How much to budget for flowers?

[ugifletzet]

I approached my nearest florist for a quote (bouquets for me and two bridesmaids, a small flower arrangement to go in front of the altar) and I was startled by how expensive it was. She estimated £400. I know it's a skilled time-consuming job and I want to pay what's fair, but it seems like a lot for three bouquets and a vaseful. I know nothing about flowers (total opposite of green fingers here!) and I wonder if this is normal or if I've accidentally stumbled on a really upmarket place.

Hi. I'm interested too. Just had my quote
2 bridesmaids bouquets
1 bridal bouquet
10 flowers bowls for centrepieces & 7 buttonholes

£2500 😱

Then asked another florist who said her starting point is £2k 😫

I think £400 for 3 bouquets & vase full sounds reasonable to me 😅
My florist charges £90 per bridesmaid bouquet

It will depend on your area and what flowers you are picking. If you want to keep costs down use seasonal flowers, use a lot of greenery to fill it out and avoid roses. Any flower that is imported is going to cost more for the florist to buy, so look at ones that are grown in the UK. I basically had a spring bouquet (our anniversary is in a couple of weeks), iris and daffodils mainly.

Do what I did and go to a nice supermarket the day before. Buy multiple bunches of flowers and make your own bouquets. Nobody is going to think about the wedding flowers beyond "nice." Save your pennies.

Wow !! What type of bouquet are you having and what flowers in it?
My flowers are £370 for bride bouquet, bridesmaid bouquet, a small arrangement for registrar table and 15 button holes / ladies corsages, And delivery charge. But I don't live in a particularly expensive part of the country, plus we're corona postpona, so my quote was given in late 2019.

Our quote is less than £400 for the following;

My bouquet
4 x wrist corsages for bridesmaids
4 x buttonholes
Tables for flowers, around 30 small vases / jars.

By the way my above was at £2000+ quotes, not for you OP!

Might also be worth asking the folks that arrange the flowers for the Church normally. There are some very skilled people out there.

I did mines myself and I'm not really green fingered at all. A few bunches of roses/ the flowers that look like thistles but aren't from Markies. Buttonholes and 2 bouquets and bud vases for tables less than 50 quid. Helps if you have a handy relative

@InTheNightWeWillWish

It will depend on your area and what flowers you are picking. If you want to keep costs down use seasonal flowers, use a lot of greenery to fill it out and avoid roses. Any flower that is imported is going to cost more for the florist to buy, so look at ones that are grown in the UK. I basically had a spring bouquet (our anniversary is in a couple of weeks), iris and daffodils mainly.

Greenery can be more expensive than flowers depending on type and season. You can get extremely cheap roses too, there are so so many varieties now so a huge range of price. Seasonal is good, if you felt confident you could DIY. Flowers have been horribly expensive even at wholesale prices of late.

Fwiw, I would probably charge roughly the same so I don't think you're being ripped off.

That sounds normal to me, OP, actually quite reasonable.

If you think about the time and expense for the florist to do this, they have to:

• Consult you about what you want, could involve travelling to meet you and time/ expense of this.
• Research flowers and then either order or go out to a market buy them.
• Liaise with your venue.
• Time to create the arrangements (several hours).
• Time and expense to deliver the arrangements to you on the day.
• Any other overheads they have like studio space, business costs etc.

It really is quite a lot of work and expense and so when you think about it this way £400 isn't unreasonable at all. If you hire a florist you're not only paying for flowers; you're paying for their time, expertise, travel, storage, etc.

There's nothing wrong with DIY flowers and they can be a lot cheaper because they don't involve all of the above, but they won't pack the same "wow" factor either if you don't have the knowledge and experience.