I Said YES!!!
I’m ENGAGED!!! This is the first frantic moment when just about every bride-to-be is fidgeting her new ring as she’s trying to figure out how to buy Eeeeeverything she’s pinned on her wedding Pinterest board… you know… the one she secretly started three boyfriends ago.
Slow down, you’re not running for the Dollar Tree pageant!
Meanwhile, mom has already rushed to every store’s wedding aisle and started her shopping spree for your big day. She’s buying ALL the things marked “clearance” because, surely, “I don’t know if we need it but it’s cheap and we’ll somehow make it work!” (insert hand to face emoji here) Calm down, Mom!!!
“I got slapped by that RAGING B!!!”
Wether you’re a BBB (Burgundy and Blush Bride), a BBBB (Burlap and Baby’s Breath Bride), a Costco Bride or a DIY Bride… every bride has to face her ultimate raging “B” – The Budget!
There are different ways you can spread your dollars into great use for the big day. I’ll start with the basics, which has proven itself effective when building a floral budget.
The general rule on how much you should spend on your wedding florals is anywhere between 8% – 10% of your overall wedding budget. Some brides tackle it for less but end up spending just as much, if not more, after it’s all done.
So, if you have an average wedding budget of $18,000 then your floral budget should be somewhere in the $1,800 range if you’re looking for standard florals. Perhaps flowers aren’t your biggest priority for your special day, in that case you can budget in that 8% window. If you love flowers or plan to do most of the decorating with fresh blooms, or greens, then you may consider going a little over the 10% rule. Always save a little wiggle room in your budget across the board for the last minute add-ons that wedding planning might surprise you with.
“…but Flowers DIE!”
It makes me sad when I see a bride spend thousands of dollars on her dress and opts for a Costco bouquet.
Let’s break it down:
You’ll spend $3k to 5k on your dress (not including alterations).
Your veil will cost upwards of $300.
Shoes $95+ (more or less depending your style).
Hair styling (not including cut, color and/or extensions) will range $150 – $300.
Makeup will also range $150 to $300.
Can’t forget lashes, nails and toes – add another $200 dollars for all of those gorgeous falsies.
We haven’t even added the expense of jewelry and lingerie to compliment that stunning gown!
All of these items are also just for a moment, but it’s what makes the picture of a lifetime!
“Flowers Tell Your Love Story!”
Your bouquet is not just a prop, it is one of the focal points in every picture. Your florist, and photographer, will express your style and personality through this beautiful artistry. This is one of the ways you should highlight traits and quirks in your love story and bring YOU into that otherwise stock dress you’ll see in every picture.
If I didn’t stress it above, let me turn up this mic! Your bouquet is the inspiration piece for all of the florals throughout your wedding. Every floral arrangement will compliment your bouquet! Don’t treat your bouquet like that plastic ficus tree that your mom shoved in the blah corner of her living room. Again, it’s not just an accessory.
Show Me Receipts!!!
Pull out your calculator. If you apply the 8% – 10% rule across the board, it will give you a floral budget that is proportionate in style and quality across the board. Check it out:
If your dress was $3,000 I’d invest something in the $300+ range for your bouquet. It will give you florals that are similar in style and quality. I get some of you found amazing deals on your dress. Plan on spending 10% of the original price tag. You can do 10% or 15% for your bouquet and go down to 8% for your bridesmaids, etc.
If you are paying $95 per guest for dinner, plan on investing $95 for a centerpiece per table. This will give you a centerpiece that is proportionate in quality to your menu and service. It’s sad when I see an amazing menu, then a bride will grace the 12ft round table with a mason jar of baby’s breath. It’s equally as sad when I see an elaborate cascading centerpiece and the newlyweds will serve nothing but a plate of buttered pasta and offer their guests a cash bar. Be realistic. Keep it proportionate. Stay classy.
Once you’ve put together your overall budget, work together with your florist to invest your money where it shows! For example: Bridesmaid bouquets are one of the items that have the most creative play. You can go as simple or extravagant as you’d like, but most Bridesmaid pictures are wide shots. You rarely see a closeup of all the expensive textures and rich blooms you put into a Bridesmaid’s bouquet. Choose all the luxury florals for your bouquet then choose something beautiful, but simple, for your girls that will compliment your bouquet. I’ve had brides that go with something as simple as a mixture of luxe greens for their girls, of course this only works when Boho is the look you’re going for. Don’t be a glam bride and send your bridesmaids down the parade while holding a shrub.
Most bridesmaids won’t hold the value of your friendship in their bouquet, as long as you love on them. Make it a point to connect with each lady in their unique love language, after all they’re buying all the things, too, to be there for you! Give them love and enjoy some amazing mimosas together on the morning of your wedding!
Most florists will have a minimum listed for bridesmaids, which can have a starting range anywhere from $40 – $70 depending on the area and season. Always lay out your game-plan and see how they can work with you to achieve the dream!
“Why Wedding Flowers Cost…”
The average floral stem goes through 6 – 9 hands and is placed through 3 -5 different chemical processes to develop and preserve it’s picture perfect quality before a bouquet is handed to you.
- Growers – growers use a variety of equipment, techniques and chemicals to mimic various seasons in which your specific floral variety can grow.
- Packaging – after weeks or months of care, flowers are harvested and sent to refrigerated warehouses where workers package each bloom individually to withstand transportation (some are packaged in bunches, other flowers are packaged individually). Come back and nerd out by watching the process your wedding flowers will go through. Check out one of my purveyors, “Rosaprima” here.
- Shipping – transportation companies have to transport the perishables across the country in refrigerated units, and/or pay for overseas flight space overnight.
- Wholesalers – because of different time zones, local wholesalers work around the clock to bid for your particular flowers in various grower auctions across the world. They work the world trade and follow your flowers through customs until they finally receive our orders in their warehouses. Their teams will unpack the pallets of blooms, give them their first drink of water and separate orders for florists to pick up.
- Florists – we immediately start to unpack, clean and hydrate your flowers early in the week so they are at their prime performance for your wedding. There is a minimum of 4 chemicals that I use in my studio to hydrate, nourish and preserve your flowers so that they last perfectly through your special day. Premium flowers such as gardenias and stephanotis are sensitive to oils on human skin and require gloved handling. They also require special supplies which must be attached to each individual bloom, which keeps them safe during designing and display. These delicate blooms have a 24hr period before they wilt, which means we start designing with them at 2:00AM or 3:00AM on the day of your wedding.
- Curate – we also have to take into account that every floral stem requires about a week of refrigerated storage. The perfect temperature allows the flowers to drink while they bloom at a perfect rate, just in time for your wedding! This usually requires a fresh cut and nurturing throughout the week. Hydrangeas, for example, are stored stems up with their blooms under water, this allows for the bloom to reach maximum hydration. We pull them out of the refrigerated water and dip them in a sealant which works like an invisible saran wrap so the moisture doesn’t evaporate. We’ll give the stem a fresh cut above the air lock and dip it in an acidic solution which then makes the bloom to start drinking from it’s stem again. It’s then placed in fresh water that is treated with floral nutrients. This is how we manage to keep hydrangeas alive, they’d otherwise wilt within an hour of being out of water. Floral curating is also the time when our team is unpacking and preparing containers, ribbons, foam, supplies, etc for the design process.
- Design – after all that process, we finally get to spend some time in the studio putting together your floral expression!
- Re-Packing – we prepare and gently package your completed arrangements for delivery! In this phase, your flowers will get their final treatment of preservative mist. All of the blooms are covered with a hydrated protective tissue as the arrangements are packaged in insulated containers to avoid the petals from bruising while on their final trip to YOU!
- Setup – we usually have to hire a few extra hands to move in quickly and setup your flowers. Some venues and/or arrangements require that a floral display be designed on site. In this case, florals are re-packaged to avoid damage then unpacked again for an on-site design install.
- I’ll add that where an average shop will sell a bloom out the door in 5 minutes or less. A wedding florist will spend time with you (over several months) in the planning process. We’ll not only meet with you as needed, but we’ll also put together proposals, floral orders, task lists and setup a game-plan with your fellow vendors and our installation team.
“But Grocery Store Roses are $10!”
The $10 – $12 florals you see at Costco, Kroger and most big box retailers are the leftovers. Growers of flowers and fruit/veggies sell the perishables in auctions before they are grown. By the time a plant shows it’s first sprig, it’s considered a loss if it doesn’t have a customer assigned to it. Big retailers will buy out auctions to distribute to all of their chains, or even worse, they’ll threaten to drop the grower as a vendor if they don’t fork up the goods at the retailer’s preferred price. Sometimes the retailer’s preferred price is well below the grower’s production cost. In this case, growers have to make up for the loss from these demands by retailers like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco and similar big box distributors. The make-up for the loss can also be what drives up the prices of those stunning peonies or garden roses you love to see in your bouquet.
Retailers like Trader Joe’s have growers who supply both florals and produce from the same crops. They’ve already made their money on produce and any florals they sell are just bonus. Whatever florals that don’t sell will work to their advantage as a year end tax write-off.
They wilted on my way back down the aisle!
Similar to cheap avocados (vs. the big haas avocados), cheap avocados are hard one day and it seems like they turn black and mushy over night, and hold little to no flavor. I performed a test and picked up the low budget grocery store roses. I put them through the same hydrating and care process, just as I would any other rose, and they’ll wilt before they ever bloom open.
I know a man who worked for a lettuce grower. The farm had to turn unbelievable amounts of produce in order to meet the demands of grocery stores and stay profitable. Any time a lettuce crop didn’t seem like it would render it’s volume in time to ship, they would pull all hands on deck and pump ammonia into the lettuce a few days before harvest. The ammonia would make the lettuce double in size just in time for harvest and shipping. This practice would satisfy retailers just in time for them to deliver their promise to you with their pre-printed grocery ads. Meanwhile, the supply and demand chain never had your health in their best interest. You had more ammonia in your salad than the average bottle of Windex, ok maybe not that much, but it’s not a kind way to clean out your pipes, high levels of ammonia can cause seizures!
Well, the same process goes for florals. Some farmers do what they have to do to push product out and meet an order. Some flowers are grown to sell at $9.99 while others are grown for quality. Not all flowers would make the cut for picture worthy bouquets, or even survive the length of your wedding day (stock is a fragrant bloom and a prime example. Cheap stock, from turn-quick farms, will go down quick regardless of our care process. Quality stock is still fragile but will take the long day right along with you).
I love nerding out on flowers and processes! Hopefully the breakdown gave you intel on why wedding flowers hold a little more value, and I hope the budgeting tools will give you an idea for how to build a floral budget that works for you!
You are welcome to check out my pricing page here. You are always welcome to contact me if you need additional advice in building, or reviewing, your floral budget. Reach me at 520-705-6305 and I’ll give you my best advice, even if it doesn’t entirely include my services.
Thank you for visiting! Please share questions or comments below.
Let me know if you found this helpful, or comment with any other topics you’d like to chat about!
‘Til our next virtual brunch, do something kind for yourself!
You are a gift to the world!
You are radiantly beautiful as you are!
You are unique and SO loved!!!
Much love,
Andy
Special thanks to some amazing fellow wedding curators in the Phoenix area! Together we created someone’s beautiful dream in the images enclosed. Check out these friends, if you see something you love, and share it with someone you care for!
Photographer: Tara Nichole
Venue: Raven Golf Club Phoenix
Dress: Uptown Bridal
Hair and Makeup: Shel Does Hair
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