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Original poster

To think £4500 is ridiculous for wedding flowers?

126 replies

KnightlyMyMan · 04/12/2018 11:12

Got our quote through from the florist yesterday and almost fainted! I kid you not £4500 for

  • 3 bouquets- mid size and a mix of flower/foliage (they sell these in MnS for £15- I could just tie a ribbon around them)
  • 4 small button holes (1 flower and a bit of spray)
  • 4 standing plyth/urn decorations (not the largest - about hip height)
  • 6 table flowers in vases (medium size- again could buy these for £35 each in MnS)
  • Foliage garland for the top table
  • Some candles 😂🙈 (about 8 in glass jars- both of which I can get at Asda for £20 all in)

I got the quote as DM thinks a florist is very important and MIL agrees. I had expected about £1500 as know they’ll add a charge to be there for the day...etc. I understand they need to make a living and add a premium but it seems EXTORTIONATE.

Everything I’d read online suggested a budget of £1000-£2000 should be apple for what I wanted!

Is this just a randomly crazy high quote or is this normal???

I was happy to do the flowers myself and at least now DP is on board with that idea!!

OP posts:
Original poster
KnightlyMyMan · 04/12/2018 11:34

In fairness they are a nice florist and we are in a nice area. I wouldn’t say they’re the best but they’re top end! We are having a very nice venue and I think they put 2+2 and thought ££££

Little do they know that, despite having done very well for ourselves, I was raised Pretty poor and know the value of money. I’ve negotiated discounts on pretty much everything. Even the fancy venue/catering is reasonably discounted! (Is still a bit of a rip off but not so much I’m uncomfortable)

Honestly I feel a bit empowered now, was starting to feel like DP/DM/MIL thought I was ‘cheaping out’ but now DP and DM have done a complete 180! Funny that! 🤔

OP posts:
KC225 · 04/12/2018 11:35

Have you for a particular arty/creative friend or relative. I would pay for them to do a short course, and practice a few of your choices which don't sound too difficult. It will work out cheaper.

Also, contach the florist and ask if there has been a mistake as that was a lot more expensive than you were expecting.

moonlight1705 · 04/12/2018 11:37

I paid £800 for a bouquet, four small bouquets, 5 button holes and ten table arrangements.

We went for flowers that were in season and not roses (which are really expensive). We also had quite a lot of greenery in there to fill it out without using too many blooms.

Go to another place and ask them to do something around your budget rather than getting quotes for their big ideas. I went in and told my florist that I had £700-£1000 to spend and roughly the things I wanted to include but left the detail up to them.

girlywhirly · 04/12/2018 11:39

With wedding flowers you have to take in to account the work involved at an hourly rate, this could mean several people. Delivery to your venue, and setting them up; delivery to wherever the bride and bridesmaids are coming from if not at the venue already, and buttonholes to the groom. There are hire fees sometimes for pedestals/ large vases etc. Premium flowers increase the cost.

It used to be tradition that the groom pays for the flowers! I think you have gone for an expensive florist, get some more estimates.

oh4forkssake · 04/12/2018 11:40

That is ludicrous for what you're describing. I'm not suggesting going as far as your M&S idea but on the basis of what you've described that is pure extortion. I had way more flowers than that and paid less than half that amount.

delboysskinandblister · 04/12/2018 11:43

wait til after Christmas and go in on at the end of January as close to month end as possible and haggle. Bargain Wink

TranmereRover · 04/12/2018 11:45

people suggesting this quote is way over the top have no idea which flowers have been specified and at which time of year; if you want premium out of season specimens, it will cost more than carnations!

Fink · 04/12/2018 11:45

Is it for particular flowers which will be out of season? That will bump the price up A LOT if they have to specially source (potentially import) flowers.

No way would I be paying a florist to provide things like candles and other sundries, you will always be paying well over the odds for them as it's not their speciality.

A family member got married in central London this summer and paid around £1500 for all the floral stuff: two large pillar displays for church, 6 bridesmaids' bouquets and one bridal, 10 buttonholes, 10 table centrepieces (to go around a vase), 2 bouquets for DM and MIL.

Genevieva · 04/12/2018 11:47

I did my own flowers with the help of the church flower arrangers (small village - all friends of my Mum and guests at the wedding, which helps). We borrowed a van and drove in convoy to Covent Garden Flower market about 3 days before the wedding. We had great fun choosing and loved it to the gunnels. On the way out you drive past he discarded flower fruit and veg area, so everyone was squeezing in trays of almost-perfect looking fruit to take home. I thoroughly recommend it, just for the experience. I trusted them completely - their church flowers and their won gardens always look good - but I was also relaxed about letting them get on and do their thing their way. No room for bridezillas in a small village.

vixy1988 · 04/12/2018 11:48

We had a very upscale wedding (to please husbands family) ours were similar flowers to yours, intact the quote looks the same but the price was £650!!

Find someone else.

Genevieva · 04/12/2018 11:48

that should say filled the van to the gunnels. I swear this machine has a mind of its own sometimes. We did love our very early morning trip to London though.

queenrollo · 04/12/2018 11:51

I used to run my own floristry business. One consideration for me with pricing up a wedding was how much other work I might lose by taking on a big wedding. Pedestal arrangements often have to be done in situ - meaning I was paying someone to staff my shop for me. Setting up at a venue took me away from other work.
I was a very small business, family run.
I still always tried to be very fair with my pricing and transparent about why things were costed the way they were.

Cost of flowers is dependent on season and availability.

Having said that I'm aghast at that quote. Even with industry knowledge I'm struggling to see how they can justify that.

thecatsthecats · 04/12/2018 11:52

I won't bore you with the details of what we did for flowers at our wedding (ok, go on then, I gave my sister £50 to make origami bouquets and button holes, and used greenery from my own garden for centrepieces), but I will give this piece of advice.

Unless someone is paying for something, THEY DO NOT GET A SAY IN HOW YOU DO IT. They think just about how nice they think it is to have those things, and not one bit about the cost. If someone gives you money generally for the wedding, it is nice to pay attention to what would make it special for them - within reason. If a parent (someone who has a big emotional investment in the day too after all), pays for a specific thing, then fine.

My MIL nagged me endlessly about the fact I made my own cake. She ate the cake and her words happily on my wedding day - I spent about £40 on ingredients and a £12 stand, and it looked and tasted phenomenal.

TheEmmaDilemma · 04/12/2018 11:52

Wow. That is a lot.

Agree do the candles yourself etc.

But challenge that price. I paid £1800 in 07, so that was a small fortune then but I had very specific requirements and out of season flowers.

That quote is way too high unless you have really exoctic flowers in there.

00100001 · 04/12/2018 11:53

Sod that for a game of soldiers...

I wouldn't bother with all the flowers personally - maybe have a bouquet for yourself that can be dried and kept for future - but sod the rest of it. Nobody will go "Oooh, well that would have been an utterly FANTASTIC Wedding... IF and only if there were poncy flowers on the table"

"Those who matter, don't mind. Those who mind, don't matter..."

DaphneduM · 04/12/2018 11:54

Way too much - we are in the southwest - my daughter's beautiful wedding flowers were £1500 and at the time I thought that was an obscene amount. But they were so lovely, and included a very lavish swathe of flowers down the stair bannister (stately home type of stairway), as well as a huge plinth, a couple of mantelpiece displays, large decorated candelabras for the tables, as well as a cake topper, button holes, corsages, 2 posies, 3 older bridesmaids bouquet and the bridal bouquet. We had roses, spray roses peonies, and hydrangeas and many people commented how beautiful the flowers were. I would get some other quotes, that sounds way over the top.

NoSpend19 · 04/12/2018 11:54

I had flowers for my hair and bouquet. My sisters had wrist corsages. Candles surrounded by holly on the tables. That was it. I was however fortunate in that we got married at a country house hotel at Christmas time so no need for any additional decorations.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/12/2018 11:55

That price is insane

As an enthusiastic flower arranger (though not a professional) I did a very similar package for a friend's wedding and know exactly what the materials would have cost the florist. Granted I don't have premises to run and all the rest, but what you've been quoted is beyond reason

If you still want someone else to help, why not consider local flower arranging groups or similar? A colleague did exactly that and got some of the loveliest wedding flowers I've ever seen, done with the greatest of care and at an amazing price

lilyblue5 · 04/12/2018 11:56

My very nice venue for the entire day, food for 60 people, overnight rooms for myself and bridal party, decorations and all the other extras (disco etc etc) cost 5k. Flowers alone is insane!!!!

Send them a link to the thread so they can sort their prices out!!! Shock

BlackeyedGruesome · 04/12/2018 11:57

omg I paid £40 for flowers in teh church which doubled up as bouquets for the mothers. A friend did them at cost of flowers from the market and foliage from her garden.

bouquet was from a small independent arranger, but you could reasonably make your own if you want something simple.

HelloDoris · 04/12/2018 12:00

Mine cost around £250, for 4 bouquets 2 flower wands, 8 buttonholes and flowers for 20 tables (I used old vases and jam jars). I went to a local college with a floristry department and students did mine for me.. they were gorgeous and cheap. But I used seasonal flowers and basically told them to do what they thought was good. I wouldn't have bothered but my mother was insistent.

paap1975 · 04/12/2018 12:03

That's more than 3 times what ours cost (in June), for almost exactly the same thing. Have you requested out of season flowers or something rare?

ElainaElephant · 04/12/2018 12:06

Everything I’d read online suggested a budget of £1000-£2000 should be apple for what I wanted!

It definitely is apple. £4,500 is bananas!

ineedtostopbeingsolazy · 04/12/2018 12:07

My whole wedding cost that amount.
I got artificial bouquets they looked lovely and I still have them. They cost about £50.
I spent the money elsewhere not on things that will wither and die in days

CharlesChickens · 04/12/2018 12:10

That is insane. I did my own flowers for the church, a friend and I went to the flower market early in the morning the day before, bought a car full, and then put them in vases and along the window sills. I think I spent about £200 ? Might have been £150. It was fifteen years ago.
For my bouquet, buttonholes, posies for the two bridesmaids, and two smaller bouquets to match mine to put on family graves in the cemetery on the day, it came to about £450. They were really beautiful.
Relatives did flowers for the house from the garden, so I didn’t pay for those.