Flower Budget?

[QueenG]

Hello Ladies and Gents,

I''m just writing to ask about flower budgets since I have NO IDEA how much one spends, on average, for flowers. I heard that 1 of my friends spent $40,000, another a bit over $1000. What is expected for a Philadelphia wedding at an art gallery that already has nice decor? Under 125 guests and only 2 bridesmaids. I don''t want to go crazy, may even use lanterns and tiny arrangements on some tables, while doing a few large arrangements with twigs/curly willow and some flowers on a few of the tables. What should I expect? Do I give the florist a budget off the bat and have her work with it? And if so, what would that budget be?!

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

The great thing about an art gallery is you have the art. How much extra decor do you really need?

I'm paying $700 for my flowers (Providence, RI).

I would give the florist your budget and let her work with that.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

If the place is already well decorated, I say you just need bouquets and boutineres for the boys
My centerpieces are 10$ each, very simple, but perfect for what I needed. My flower budget should come in under 500$, if not less. Honestly, I think flowers is one of those areas where any budget goes, it just depends on what you want. Why don't you just meet with the florist first, they can show you some options, give you an idea of pricing, and that can get you started with a ballpark, and you can tone it up or down depending on your taste.

FWIW: According to The Knot, flowers should be about 8% of the budget.

Here's a pic of my simple centerpiece:

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

love them. Another idea is tall cylinder vases with a single calla lily submerged in it, or with a stem of orchids. I also love the look of simple wheat grass arrangements (think square vase with grass planted and trimmed to one length).

 

[lala2332]

i haven''t decided on flowers yet, but I would call a couple of florists and explain what you are thinking you want and see about some quotes. THen you can move up or down from there. And you can figure out which florist will work with you and that you like working with.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Mine ended up right at $1,000 for a wedding with about 60 attending in Virginia..so I really think if you don''t want these huuuuuge, elaborate centerpieces with flowers flown in from all over the world that it''s a reasonable budget.

With nice decor already that does help cut cost..that''s how we cut cost as well. Since it''s already a garden..we didn''t need ANY ceremony decorations. As for reception? We went minimal there, too, since the rooms are floral themed already. Finally, I agree that you should see more than one person. My first quote was double the price, half the quality of my second (the one I went with).

 

[rhbgirl24]

It all depends on what you want. My flowers will be about $1200, but no flowers are being used for decoration - fruit, leaves, candles so on. So the 1200 is just for our bouquets and bouts.

PS - In south NJ - so pretty much same price range as philly.

 

[RLG]

we spent around $2000 in St. Louis for 5 bouquets 22 small center pieces and one large floral arrangement.

 

[meresal]

We are doing a church ceremony, flowers on every other pew and there are two aisles, two urns at front of chruch, bouquets and bouts for all attendants and mothers (apprx 25), then 3 different size centerpieces at the reception to be used on about 20 tables, including other small things around the room and a very tall and ornate tree at the sign in table.

Total, apprx: $4500

If that small centerpiece is what you are going for, I would imagine you could get some pretty good quotes. The other thing about small centerpieces, you could probably get those at the florist yourself and deliver them to the reception and that could cut down on costs. I know our florist has a $500 fee for delivery and strike(tear-down), that can be avoided if you pick them up yourself. Our trees and tall centerpieces are assemble on site, or else we would take advantage of that.

 

[doodle]

We spent $1500 on flowers, and that included bouquets, bouts, corsages, etc. for me, my mother, my stepmother, my father, my stepfather, my grandfather, two grandmothers, my DH''s mother and stepfather, my DH, and 12 bridal party members, plus 10 centerpieces of submerged orchids, mantel arrangements for the fireplace in the reception room, aisle liner flowers, flowers on the cake and cake table, a curtain made of orchids sewn together on clear wire as a backdrop during the ceremony, and a silly amount of Japanese paper lanterns that we hung in the ceiling of the gazebo where we had the ceremony and on shepherd hooks with orchids hanging from the bottom as aisle markers. THANK GOD I LIVE IN GEORGIA and my florist was awesome!!!!!!! How much you budget for flowers, IMO, depends entirely on how much you love flowers. In my case, I adore them and wanted to splurge in that area (again, THANK GOD I LIVE IN GEORGIA!), so we spent more than what is typical for my area, but if you''re not florally obsessed and already have a venue that doesn''t require much for decoration, your budget could be as low as just the cost of bouquets and bouts and call it a day!

 

[SapphireLover]

I am in the UK and am having ceremony and reception in the same venue. Mine are costing £1300ish ($2100) for 10 tablecentres, aisle decoration, my bouquet and one for BM, and about 4-6 big arrangemnts for the room.

 

[zipzapgirl]

Here are some tips I''ve read to cut costs:

- Use the bridesmaids bouquets as accent flowers for places like the gift table, dessert table, etc. They can have them back at the end of the night

- Order flowers online if you want to DIY or have a nice friend who would take care of it for you. Roses for instance are pretty easy to arrange in glass vases you could pick up at Michael''s or some discount store.

- Use lanterns or other non-floral centerpieces. Musey''s wedding had some great ones, for instance.

- If you''re having a small wedding and aren''t too uptight about advance planning, try Whole Foods. Every time I walk in there I am astounded at the bouquets you can pick up for $15 when they cost $100+ from a florist!


We did bouquets and bouts, little wristlets for the mothers and flowers for five large tables. Also, we had an arch with greenery and roses. Total cost 630 euros (<$900) in Italy.

 

[Gypsy]

I figured out exactly what I wanted and then asked for qoutes.

I got ranges from 1300 to 5000 for the same flowers. I threw out the lowest and highest. Then did phone interviews with the florists. If I liked them I followed it up with an in person interview. I ended up enlarging my flower order in some ways, contracting it in others. But ended up paying... I don't even remember it was either 2100 or 2800. I had a lot of flowers, but very carefully chosen for maximum impact.

My tall centerpieces sound like something you'd like. I did lall centerpieces with curly willow on half the tables, low ones around lanterns on the other half. Two huge altar pieces in urns for the ceremony (which were then taken into the reception as well) a lovely sweetheart table floral decor, submerged orchids for the memory table, cake flowers, My own bouquet, my MOH bouquet, 3 corsages, 5 boutineers. Flower petals in the aisle. I'm pretty sure that's it.

You can see my wedding flowers at www.floraldesigner.com under Portfolio --> Wedding at Deer Ridge.

 

[Lilac]

I can''t imagine spending $40,000 on flowers. Wow. Must have been beautiful, but that''s a ton of money for flowers, IMO.

My flowers ended up costing around $6,000. But keep in mind, that was for a wedding of over 500 people, so we had a TON of centerpieces. To keep the cost lower, we did half high centerpieces with a lot of flowers and half low centerpieces with fewer flowers. We also moved some flowers from the ceremony to the reception area (they were in the same place, just different rooms, so we had the florist move some of the flowers from one room to the other).

 

[Diva0413]

For my wedding, floral arch for the ceremony and rose petals to outline the aisle the bridal party will walk down. Boutonnieres for the groomsmen, groom, fathers, and grandfathers plus corsages for the mothers and grandmothers. Bridal and bridesmaids bouquets and centerpieces for the cocktail tables, place card table and reception tables. Total cost is about 3K in NYC.