How Much Do Those Flowers Cost?!

So, how much do those flowers cost?!  When looking at a wedding or bridal magazine, don’t you wish everything had a price tag.  A very high percentage of brides are planning their wedding on a budget, and so when everyone is holding a bouquet, don’t you wish you know how much it would cost?  Well, we recently read a really great article written by Holly Chapple about realistic costs of wedding flowers.  We loved it.  We loved her input and explanation of what those magazine or online wedding flowers cost.  Most brides are sourcing their ideas from websites, pinterest, blogs and magazines…. So how hard is it for us as floral designers when we have to tell you that the flowers you are dreaming of don’t match your budget.  It’s painful for us.  We love to create designs that you love, that you want, that you dream about, that aren’t going above and beyond your budget.  But to put that all into perspective, here’s Holly’s expertise on the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD pricing for flowers in the US.

Here’s my synopsis on the excellent article published last month.

The main things that will affect the cost of your flowers:

• The flowers you choose.
• The skill level of your designer : new designers typically charge less for their services (they have less experience). Seasoned designers will probably charge more (they have more experience).
• The region you live in.

Average Price Ranges (for the nice sized, full, lush, rich, elegant designs you see in the magazines):

• Bridal Bouquets range from $250-400. Yes, the magazine bouquets really cost this much. Most brides are choosing bouquets full of hydrangea, garden roses, peonies, orchids, regular roses, callas, ranunculus, and more.  The range is based on using them in a hand tied styled bouquet.  Once more labour and mechanics is involved (like for blooms like orchids or gardenias or in styles like a cascading bouquet) expect your bouquet to be on the high end of this range.

• Maids Bouquets typically range from $95-165, the higher price point if using the super costly flowers listed above.
• Boutonnieres $13 -16, floral tape for the low end,  ribbon or embellishment for the high.

• Corsages Pin on range from $22-25, wrist style are $26-30 and mini bouquets are $30+.
• Flower Girls Mini baskets or bouquets for $45+. Kissing balls or pomanders start at $95+. Flower crowns or halos at $90+.
•  Altar Flowers These large pieces typically start at $250+. The scale of the design has to be large and anything smaller than this looks out of proportion. It’s easy to spend $400-500 for really big designs.
• Aisle Flowers Plain bows $15 for true satin ribbon and not acetate.  Bows and greens will be $20-25+, bouquets of flowers $30+. Kissing balls or pomanders begin at $110+ for this area.
• Place Card Designs are usually big entrance or arrival pieces that require a budget of $400+.

• Centerpieces Designing a low piece that is full and similar to those famous designs you see in a magazine is hard to do for under $150.  It’s easy for a full design to be in the $250+. Simple bud vases should start at $25+. A huge misconception is that gatherings of little designs or water designs with submerged flowers is less expensive. This is simply not the case. Lugging water at a venue and filling multiple vases with submerged flowers and candles is costly and a very labor intensive task. The same holds true for bud vases, multiple bud vases requires lots of organization and planning. Elevated designs can’t be created for under $250. These big designs require hundreds of stems. The elevated designs you are seeing featured in magazines are probably $400+. If the designs feature cascading orchids, or are on stands they should be priced even higher. In many shops you will pay an additional rental fee on any of the hard goods. Also be aware that if you choose to do farm/feasting tables this style of seating requires even more flowers. Instead of one centerpiece in the middle of the round table you will now need to create multiple pieces to extend the length of the table.

• Cake flowers are typically sold at $75 and up.
• Toss bouquets are typically $45 and up. Some designers offer these at no charge but that is less and less common.
• Labor and delivery 20%  of the subtotal before tax for the delivery of their flowers.
• Breakdown is an additional fee of 5% or $250+

Now, your big question.  Andie, are the Dandie Andie Floral Designs’ prices like this?  Yes, and no.

For the smaller items (like boutonnieres and corsages) yes – right on the money.  The cost of the flower and labour is basically the same everywhere in North America.

For some of the other items, no, I’d disagree, that our prices would be lower or on the lower end of those ranges.  My reasons being, we are a younger company.  I am, a slightly “less seasoned” designer.  I’ve been designing since 2006, started events in 2007, but officially opened up shop in 2010 making this Dandie Andie Floral Designs’ our fourth official wedding season.  We believe that we charge the right amount for our 8 years of experience.  But, we do get to cut corners in a few places.  We don’t have a retail store front.  We love that.  We are all about events – and only events.  We don’t have the overhead cost of running a shop even in freezing and dead January (not many customers) or ridiculously hot July (tonnes of flowers going to waste).  We also don’t have any other permanent employees other than myself.  We employ based on events and we like that too!  We also see great prices in flowers because we are in a big city (Toronto) in comparison to the middle of Canada where nothing can be grown but wheat.  And you have to be a special kind of person to want an all wheat bouquet…

Hopefully this gave you a better understanding on flower pricing in the wedding industry in both Canada and the US.  And with those wedding magazine prices, as well a the small companies like me.