Choosing the flowers for a wedding should be one of the most enjoyable parts of the planning process, because it’s all about the pretty! Without enough information though about what flowers cost, it can and does lead to a huge amount of confusion and misunderstanding for florists and couples alike. Apart from the cost of buying a home, the cost of a wedding can be one of the biggest expenses a couple will have in their lives; and flowers can be a big chunk of that!
The very nature of weddings is that no two are the same. Some couples spend eye watering amounts of money on flowers, and when those jobs come along, they’re incredible. Then again, there are couples who cut back and question everything until there’s hardly anything left. I think that Covid showed us that the days when you had to invite a hundred people to your wedding are gone. Elopement and small scale weddings have flourished, and I absolutely love flowering these intimate celebrations. An unexpected bonus for me has been that couples are often prepared to spend more money on flowers because they have fewer guests! Of course they still want heir wedding to look beautiful, and are prepared to pay for it.
Before social media there was very limited floral inspiration. Brides bought a wedding magazine or went to their local flower shop and chose from a catalogue of commercially produced styles. The designs and flowers available were limited, and I would often hear a bride say “I’ll have that one in peach”. Today couples rarely turn to magazines, instead finding their inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest, gorgeously saturated with an endless stream of blousy, flower heavy weddings.
So what do wedding flowers cost? Well they actually cost serious money!It’s not just a case of, I pay pennies and charge pounds. It’s wonderful that we now have an abundance of seasonally grown British flowers, but this seasonality has to be supported with imported flowers from Holland and around the world to maintain year round supply. For all growers production costs have increased dramatically, and as those costs are inevitably passed on to florists, we have to pass them on to our clients.
The most important reason however, is like everyone else, we are in business to make money. All florists work to earn a decent living, pay our bills and provide employment for the myriad of people involved in keeping our industry going.
When it comes to money, my best advice about budgeting for your flowers is, be honest with your florist about how much you are comfortable spending, and be realistic about your expectations. From personal experience I know that this can save a lot of time and embarrassment later on.
A good rule of thumb is to allocate 10%. of the overall wedding budget, depending on your guest numbers, flowers used, number of arrangements and work involved. It’s not set in stone, but it is a very useful figure to bear in mind.
So what can we get for our money? Well a budget of £500 will realistically cover flowers for the bridal party (bouquets for the bride, 3 bridesmaids and buttonholes). £1000 will allow for additional ceremony flowers that could also be repurposed for the reception, and £1500 upwards for more complex designs. If however you’re thinking of arches and hanging installations, then you’ll be looking upwards of £5000. Some florists have a minimum spend, others don’t, but do remember certain flowers (like peonies and those gorgeous garden roses) are always more expensive. The unglamorous costs of hire items, transport, petrol and staff wages all have to be factored in, and can increase the final bill dramatically.
I spend many months preparing for a wedding, sometime more than a year. The run up to a wedding can involve months of site visits, design meetings, quotes, re quotes, adjustments and mock ups of final designs. A wedding day for me can have a 4 a.m. start to prepare the bridal flowers before a full day on site, and then clearance the day after. All this work has to be costed into the final fee.
To fully appreciate what goes into turning your ideas into reality, please bear in mind that professional florists are highly skilled, passionate creatives who work incredibly hard (often unsung and behind the scenes) to make a couple’s day look amazing, and what they do is reflected as the cost of wedding flowers.