What affects the cost of wedding flowers?

Wondering why West Sussex wedding flowers cost the price they do, and what affects the cost of wedding flowers? I’m here to give you all of the information so we can get off to the best possible start when planning your dream wedding flowers. I’m all about transparency and education and I believe you should be armed with all the details so that you can trust me to deliver the best possible result for you.

Factors that go into a West Sussex wedding florist quotation

Design planning/admin/consultations – this is time spent creating proposals, writing contracts and liaising with our wholesalers to ensure I can get the exact variety of rose that I need for your bouquet, and time spent corresponding and planning.

Expertise – I’m not exaggerating when I (and many other florists out there) have spent thousands of pounds to become experts in our field – we are obsessed and love what we do. It’s our job to know the best alternatives to flowers that may not be available at the time of your wedding, how to blend the perfect colour palette for your theme, and exactly which arrangements to recommend for your venue to work within your budget.

The journey of flowers – Did you know that Ecuador and Columbia ship some of the finest roses in the world to European markets? Those roses get flown across the world so that they can end up in your gorgeous wedding bouquet, and this cost is factored into the price I pay to buy them from the flower market.

Conditioning – Flowers arrive with us in a box, having not drunk for days. Each flower has very specific care instructions based on the stem types. It’s my job to get them looking their best in the days leading up to your big day (which they will!)

Creation – The time spent creating every single arrangement for your wedding party.

Sundries / Rentals – These include any vases, tape needed, pins, silk ribbon, flower food to keep your flowers looking their best, the chicken wire to hold your beautiful flowers in place in that gorgeous vase, fairy lights, you get the idea.

Delivery – This is mainly petrol and time spent packing your flowers to ensure they travel safely to their destination.

Set up / Pack down  – This is time spent away from the office to create style your venue with beautiful flowers on your big day.

Factors that also affect the overall price

Your wedding date

Did you know that flower prices increase around certain times of the year such as Valentines week and Christmas for florists to buy in? If you are hellbent on lush red for your Valentines wedding be warned you could be paying up to three times the normal prices. The same goes for choosing a pink colour palette around Mother’s Day week! 

That doesn’t mean you’ll have to change your theme if they happen to match up to the peak season colour palettes. Your florist will be able to work with you to recommend flowers that work for your budget without compromising on your vision.

Season

You may have heard the phrase ‘out of season’ to describe the availability of certain flowers, but what does it exactly mean, and why is it important? Certain flowers remain hot favourites for wedding flowers, those are Anemones, Peonies, Dahlias, and certain foliages such as Eucalyptus. When we use the phrase ‘in season’ we are describing what months that specific flower is available. 

For example, Anemones only bloom between November – March, Dahlia’s are only available between July-October, and Peonies have an even shorter bloom period which spans April until the end of May (varying). Many couples plan their big day specifically around when their favourite flower is in bloom to ensure they can have it included! 

Don’t be saddened if you are getting married at a time where your favourite flower isn’t in bloom – your wedding florist will be able to source an almost identical flower, we have plenty of tricks up our sleeves to make several other flowers look like a Peony, you’d never know the difference!

What you order

There are certain arrangements that are going to increase the budget for your wedding flowers – these include floral installations such as archways, moon gates, flower columns, staircase designs and flower meadows. This is because they require a lot more planning, design work, flowers, and time on the day to create. 

The number of guests at your wedding can also affect the price – if you’re seating 100 guests to tables of 5, you’ll want to style each table potentially with a floral statement arrangement, that’s 20 arrangements in total. 

Certain statement table centres are more expensive than others due to the cost of hire and the level of skill needed to create them, such as vase arrangements and elevated designs. Your florist will be able to recommend specific types of arrangements that will meet your budget to create a maximum effect for your big day. 

We are always happy to provide reccomendations on where the money is best spent, where to get ‘the most bang for your buck’ at your venue and how to make the greatest impact on the day. I cannot wait to hear your ideas.

If you have any questions about what affects the cost of West Sussex wedding flowers, just pop me an email or a DM on Instagram and I’ll be more than happy to help!

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