The season for wedding enquiries is almost upon us so here’s a quick glance at the true cost of wedding flowers.
Whether you are having the dream wedding of the season or just nipping to the registry office, it’s always nice to involve flowers on your wedding day and we do a lot of wedding flowers at Rose&Mary. This year is predicted to be one of the most busy wedding seasons due to the pandemic. The engagement season is starting now and we book 90% of weddings for the following year in January. So whether you are having a quick browse or you want Rose&Mary to flower your wedding, it’s a useful read either way!
For a super easy glance at the cost of wedding flowers we have designed 4 wedding packages; based upon the location of your wedding and the amount of guests. You can see the wedding packages that we offer here
The cost of wedding flowers can vary hugely, the chunk of your overall wedding budget is usually 10-15%
If you are planning to set a budget for your wedding flowers please don’t just pick a random amount without checking with your florist first. Lots of couples we meet have set a budget of £1000.
The average spend of wedding flowers with us is £2500-£3500. Some coupes spend a lot more while others spend a lot less. It does depend on the size of your bridal party and number of guests and venue.
Wedding flowers can be broken down to 3 areas and variations in these areas will determine the cost of wedding flowers:
1. Bridal flowers
These are the personal flowers and include the wedding bouquet, bridesmaids flowers, buttonholes, corsages, flower crowns etc.
If you choose a lot of bridesmaids that will hugely increase the cost of your wedding flowers. Bridesmaids bouquets are roughly half the cost of the bridal bouquet but you can get creative and find a place for them in a short vase or a pint glass and use them to decorate cocktail tables on the patio, bar area or cake table.
2. Ceremony flowers
Are you getting married at a civil ceremony or a church?
Sometimes ceremony spaces are so gorgeous that there is absolutely no need for extra flowers, or are you after big and bold statement pieces that will hike up the cost of the overall budget.
With ceremony flowers sometimes 2 big arrangements and a few pew ends can be enough but a church or a registry office is a big space to fill so this is an area where the flowers can really add up. There is also an option to re-install the same flowers at the reception, especially if you are getting married on a week day.
3. Reception flowers
The cost of the flowers for the reception can also vary hugely but on the whole it does depend on how many guests are coming and how many tables need to be decorated. Are you having a top table and various guest tables, or is it a free flowing kind of reception. If there is a formal dinner and you would like tall arrangements where the guests sit underneath that will be much more expensive than a low arrangement.
You might want to keep it simple with a few candles and some foliage or a few bud vases but be careful that the total cost of the table decoration can add up quickly. You might want enormous floral chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling, floral arches or other big budget items. With a free flowing kind of reception all you might need are a few jam jars here and there. It all depends on the venue, the formality of the reception and the size of the guest list. Also don’t forget those thank you flowers!
We have these 3 tips to keep down the costs of your wedding flowers:
1. Don’t choose a wedding date when flowers are expensive.
Its very romantic to get married on Valentines Day but the cost of the flowers will be sky high. The same goes for Mother’s day (not just the one in the UK but international Mother’s Day as well) and around Christmas and New Year. Most flowers we use go through the Dutch auction system and it is a supply-and-demand kind of thing. If demand for flowers is high (like around Valentine’s day), the flowers price will rise. If supply is high, like in the summer, the price will fall. It’s that simple.
2. Choose seasonal flowers.
Seasonal flowers are the best quality and the best value for money. Have you ever eaten a strawberry in the middle of winter? Its a bit like that with flowers; expensive and not very tasty. If you insist on peonies or lily of the valley please find out when the best time is to get married to avoid disappointment.
3. Choose larger flowers and foliages.
A hydrangea might be £10 a stem but you only need a few stems to fill a vase. Same thing for big headed roses, they might be more expensive, but a few in a rose dome works out more cost effective than a load of skinny ones.
Foliages isn’t always green and can compliment flowers beautifully and is a very cost effective way of filling up your wedding flowers, although beautiful foliage is just as expensive as flowers, Eucalyptus for instance is not a cheap foliage!
There are dark shades of maroons to lift up the flowers, variageted foliages to compliment rose domes, silvers to compliment cool colours and bright yellow, brown and red foliages to compiment pastels or to accentuate bright flowers.
We typically use around 30% foliage in our wedding work, depending on the wishes of the bride. There are some stunning foliage arrangements on Pinterest to see where the foliage is more dominant then the flowers, but there is a thin line between too much foliage and not enough flowers, the flowers will look a bit lost.
There is also a trend of just greeney weddings where mixed foliages are the star of the show and there is not a flower in sight. Please note though that foliage only is not a cheap option, also foliages vary hugely per season and can be very expensive is bought out of its natural season (this is especially true for Eucalyptus thats out of season from May till August)
Pricelist
Here is a guide to the cost of wedding flowers. The cost of the flowers can vary hugely and is always discussed during a consultation. Afterwards an itemised quote will be send to you that will include all the things we’ve discussed. At that point it’s not very important to make any decisions on the finer details in your quote, there’s plenty of time for that in the lead up to your wedding day. The most important thing after receiving your quote is that you choose the florist that will be most suitable to you and your needs and will be able to fulfil your floral wishes. We wedding florist are all different designers with different approaches to wedding flowers so make sure we are a good match, also don’t ask for a quote if you are not seriously considering us as your wedding florist; quotes are time consuming!
Due to the Pandemic and Brexit aftermath we are unable to provide a price list at the moment.
Flower prices at the wholesalers are exceptionally high due to flower shortages, transport shortages and import problems and delays from the EU. All quote for the 2022 and 2023 season will have a provisional price list based on bespoke quotes only. Please get in touch to book a consultation!
Bridal flowers
- bridal bouquets
- trailing bouquet
- Bridesmaids bouquets
- Bridesmaids posie children
- Buttonholes
- Corsages
- Flower wands
- Flower crowns
-
Ceremony flowers
- pedestal arrangements
- ceremony table arrangements
- pew ends
- floral arch or columns from
- floral chandelier
Venue flowers
- Table centres from
- Votives/jamjars flowers
- Top table arrangements
- Elevated table arrangements
- Candelabra arrangements
- Cake flowers
- Galands per ft
- cocktail table arrangements from
- gift table/bar arrangements from
- Tossing bouquet from
- Thank you flowers
Please note that VAT, vase/ pedestal hire, delivery charge, installation charge, take down charge, return of hired goods etc are NOT included in the price. These will be discussed during the consultation and added to the quote. The cost of set up is roughly 10% of the total cost of wedding flowers but can vary hugely based on location and needs.
If there are more things on your list and you would like to have a chat please feel free to contact us!
We upload all our wedding flowers on a weekly bases on: www.instagram.com/roseandmaryuk