Last week I posted an article that talked through a little bit of the reasoning behind why wedding flowers average $3000 per event. I received so many questions I thought it would be worth doing a follow-up, providing a bit more detail on how that $3000 typically breaks down across the various elements of a wedding.
It's a bit of a challenge to provide a complete summary of that $3000 simply because everyone's wedding is different – the number of people in the bridal party varies, the table set-up changes and the set-up, delivery and removal costs can vary dramatically from venue to venue.
Having said all of that though, I hope the following sheds a little bit of light on the $3000 budget.
Personals ($1005 ~ 35%)
- Bridal Bouquet – $285
- Bridesmaids x 3 – $610
- Buttonholes x 4 – $110 (groom, 3 x groomsmen)
Ceremony ($625~ 20%)
- Archway Florals – $500
- Archway Hire – $125
Reception ($960 ~ 30%)
- Bud vases + flowers x 65 – $960
Delivery, Set-up, & Pack Down ($500 ~ 15%)
- Delivery – $150
- Set-up / Pack Down – $350
Total = $3090
There are heaps of caveats and assumptions made on the above (particularly when it comes to the reception flowers), but I hope it gives you at least a good idea of where the $3000 goes.
At the very basic level, the above budget assumes a bridal party of 8 (3 attendants on either side) and a guest list of 80-100 people (including the bridal party). You'll see there are no cake flowers, no hair flowers, no additional buttonholes or corsages for parents or grandparents.
With the archway, the budget allows for a fairly full archway floral accent, covering approximately half the archway (or an asymmetrical installation on one corner and an accent on the opposite side).
The table flowers in the above budget are kept quite simple, purely in an effort to keep costs down. Reception flowers and installations are where a lot of the money tends to go and that is mostly because of the volume of flowers required – a beautiful traditional round table arrangement starts from around $250. Assuming there are 10 tables, that's $2500.
It's also worth pointing out the above budget also doesn't account for a bridal table / head table feature either, which are often an additional $1000 or more depending on the length of the table.
Labour (installation, delivery, set-up and pack down) assume a fairly straightforward set-up. By that, we mean a single drop off point for all delivery items (i.e. the wedding venue), no time restrictions on set-up and pack down times and easy access to the ceremony and reception. All of these things can affect the price of wedding flowers as well as we need to account for additional labour requirements if set-up and take-down windows / time frames are very tight.
Finally, I also want to point out that every florist's pricing scheme is different and each florist has their own style – abundance is part of our aesthetic and our pricing will reflect this.
You may find a florist in your area charges a little less purely because they don't use as many flowers for their designs. It's definitely worth spending the time to do a little extra research and finding a florist who suits your personal style first and working with them on handpick the pieces to suit your budget.
