What do wedding flowers cost?
How does floral pricing work?
There’s a lot of recommendations out there that floral decor should account for 8-15% of the total cost of your wedding budget. I’d argue over replacing “should” with “can” as it’s important that you pick where your priorities lie, but florals have a large impact on the aesthetic and feel of your event! So, what do wedding flowers cost?
Each design piece starts with the price per stem of each component. This is what your floral designer is paying a grower or floral wholesaler by the “bunch”, broken down per stem. Like any business that makes a profit (as these are small business owners selling goods/services to make an income) there can be anywhere between a 3-5x markup. I go with 3 as I don’t have a retail storefront and what I buy is already sold and don’t have much waste.
For supplies such as base mechanics, containers/vases, water tubes, tape, pins, and any other consumables, I use a markup of 2x.
A labor percentage of 30%-40% is also standard. The larger the piece with more components, the more time and skill required to design/plan/complete. Don’t miss out on all of the information about the number of hours that your floral designer is spending on an “average” sized event at the end of this blog. It’s NOT just the time spent arranging.
Brush up on your algebra folks… This looks like:
Wholesale stem cost x 3 = Flowers
Wholesale supplies cost x 2 = Supplies
(Flowers + Supplies) x 1.3 = Item Cost
Delivery fee $150 + ($75 x set up hrs) = Delivery Cost
Items + Delivery + Tax (10.5%) = Your Total Amount!
Why do I share this info? Flowers are expensive! Sticker shock is real once you’ve sent an inspiration photo to your floral designer and come to realize that what you thought may cost you $100 is actually $350.
“Professional quality comes with a professional price tag and educating my clients on understanding everything that goes into my personalized services is important to me! Event planning can already be a ride of emotions, and I don’t want disappointment on my behalf based on an unrealistic expectation to be one of them. ”
If you’re looking to book a floral designer just go into it knowing that estimated percentage of 8-15% of your total wedding budget is the right place to start.
Below are some examples of a real wedding and how that pricing was broken out. As this wedding took place in 2023, I grabbed a seasonal pricing sheet from my local grower’s market for September 2024 to account for any industry changes (don’t get me started on increases due to inflation!) I would consider this wedding as completely customized in the items I selected based on their design inspiration, and a “fuller” floral density with a few premium blooms.
Bridal Bouquet
3 Protea ($22.50)
5 Dahlias ($8)
4 Zinnias ($6.40)
2 Spray Roses ($4.40)
3 Peach Carnations ($1.68)
3 Amaranthus ($6.90)
6 Heather ($7.68)
2 Agonis Greens ($3)
2 Seeded Eucalyptus Greens ($5.62)
8 Swordfern ($6.80)
$72.98 floral cost x 3 (markup): $218.94
Supplies $3 (ribbon)
$221.94 x 1.3 (labor)= $289
Boutonnieres
1 Dahlia ($1.60)
.5 Spray Rose ($1.10)
1 Sword Fern ($.85)
Heather, Agonis, Amaranthus ($1.00)
$4.55 floral cost x 3 (markup): $13.65
$13.65 x 1.3 (labor) = $18 each
Welcome Sign Garland
2 Dahlias ($3.20)
2 Carnations ($1.12)
1 Celosia ($1.28)
2 Hydrangea ($4)
2 Zinnias ($3.20)
2 Heather ($2.56)
Greenery Base ($6.00)
$21.36 floral cost x 3 (markup): $64.08
Supplies (water tubes & tape) $0.50
$64.58 x 1.3 (labor)= $84
Hanging Floral Lanterns
*Lantern rental not in floral quote
Greenery base wreath greens ($4)
2 Amaranthus ($4.60)
2 Swordfern ($1.70)
1 Strawflower ($1.18)
2 Crocosmia pods ($1.80)
Variation of hydrangeas, heather, sedum, or celosia ($3.00)
$16.28 floral cost x 3 (markup): $48.84
Supplies (ribbon, water tubes) $3.20
$52.04 x 1.3 (labor)= $68 each
Arch Swags
*Arch base rental and fabric not in floral quote
8 Amaranthus ($18.40)
8 Snapdragons ($11.20)
11 Carnations ($6.16)
6 Hydrangea ($12)
8 Dahlias ($12.80)
8 Zinnias ($12.80)
3 Spray Roses ($6.60)
3 Protea ($22.50)
18 Swordfern ($15.30)
3 Agonis greens ($4.50)
2 Seeded Eucalyptus ($5.62)
$127.88 floral cost x 3 (markup): $383.64
Supplies (swag base) $14
$397.64 x 1.3 (labor) = $517
Bar Hanging Installation
Large Manzanita branch ($35)
11 Amaranthus ($25.30)
38 Swordfern ($32.30)
15 Dahlia ($24)
7 Carnations ($3.92)
2 Spray Roses ($4.40)
6 Hydrangea ($12)
10 Crocosmia pods ($9)
6 Sedum ($7.68)
3 Seeded Eucalyptus ($8.43)
2 Agonis ($3)
5 Italian Ruscus ($11)
$176.03 floral cost x 3 (markup): $528.09
Supplies (mechanics base) $30
$558.09 x 1.3 (labor)= $726
Delivery and Set-up pricing
I calculate delivery and set-up based on an initial flat delivery charge for drop-off and placing items, with an estimate of $75/hour for additional needs for set-up. This amount would increase per hour if the scale required more than 1 assistant. My contract covers cases where if set-up is behind schedule and I cannot complete my install, such as table linens not being on tables, I will send an invoice after the event for any additional hours spent waiting (though I will say my time is valuable, and I will be all hands on deck to speed that process along with whatever help I can provide.)
In my example for this featured wedding, in addition to hanging the bar installation, the rental of the lanterns required assembly on site (I pre-made clusters in water tubes that had to be refilled, then secured to the pre-made greenery wreath, then attached to the lantern.) Then, the lanterns were hung 8-12ft up in trees, which also took time and an assistant. This portion of the set-up took 2 hours.
Delivery fee $150 + ($75 x 2) = $300 Delivery Cost
What “labor” entails…
Imagine an average size wedding with florals by one designer for: the wedding couple, 3 attendants on each side, moderate altar pieces on an arch or 2 larger altar arrangements for ground or pillars, and 10 table centerpieces… (This is very similar to a combination of the packages I offer as examples on my website!)
From an initial consultation inquiry to cleaning up the studio space after delivery, there is a ton of time in labor that goes into each event. Time could go up or down depending on if an assistant is brought in for design work, cleaning or delivery, use of industry software for proposal design or recipe pricing, or if a client has a below or above average need for redrafts based on planning changes. The more experienced a designer, the faster they’ll work, but you can’t speed up traffic on flower market pickup day.
Regardless, there’s a lot of time, love, and audiobooks that go into bringing an event vision to life with personalized design. Let’s break that down by timeline - expand each section below to see an estimate of how your floral designer/business owner is spending that time:
-
Wedding consultation 1-2 hours
Sourcing inspiration photos for examples 2-3 hours
Proposal writing: planning a custom design and making flower recipes for pricing 1-3 hours
Additional follow-up consultations, proposal redrafts, as needed 0-3 hours
Drafting contract with personalized itemizations and sending through software 1 hour
Follow-up emails closer to event or as needed .5- 2 hours
Collaborating with other vendors, coordinator 0-3 hours
Site visits as needed 0-3 hours
Mockups digitally or in-person upon client request (comes with a whole other round of trip to floral market) 0-8 hours
Sourcing/planning flower order with different markets/wholesalers 1-3 hours
-
Prepping hard good materials, taping, filling buckets and vessels 1-2 hours
Transit time to market .5 -1 hour
Market shopping and pickup 1-2 hours
Transit time home (later in the day means more traffic in my area) .5-1.5 hours
Processing flowers: unpackaging, stripping leaves, de-thorning, trimming stems 1-3 hours
Sorting stems based on design recipes and hand selecting the best blooms (maybe even cleaning leaves on your greenery!) 1 hour
Arranging florals in studio 10-14 hours
Packing pieces for safe and sturdy travel .5-1 hour
-
Loading vehicle .5 hours
Transit time to venue .5-1.5 hours
Unloading vehicle/load-in at venue (Is there parking close by? An elevator? ½ mile walk down a hill?) .5-1 hour
Placing, or set-up/install at venue .5-1 hour
Repurposing mid-event (some of this is waiting time for the end of ceremony) 0-4 hours
Event takedown (some of this is waiting time for the event to end) 0-12 hours
Clean up from install/loading any equipment back to vehicles .5 hours
Transit time back to studio .5-1.5 hours
-
Unloading and cleaning vehicle .5-1 hour
Sweep floors .25 hour
Dump buckets and garbage/yard waste (events with teardown may require travel to disposal facility) .25 - 2 hours
Cleaning buckets .25 hour
Catalogue and clean any rental equipment (removing pesky wax, sludge lines, tape marks) .25-3 hours
Put away equipment .25 hour
Follow-up with Photographer to get on gallery list when photos are available .25 hour
Breaking that out, it’s 27 - potentially 85.5 hours!
Some of the cost of delivery and install is factored into delivery price, but the rest of those hours are all included in the price of each item component on your floral proposal.
You know what isn’t included in that list of hours? The general time it takes to manage a business - quarterly tax reports, tracking expenses and income, marketing and networking, engaging in social media, managing websites, domains, insurance, etc. Those items are all paid for out of the mark-up cost.
So if you ever think your floral proposal may be priced incorrectly, it probably is - definitely not charging enough for their value and worth!
Vendors
Photographer: Dunn Naturally Photography (one photo of arch install taken by floral designer)
Coordination and Arch Rental: Little Blue Bird Events
Venue: Private Residence
Florals: The Copper Dahlia
Lantern Rentals: Sweet Buffet Lady
