Help Me! How Much Do Wedding Flowers Cost?

(Toronto Market for 2024 Weddings)

It’s time for an update on my “Do Flowers Really Cost that Much” Post. It’s a well loved and read post that has spread a lot of understanding to those planning a wedding and trying to figure out their wedding floral budget. 

Let’s start with your average full-service florist, you might be paying let’s say a typical $5000-$15000 for your wedding floral designs. That is actual live fresh consumable product, actual flowers that cost something.  Actual vases that cost something.  Actual candles that cost something.  These are all one-use items that have to be purchased for your event.  

As an artist, you are paying for our expertise, which is always important value, but even with practice a florist has to pay for live product to get their experience. I’ve been designing professionally since 2010 and I’ve spent thousands on product to practice, get experience, try new techniques and train with other professionals. 

Here are the things you are paying for with a professional florist:

First, you have all the time consuming emails, zoom meetings and phone calls before and after booking an event.

Then you have your consultation. These typically take 40-90 minutes depending on the scope of your wedding. A consultation entails working with your florist for hours trying to get educated on what will be best for your wedding. You will need to be taught what will look and perform the best on your wedding day. In a consultation, most brides do not know the names of flowers or speak the language of flowers so we end up teaching a bit as well. We then use our expertise to tie it together and formulate a floral plan. This is really a separate career that so many wedding florists take on without an additional cost to you. Many times I have helped brides times to pick out linens, favors or develop concepts further… All of this fabulous information is often given at no charge and is given to you under the same invoice as the cost of your flowers.

There is also the work that goes into the proposal. The florist needs to write recipes and verify the pricing of each design. Unlike other wedding vendors, like the photographer, cake baker, wedding coordinator, or even the caterer, florist invoices are NEVER the same. Good floral artists do not have packages. Each invoice must be created uniquely for each event depending on each flower used in each design. This process takes time.

A floral designer spends hours writing and verifying the recipes and calculating the stem count and then order is sent to the wholesaler.

Wholesalers find each and every one of your flowers via internet, phone, flower auctions and searches across the world in search of your flowers. Once the buyer or the florist’s sales rep. buys the blossoms at auction, they are sent to the airports and brought back to the wholesaler.  There is also sourcing your containers which usually requires more time finding the right vessels and shipment charges or going to the wholesalers to pick them up, load them into vehicles and into the studio.

Wholesaler Processing:  After arriving at the wholesaler, flowers are sorted, processed and then sorted into individual event orders. There is a cost to have all of these people growing, searching and then delivering the flowers to your floral designer.  Travel Expenses for flowers start with two and from the wholesalers, to and from the floral farms, to the studio.

Unpacking & Conditioning:  Flowers need to come out of the boxes and get into clean water. It takes hours to get the flowers conditioned (a fresh cut, stems removed of leaves and debris and in clean water with a floral preservative).  This includes unloading all the flowers into the studio out of vehicles.  Don’t forget breaking down all of the boxes and getting them recycled and cleaning every single bucket to prepare the right environment for your blooms.

Next step is sorting the stems into the recipes.  This verifies that all calculations were correct and double checking that you received all the flowers that you ordered and that you have all the necessary blooms required.  Now imagine all the extra work that requires if that’s not the case, because it does happen frequently! I often have to go back to my wholesalers a second time if product was not good enough quality once unpacked or if something else goes wrong!

Don’t forget we have to get containers or vases ready.  Cleaning items, unpacking, taking off stickers (that can take forever), preparing with foam, wire, tape and water. Also floral preservative is added to each container.

Now it’s time to design, which only occurs after hydration of your blooms.  For a Saturday wedding, we normally set up the studio with clean buckets, water all the containers on the Tuesday. We work Wednesday unpacking and processing and then all day Thursday and Friday designing.  Then, ALL day Saturday we are going over the designs in the morning and then delivering and setting up all day Saturday. It is common for us to get our 50 hours or more in just the 4 or 5 days. Some days we will stand from the very early morning until way into the night to get the designs finished.

Then there is loading all the flowers to vehicles (sometimes vehicle rental), packing carefully with all the florals and rentals.  Delivery to location 1, location 2, location 3, moving arrangements, tear down and/or coming back to pick up items…

Floral Design includes a lot of labour, a lot of time, a lot of steps PLUS the actual cost of the flower.  Don’t forget, most of this, we are not doing on our own and are having to pay others since the work can’t be done in advance.  We’ve got just the few days before to pull it all off!

“When I consider this process from beginning to end, I realize that flower designs are probably one of the least expensive products around. What other good requires this amount of time and care and is sold at the price at which it is sold. Most floral designers are true artists practicing a trade that is not generally valued. This is an imported good, involving so many labourers. Suddenly the flowers at your wedding really seem like an incredible deal.” – Holly Chapple

These prices are not written in stone. These are THE AVERAGE my clients are spending to get those full and lush designs you are seeing on my website and Instagram.

With a garden rose costing $9-$24+ each, standard rose $6+, premium rose $8+, spray rose $5.50+, ranunculus $6.75+, peonies $9-30+, dahlias $6-$12 and an average bunch of eucalyptus is $45 it adds up very quickly!

Here’s a breakdown: 

Bridal Bouquet – $350+

Bridesmaids Bouquet – $160+ x3

Boutonniere – $27+ x6
Floral Pocket Boutonnieres – $40+

Corsage – $36+ x2

Ceremony Arch – $1500 average ($500 for a corner piece to $10,000+ )

Ceremony Aisle – $45 x8

Head Table/Sweetheart Table – $425

Centrepieces (Low) – $175 x15 (for a full round table – 1 centrepiece)
Elevated Arrangements start at $300 per table, plus vase or stand rental

Candle Votive Rental – $3.50 x75

Cocktail Tables Bud Vase – $30+ x6 

Guest Book Table – $250+ x1

Sign /Seating Chart Flowers – $75+

$6741.50

Delivery and Set Up – $1000 (Approx)

This ranges greatly depending on number of drop offs, mileage, time required, staff needed, vehicles need, venue accessibility, difficulty of set up (and on-site design), schedule and time frame given for set up. Expect about 14-25% above the cost of the floral designs and rentals. 

Subtotal – $7741.50

Tax- $1006.40

Total – $8747.90