He or she has put a ring on it!  Yay!  You have been shopping around for vendors, going to different shows and in the back of your mind, you are thinking why do flowers cost so much?  Most couples often experience sticker shock over the price of wedding flowers.

You ask yourself why don’t “I go to Trader Joes or the grocery store to get my flowers?”  Simply put, flowers are expensive.  Why?  Let’s use an example of a bridal bouquet.  A bouquet has a number of individual blooms and they can be very costly.  While we can help you pick out flowers that are your style and theme, it’s important to be clear about your floral budget in the beginning. It also helps when you have a consultation with us that you have some understanding of the costs associated with specific flowers.

Below, is a break down the factors that contribute to the final cost of a bridal bouquet.

1. The bouquet requires an extensive amount of design time and care.  We usually allot one to two hours of design time to perfect each bouquet.  However, it is not always just the labor that that contributes to the final cost of the bouquet.  If you want expensive, out of season blooms, like peonies in October, the cost is going to be higher because peonies aren’t available and would have to be imported.  A lot of brides choose a premium array of flowers to make a statement in their bouquet.  The most popular premium flowers are orchids, peonies, garden roses and calla lilies.
2. Even though premium flowers attribute to the cost of the bouquet, the number of blooms will matter too.We have to order more flowers than we intend to use; some stems are not in perfect condition while designing or because the potentially of having to replace a broken or wilted bloom on wedding day.
3. What else is included in the cost of a bouquet? Our overhead.There is a great deal of expenses that come with running a floral business.  Expenses like prep time, storage of the flowers, labor, production, supplies and transportation have to be added.
4. You are paying for our expertise.If you want to DIY your own flowers, you can but DIY isn’t really for everyone and can be stressful if you are relying on friends and family to help you and they don’t help you out.  If you have never arranged flowers before, your wedding day isn’t the time to start doing that.
5. The size of the bouquet doesn’t always impact the cost of the bouquet.  There is also a myth that using a lot of greenery or keeping it simple will drive the cost of the bouquet down. Unfortunately, since the wedding of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the cost of greenery has skyrocket and some greenery costs as much as flowers.

Basically, there are a number of factors that drive the cost of your wedding flowers up.  If you are trying to save money, we can recommend choosing more affordable blooms like carnations, mums and standard roses, to name a few.  There are so many gorgeous varieties and colors to choose from.

Don’t think that you can’t have premium flowers.  When brides want to cut costs we suggest to have a premium flower as a focal point and the rest of the bouquet with affordable flowers.  When you are walking down the aisle, most guests are looking at the color of the bouquet, not what type of flowers are in the bouquet.