming in at a similar number, others advised that couples should expect an order for bridal party flowers and some venue décor to come in at upwards of £1,000.
To help couples get a better idea of what to expect, another wedding florist says: “Something that’s really helpful as a florist is when your clients are upfront and open about their budget from the start. Once your florist knows what you’re able to spend with them, they can design something that will look beautiful, but within your budget.
“It’s worth knowing that from our experience most florists will charge around three times the wholesale value of a stem. At first this may seem ludicrous, but when you consider they have to order, collect, condition, get them to their ‘peak bloom’, arrange, deliver and install them – you begin to understand where the extra cost comes in”.
What Factors Will Play a Role in the Cost?
When it comes to your floristry order, three main areas can affect the total cost of your wedding flowers; where your wedding is (and where your chosen florist is based), the time of year you’re getting married and the floral order itself.
Location
Whilst it may not be the biggest factor in flower pricing, the location of both your wedding and your florist can absolutely affect the cost of your order. Floirst are able to travel far and wide for weddings, however if the wedding is quite far then your delivery charge will depend on how big the distance is for us to travel.”
Although location was fairly irrelevant when pricing up orders, it has a relevancy if the wedding takes place outside of the perimeter of the florist, making it well worth checking whether or not your dream florist will charge you extra for traveling.
Other say that it isn’t so much the location of the wedding that affects their prices, but the style of location that could cause an increase in prices: Some venues don’t need a lot of decoration, for example country manor houses, however venues such as marquees and blank canvases are likely to require more décor, making it more expensive.
Wedding Date
One common theme amongst all of our experts was that rising prices during certain times of year wasn’t down to high wedding seasons, but instead due to changes in the flower market.
For example, red roses around Valentine’s Day are always going to be more costly, or if you are getting married between Christmas and New Year then your selection of flowers can be limited and again, more expensive.
Stick to seasonal blooms, they will be at their most beautiful and less expensive when they are in season. Most of our couples let us have free rein over the selection of blooms as long as we stick to their colour scheme – meaning they are getting the most beautiful selection for their money
Your Order
The size, style and details of your flower order will undoubtedly be the biggest factor when your florist prices up what you’ve asked for.
The scale of your brief will hugely affect the cost of your flowers. Lots of couples now want something which will make their wedding stand out – like hanging installations or wall designs. These, you might have guessed it, come at more of a cost than your bog standard table displays!
What services does a wedding florist provide?
A wedding florist provides a variety of services, some of which might not be obvious at first.
Consultation: Your wedding florist will meet with you to discuss your vision for your wedding—your venue, your wedding style, your desired color palette, and the types of flowers you like and dislike. Your florist will then create a proposal which will describe the arrangements he or she will create as well as the prices.
Samples: After you’ve signed a contract and shortly before your wedding, your florist may also provide sample arrangements to ensure that you’re on the same page about how your wedding-day flowers will look.
Flowers: A big part of your wedding flower budget will go to the actual purchasing of the flowers. It actually takes several hours for a florist to put a flower order together—and the flowers your florist will receive from his or her wholesaler or grower are far better quality than the ones you can buy at your local grocery store. They’re grown especially to be featured at events and are hand-selected for their quality.
Flower processing and storage: Once your flowers arrive to your florist, he or she will take several hours (often a whole day!) to process your flowers (taking thorns off of roses, counting the flowers, etc.) and storing them in a refrigerated space to ensure they look amazing on your wedding day.
Labor and production: Now, it’s time for your florist to create those beautiful arrangements! Each arrangement takes time to design (probably more than you would think!), so it’s quite a long process.
Delivery and set up: Your florist and his/her team will then bring your arrangements to your venue. A good amount of work needs to be done on premises to make sure that your ceremony and reception looks picture-perfect, from the altar to the reception table arrangements.
Cleanup: After your wedding, your florist and his/her team will go to your venue to remove all of the arrangements and vessels, and assist with cleanup.