Why Do Fresh Wedding Flowers Cost So Much?
Weddings, big or small, are a huge luxury and if you’re lucky enough to be planning one, you’ll know the relevant services don’t come cheap, and fresh flowers are no exception.
Ultimately, you’re not paying for just the things you see. Vendors have experience, expertise, skills and knowledge acquired from qualifications and time in the industry and they use all this to make your day special.
Here’s some reasons why fresh wedding flowers cost so much:
1. The journey begins long before your wedding
Someone has to produce seeds, which then need to be nurtured by skilled and knowledgeable growers, who spend months prepping soil, nourishing and watering their plants. They employ large numbers of people, who all deserve to be paid a living wage.
2. Transportation
Around 80% of the cut flowers in the UK come from the Netherlands. To get them to you in perfect, wedding-ready condition, the flowers need to be packed, refrigerated, checked at customs etc. Of course we’d love to use the beautiful things grown by local flower farmers, but there are still transportation costs involved with this too. These logistics all have to be factored into overall pricing.
3. Wholesale costs
Your friendly local wholesaler also has transport, refrigeration, staff and storage costs to consider, so when the florist buys your wedding flowers from a wholesaler, the price already includes their mark-up.
4. Yay, your flowers have reached your florist!
But – lets rewind: in order to know what to buy, the florist has already put in several hours work on your wedding. We have spent 1-2 hours consulting with you, they’ve researched flower types, cost, seasonal availability and maybe created a mood board for you. They’ve created your quote and sent it to you. Then they have spent 1-2 hours buying the flowers, possibly online, but also possibly driving to wholesalers before the break of dawn, or meeting with flower farmers to collect stock.
5. Physcial labour
Fresh flowers don’t arrive with your florist ready for use (that’s the dream!). Depending on the amount of flowers, a florist may spend 1-3 hours conditioning them – removing leaves, thorns and damaged petals. Then the flowers need to spend a minimum of 2 hours in water before any floral design is done. In this time the florist will most likely be prepping containers, decorative elements and reviewing your wedding documents before starting to design.
6. Intricate designs
I can throw a standard £25 bouquet together in around 15 minutes. As your bridal bouquet may cost £125, I’d imagine you’d like me to spend a little bit more time designing it! All my skills from my apprenticeship, self-funded courses, and years of experience are poured into to your wedding flowers. I’ll often take bouquets apart and re-design several times until it’s up to my standards. On the day of the wedding, it’s not uncommon to see a florist pulling a very early start to make essential elements like buttonholes and corsages which are not able to go in water once designed, just to make sure they go the distance on your day.
7. It’s all in the delivery
The last step is delivering your wedding flowers to you and ensuring they arrive on time and in perfect condition. This might involve hiring another person to help, plus fuel costs and packing your flowers so they are safe on the journey. This is all time to be accounted for within the cost of your wedding flowers.
Other factors in recent years such as Britain’s departure from the EU and the unpredictable weather due to climate change have also had an effect on the overall cost of fresh flowers. On a personal level, when I designed my own wedding flowers, they doubled in price from when I initially looked at the costs (one year before). It’s important you explore all the options and are clear with the florist about your budget from the outset so they can choose the most cost-effective blooms.
