Ouch! I just got the quote from my Florist!!!!

[IndiBlue]

Hey all! I just got the quote back from my Florist- WOW! Who knew that it would be so expensive?!?!

I just can''t see spending $4800 on flowers! Our wedding is pretty big (+/- 200 people) but I thought that I''d tried not to go overboard here and I obviously have!

What is the average amount for flowers?

 

[larussel03]

Hi Indi,

We didnt have to get centerpieces but for my bouquet (roses and mini callas), BMs bouquets (6 of roses), bouts (12, 2 extra just in case), mothers nosegays, runner, 6 pew bows and 2 altar pieces, we were quoted 1500. I'm hoping to knock it down a bit to closer to 1000, but we'll prob end up paying for everything but centerpieces around 1200-1300 in the end. With centerpieces from our girl, I couldnt see it being more than 2500 or 3K at most though. I'd do some price shopping. It's tiring with the flowers (b/c you have to go and explain to multi florists and for me it was kinda exhausting) but at least you'll have some other prices to work with.

 

[february2003bride]

We went overboard with the flowers and renting candlabras (sp?), plants, etc and our total was $900.00.

 

[ephemery1]

I believe our quote was around $3000, which is pretty much what I expected. I had heard of people paying much more, and people paying much less. In our case, we have a very large church to work with, and I''m looking for bouquets that are fairly non-traditional... NO roses or carnations or anything like that.

 

[curlygirl]

Indi, I spent about $5000 on my flowers. I don''t know where you''re located but here in NYC, that''s the average...

 

[njc]

Our wedding was about the same size as yours… I think the final count was around 225.

If I remember correctly our florist bill was about $2000... i cant remember the exact figure. It included my bouquet of roses and hydrangeas, 5 BM bouquets of hydrangeas, basket and petals for FG, groom boutiner(sp?) of roses and hydrangea, 7 bouts of hydrangea (4 GM, 1 RB, 2 ushers), 4 bouts of roses for dads, gdads and soloist, and 7 rose nosegays for moms, gmoms, a first cousin and 2 family friends helping to coordinate everything. For church decorations we had a small arrangement with hurricane candle for “those who could not be with us” and a large (HUGE) arrangement for the baptismal window. They also provided 3 cake toppers of hydrangea and roses (we had 3 smaller tiered cakes vs. one massive cake) and more hydrangeas to arrange on the tiers.

Our florist has decorated the White House for Christmas several times and I think we got a FABULOUS price.

We did the table decorations ourselves and ordered the vases and hydrangeas from a local grocery store! It cost about $200 for those and maybe another $100 for candles and other items.

 

[MustangGal]

I spent about $400, but we did the centerpieces ourselves. My SIL had the florist that did Bard Pitt and Jennifer Aniston''s wedding, and still only spent around $2500. They had about 175 people, big center pieces, and an archway and candles and all. Not sure if prices are different in different states, ours were both Palm Springs...

 

[E B]

With my blue color scheme (hydrangea, lisianthius, dahlia and delphinium), my bouquet, 9 centerpieces, 3 bouts and 2 corsages was around $450 total. Now that I've changed my color scheme/flowers, I'm not exactly sure of the total, but it should still be under $500. My florist started her own business, though, so she's quite a bit less than the shops.

 

[Gypsy]

What are you getting for that honey? How many of what-- what types of flowers, containers so forth?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Our floral arch alone was $500

so we spent a lot as well.

 

[dani13]

Flowers are expensive. Even though I havent met with a florist yet, I am budgeting about 4K for flowers, give or take...

 

[tanyak]

It really depends on what you're getting, the time of year, the type of flowers and if those flowers are in season. Orchids are going to cost more than carnations. Roses are more expensive around Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, and so on and so on.

My flowers were a little under $500. That included my bouquet of calla lillies and delphinium, four BM bouquets of gerbera daisies, two mother corsages made of astromeria, two smaller grandma corsages made of astromeria, five bouts with delphinium sprigs and DH's bout with delphinium and a calla lilly. Oh, and it also included the bouquet for my bridal portraits. We used candles for centerpieces and we got married outside and didn't need any flowers.

A girl on another site I visit spent close to $25,000, I think.

 

[ljmorgan]

My flowers will be $7000 total (I''m paying $6000 for the decorations and centerpieces, the other $1000 is for the bridal bouqets which is being paid for by fiance''s parents.)

 

[saturn]

We paid ~$800 for my bouquet, 4 bm bouquets, 2 little flower girl bouquets, 5 corsages, 3 bouts, a toss bouquet and a large altar arrangement (all roses, with some gardenias in my bouquet). DH and the gm''s wore pocket squares instead of boutonnieres, and we did non-floral centerpieces. I had planned on spending about $1000, and ended up coming in under budget. I was very happy with our florist and how everything turned out.

I think it can really depend on where you live and what kind of flowers you choose. Also, I made sure I told the florist that I and my bridesmaids are all very petite, and so I didn''t want the bouquets to be too heavy and overwhelming. I think that may have helped some as well.

 

[MelissaSue]

WOWSER - Our original florist quote was EXACTLY 1000.. But we cut it down because we bought our own centerpieces for less than she was charging us.. So it ended up being around $750..

Its hard to put an average for that sort of thing because people do SO many different things.. A lot of people don''t do centerpeices or ANY decorations.. just bouquets and bouts.. and then some people do everything..plus different types of flowers etc..

Our $750 included..
My bouquet - All roses with stephanotis
4 BM bouquets - All roses
Corsages for moms and grandmas (4) - small roses
Two basket arrangements plus rental of pillars stands for them for the church. - Mixture of flowers.. (lillies, greenery etc)
1 long and low/unity candle arrangement that doubled as our sweetheart table decoration - Mixture of flowers
something like 24 pew bows with three roses each.

 

[IndiBlue]

Ok, Ladies- Here is the break down.... Everything is mostly Roses with some Eucaliptic & Lemon leaves....

My bouquet $100
8 Bridesmaids ($60)-$480
Flowergirl ball- $50 - Removing this!
6 Mother Corsages $150
19 boutonnieres $171
Alter Arangment $150
Pew Balls (12 @ 50) $600
Flowers for the cake $25
Rental for stands (10 @25) $250
10 tall centerpieces $1250
10 short centerpieces $600
20% Labor & set up $765
Tax $229
___________________
TOTAL: $4820- OUCH!

 

[tanyak]

Wow. My florist didn''t have any labor and set-up charges. Delivery was $25. 20% is a big chunk of change! Can someone else set up your stuff? $765 just sounds awfully pricey!

 

[larussel03]

Date: 10/9/2006 8:40:55 AM
Author: IndiBlue
Ok, Ladies- Here is the break down.... Everything is mostly Roses with some Eucaliptic & Lemon leaves....

My bouquet $100
8 Bridesmaids ($60)-$480
Flowergirl ball- $50 - Removing this!
6 Mother Corsages $150
19 boutonnieres $171
Alter Arangment $150
Pew Balls (12 @ 50) $600
Flowers for the cake $25
Rental for stands (10 @25) $250
10 tall centerpieces $1250
10 short centerpieces $600
20% Labor & set up $765
Tax $229
___________________
TOTAL: $4820- OUCH!

Some places that I see that you may be able to cut out if you wanted to (you may not, which is totally understandable, b/c it may change the look that you're going for, but may as well suggest):

If the altar piece will not be super close to the pews, have them use carnations as filler flowers...they will not be noticeable and will cut the cost (as long as they have other flowers strewn through in the same colors) a little bit.

Could you do pew bows instead of balls? Those would prob only run you 5-10.00 each, and you could have a few roses tied in if you really want flowers on the pews.

Are you willing to do all short centerpieces? Maybe you could add some votive candles for ambiance if you wanted to spice it up a bit.

OR ask the florist if you can supply the vases, you can likely buy the tall and short vases somewhere in bulk (cudge.com and others perhaps) and cut out a little bit there.

What are the stands for? (just curious)

Can you negotiate down the 20%? Or shop around and see what others charge and use that to bargain?

To be honest, it does sound lovely. I've heard that flowers in NY are expensive, so if this is your dream look, I'd say go for it. If you can stand to cut a few things out then maybe some of my suggestions will help you.

Either way good luck!

 

[IndiBlue]

I wish I could use the excuse that I was in NYC- but I''m in Indiana!


I thought about taking the Pew balls after the ceremony and having them replace the short centerpieces. Maybe find a way to sit them in a pot- I don''t know.

The tall stand are for 10 of the tables (think GingerbreadCookie''s centerpieces)- I LOVE this and don''t want to give them up but they are a HUGE chunk! Our receiption is in a museum and the room we''re using is like 4 stores- so I want the tall to bring in some presence.

When I met with this florist- I LOVEd her! we got a long so well and I felt after I left that I didn''t care what it costs I wanted to use them- but WOW! My Futre-in-laws are paying for the flowers and I feel like 4800 is too much to ask of them- i have a find away to get it closer to 3k.

 

[larussel03]

Date: 10/9/2006 9:42:44 AM
Author: IndiBlue
I wish I could use the excuse that I was in NYC- but I''m in Indiana!


I thought about taking the Pew balls after the ceremony and having them replace the short centerpieces. Maybe find a way to sit them in a pot- I don''t know.

The tall stand are for 10 of the tables (think GingerbreadCookie''s centerpieces)- I LOVE this and don''t want to give them up but they are a HUGE chunk! Our receiption is in a museum and the room we''re using is like 4 stores- so I want the tall to bring in some presence.

When I met with this florist- I LOVEd her! we got a long so well and I felt after I left that I didn''t care what it costs I wanted to use them- but WOW! My Futre-in-laws are paying for the flowers and I feel like 4800 is too much to ask of them- i have a find away to get it closer to 3k.

Oops, my b--I thought you were in NYC for some reason

The pew ball idea may work. If you get along with her really well, then I would go and talk to her and ask her what she thinks you guys could do for 3K and where you could cut costs.

 

[IndiBlue]

We''ll see what happens- I just talked to the owner and we''re gonna meet next week to work on away to get me closer to 3k.... Wish me luck!

 

[curlygirl]

Indi, if you love your florist, be honest with her and tell her that you need help on the price. Give your maximum number and tell her to make it work! That''s what I did with mine and I can''t believe how gorgeous and expensive my flowers looked--granted I did spend $5000 but it could have been a lot higher! I eliminated things like pew decorations, mother''s corsages (my mother refused to wear one anyway--thought it would make her look "old"!), cake flowers (the cake people made them with spun sugar so they were edible flowers!). Maybe she can put fewer flowers in the centerpieces or use slightly smaller vases. I''m telling you, if they want your business, they will find a way to make you happy.

 

[Patsmom]

Just a thought, but in my church you were not able to remove the flowers once they were placed on the alter and also the pew ribbons - that could save somebody a ton of money if your church also has this rule; unfortunately for me I was the first wedding of the day and my flowers and ribbons were the first to be put on the alter and thus stayed for the other brides during their ceremonies. My flowers cost going back 17 years was over $5000 and this was, as others mentioned, the time of the year for the flowers that I wanted. My flowers were imported from Hawaii and South America days before the wedding and were timed forced to open on my wedding day. All in all, the flowers were absolutely beautiful and I guess looking back at the time I did not flinch at the price, but it does seem like so much at the end of the day.

Good luck with your final decision, which will be beautiful in the end.