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Weddings

Chat to other Mumsnetters on our Wedding forum.

To ask how much your wedding flowers cost

29 replies

abeanbaked · 10/02/2022 20:41

Planning a wedding for next June. The price of EVERYTHING is mad but the flowers I'm struggling with. I need a bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids, one large signing table piece, half an arch, two arrangements for on top of barrels. Budget is around £1300. 😬

OP posts:
Buttercream22 · 10/02/2022 21:08

I had my wedding in August and we spent about £1300ish on flowers. I had my bouquet plus 6 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, 6 button holes, 2 small button holes for my mum and mother in law. We also had flowers for 10 tables and a large flower runner for the top table and some flowers for the cake. It was pricey, but we loved our flowers, they were just stunning.

Have you had any quotes?

NeesAndToes · 10/02/2022 21:09

£300. 2 bouquets and some buttons holes. Choose in season flowers.

mummabubs · 10/02/2022 21:16

£350, my bouquet, 3 bridesmaid bouquets and a few button holes. My sister spend over £2000 on flowers at her wedding a few years beforehand, and whilst they looked absolutely gorgeous I decided I'd rather have the money!

Freddofan · 10/02/2022 21:39

It depends on which flowers you want and whether they are in or out of season. I think mine were £600 (Bride, MoH, 3 x posies, 10 x table decs) about 15 years ago but I got the florist to tell me what was in season and different suggestions in different price bands, I would guess the arch would be most costly so perhaps dial up the greenery and down the expensive blooms. We got married in an Oast barn in October so benefited from the hop garlands around the room for free.

MummyMe87 · 10/02/2022 21:45

About £1800 for bridal
Bouquet, x3 adult
Bridesmaid bouquets and x2 younger bridesmaid bouquets. 7 buttonholes, table flowers for 10 tables, flower arch. They were just amazing and worth every bloody penny

Totalwasteofpaper · 10/02/2022 21:49

bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids,5 button holes
for £200

Ohyesiam · 10/02/2022 21:55

We asked the local WI market to keep all the flowers in our colour scheme. I had 12 buckets of flowers for £70, and a group of friends and I spent the Friday afternoon arranging them for the tables and hallway at the reception.
Had my bouquet made professionally for just over the cost of the 12 bucket fulls.

rainbowzebra05 · 10/02/2022 21:57

We had artificial with a few "real" bits like baby's breath. Bridal bouquet and 7 button holes were £50 and looked lovely. It really does vary massively depending on your choices

riotlady · 10/02/2022 21:59

About £300 all in- my bouquet, 4 x bridesmaids bouquets, buttonhole, hair clip and wand for my DD I ordered online from Artisan Dried Flowers. For the centrepieces I bulk bought dried flowers and arranged them with my family in jam jars and vases.

Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat · 10/02/2022 23:13

Flower prices have been rising for a few years and have skyrocketed in the last few months thanks to Brexit and Covid. The consumer gets very confused about flower pricing because the supermarkets sell flowers so cheaply but there is no comparison in terms of quality. It's like comparing Tesco Value burgers with organic fillet steak.

Although there aren't many items on your list, some of them will need A LOT of flowers and foliage (i.e. signing table, arch and barrel arrangements. I'm literally talking buckets and buckets of flowers.

What flowers did you ask for? Were you very specific? Roses, peonies, hydrangeas and eucalyptus are very popular for summer weddings but they are expensive! Directing the florist to images on Instagram and Pinterest is also dangerous. Flower arches alone can easily cost £500+. The problem that florists have is that they're not really sure of the cost price of your flowers until they order them so they have to factor that in when quoting. The market is driven by demand so if a flower is in high demand on the day it will be reflected in the price. The retail price of some red roses was £5.50 per stem yesterday.....

If you want to reduce your quote, I suggest the following:-
Don't be specific about particular flowers
Identify the 'style' of flowers you want (i.e. English Country Garden, Tropical, twiggy and rustic, etc.)
Choose the colours (i.e. pastels, white and green, pinks and reds, etc.)
Focus your budget on the flowers that will appear in your photos (i.e. bridal) and those the ones your guests will be looking at (i.e. table centres, a large vase arrangement for the church/reception). A flower arch will look lovely but you'll only be under it for a few minutes while you have photos done so it's not actually very good value!
A good way to maximise your budget is to give an arrangement two jobs so a large vase arrangement in the church could be moved to the reception. You're then getting the benefit of it all day. I saw a florist recently who made the milk churn arrangements as handtieds. Later in the day, they were wrapped and presented to the Mums as handtied bouquets which is a great idea.

Don't be afraid to go back to a florist and ask them what they suggest in terms of reducing the quote. If they're good, they should be able to come up with some suggestions. It's all about where you focus your spend. There are some awesome florists posting pictures on Instagram but loads of them are easily £150 for a bridal bouquet territory because their bouquets are full and overflowing. Unfortunately, if something looks expensive it generally is expensive hence the reason why your Nanna likes Xants!.

Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat · 10/02/2022 23:20

@Freddofan

It depends on which flowers you want and whether they are in or out of season. I think mine were £600 (Bride, MoH, 3 x posies, 10 x table decs) about 15 years ago but I got the florist to tell me what was in season and different suggestions in different price bands, I would guess the arch would be most costly so perhaps dial up the greenery and down the expensive blooms. We got married in an Oast barn in October so benefited from the hop garlands around the room for free.
Greenery isn't free and can be as expensive as flowers. Eucalyptus is really popular for summer weddings and the price can be insane. The quality also dips in the summer due to the growing season (while the price stays high!) so florists can order it and end up chucking parts of it that are brown and wilted. T'is a bit of a nightmare.........
Hairyfriend · 10/02/2022 23:27

Much cheaper than a florist!! My mum had done a very basic floristy course back in the 70's. To my great surprise, she remembered a great deal and did my own teardrop shaped flowers, all corsages and the BM's. We did a trial run beforehand and bought from a local flower market 2 days beforehand to buy all the flowers, wires and ribbons.

Look around, get reviews and recommendations and check if there is anyone in the family that could do it.

Whydoesthecatalwaysdothat · 11/02/2022 00:04

@Hairyfriend

Much cheaper than a florist!! My mum had done a very basic floristy course back in the 70's. To my great surprise, she remembered a great deal and did my own teardrop shaped flowers, all corsages and the BM's. We did a trial run beforehand and bought from a local flower market 2 days beforehand to buy all the flowers, wires and ribbons.

Look around, get reviews and recommendations and check if there is anyone in the family that could do it.

I think it depends on how important flowers are in the grand scheme of things.

It's a bit like asking your Auntie Mavis to run up a wedding dress on her Singer sewing machine with a bit of net at the back of the cupboard because she did an Adult Learning Course in 1974 and vaguely seems to remember some of it.

People complain about the price of flowers but they are expensive if you want something decent. If you want to take a chance on clearing the buckets at Tesco the day before and roping everyone in then you're taking a risk. 99.9% of florists have a tale to tell of DIY wedding flowers.

Everything about your wedding is temporary from the dress, the suits, the food, the drink, the speeches, the dancing and so on. Your bridal flowers will be in the photos for an eternity so I find it really hard to understand why some people would spend £1.5k on a wedding dress and hold a few sunflowers from Tesco tied with a ribbon. Confused

Most people can cook but people very rarely suggest that family members should do the catering. On the other hand, people suggest DIY-ing flowers but most people cannot arrange flowers and would not know what to do if it's a hot summer's day and how to avert flowers going over.

Glendaruel · 11/02/2022 00:52

I got 12 paper flowers made from Jane Eyre from etsy and created a bouquet from them and got button hole made from hobbit for dh. I liked it as I could keep it after. I also looked at company that did dried flower bouquets and table decorations that were lovely.

First wedding we bought flowers then day before had flower arranging tea.

Yuppie20 · 11/02/2022 16:00

£0
Unless you count seeds and soil. I've brought a whole selection of wildflowers to make my own bouquets and buttonholes etc. Also venue provides flowers for decor around the estate and centrepieces and I'll add poppies etc to them for the colour theme to run through.
I just couldn't justify the unbelievable costs of flowers when I could grow them myself for less than £100. We are trying to go for an environmentally friendly wedding so the decision was made easier because of this.

harriethoyle · 11/02/2022 16:25

107 pounds for 4 buttonholes, and one signing table arrangement which doubled as dining table arrangement which tripled as mil's Christmas table arrangement! Our florist had a "ready to wed" section with fixed price arrangements - you just chose the colour and they chose the flowers. They were beautiful and stuffed full of flowers rather than greenery

abeanbaked · 12/02/2022 08:18

Thank you all! So much variation. I think the floral arch is going to be v expensive so I may just go for barrel arrangements. We have lots of props such as milk churns we can use already so hopefully this will keep the cost down!

OP posts:
NeesAndToes · 12/02/2022 08:20

@abeanbaked

Thank you all! So much variation. I think the floral arch is going to be v expensive so I may just go for barrel arrangements. We have lots of props such as milk churns we can use already so hopefully this will keep the cost down!
Yes I'd loose the floral arch. It's not needed.
cptartapp · 12/02/2022 08:23

About £600 twenty years ago. Bridal, buttonholes, table centrepieces, church. It's my one regret that we spent so much on flowers. They were lovely but barely noticed them on the day. In hindsight, I would have spent half that and taken the extra money on honeymoon.

Marmite27 · 12/02/2022 08:24

£450 the day before Mother’s Day.

1x bride
2x bridesmaid
4x button holes
2x corsages for the mums
2x thank you bq which we actually used for Mother’s Day.

2 arrangements, which were all greenery in with some in bud to make it cheaper (to reflect the time of year/new beginnings etc) The one on the ceremony table got moved to the top table and the other one was on a windowsill.

This was 2004 though from a Chelsea flower show winning florist.

Your florist will work with you to a budget to a point and should be able to suggest which flowers will be in season so cheaper. All greenery for the arrangements was my idea but she loved it and has used it since.

firstimemamma · 12/02/2022 08:26

£70 from a really great florist who specialised in weddings. My bouquet, 2 flower girl posies and 2 button holes (groom and page boy). It looked beautiful.

gogohm · 12/02/2022 08:28

Florists are artists, highly skilled, and flowers are very perishable so has to be last minute.

The cost will vary dramatically depending on what you want- you could get you bills down dramatically if you opt for simply designs, make sure the flowers are in season, standard colours and most of all reduce the quantity. - do don't need anything, you want a lot, drop the signing table and arch perhaps?

They last so little time

MsSquiz · 12/02/2022 08:29

Our wedding flowers cost £2000 (July wedding):

Floral arch at the church
Pew end posies x12
Buttonholes x10
Corsages x2
Bridal bouquet
Bridesmaid's bouquet x5
Table arrangements x12
Top table arrangements
Other large arrangements for church & reception x4

LefttoherownDevizes · 12/02/2022 08:30

£350. Bridal bouquet, 3x bridesmaids, box of gerberas for button holes and then 4 boxes of gladioli to decorate the venue (we just had metal buckets of them everywhere)

I only used in season flowers and had a loose tied bouquet that looked like Is just gathered them from a meadow.

I basically prioritised abundance, asked the florist what would be cheap at that tube of year and majored heavily on it. And everyone walked away with a bunch of the left over flowers

miltonj · 12/02/2022 08:35

We got silk because it saves the hassle in the morning and I have the worst hayfever. We rented some and had the option to buy other bits which was nice as the bridesmaids kept their bouquets and my daughter had her corsage for her memory box. They looked lovely and we could pick what we wanted as nothing is out of season in silk! Came to around 400 pounds.