What should I budget for my Wedding Flowers?

When it comes to planning the florals for your big day, there are so many elements to consider, budget being a key factor. Wedding flowers can be anything from bouquets for the bride and her maids, to full on floral explosions with moon gates, fireplace arrangements and lavish table centrepieces.

When planning your wedding flowers, it is important to set a budget, it allows us florists to manage your expectations, define flower choices, and get our creative juices flowing.

A recent article on Bride.com suggested that 10% of you overall budget should be allocated to your wedding budget, with 40% being allocated to you venue costs. Hitched.co.uk reported that the average spend for 2023 were £1,050 based on 2400 couples.

Wedding flower costs and what inpacts them....

Order Size - In general florists work to a recipe for all the elements of your wedding flowers, we order to the nearest pack size which can be in nominations of 10's, 20's all the way up to 100's, so if we needed 3 of a specific rose for your bouquet we would at a minimum waste 7 roses. In the main they would be used in other arrangements / bouquets but there is an element of waste to wedding flowers which has to be accounted for.

Supply Chain - Brexit, COVID and now the energy crisis has greatly impacted the price of wedding flowers, with increases of around 40%. We have seen fewer growers year on year and the growers that are left struggling to heat their greenhouses.

Seasons - The wedding season runs from May to September where we see increases in prices of certain varieties. Factoring in each flower variety has its own season, for example peonies have a season from late May to mid June. When a flower is in season it tends to be more economical to use, when a flower is out of season it is not only expensive it is also harder to source. Taking all this into account if you decide to get married the week of mothers day or want a red and white rose theme around Christmas you can expect further elevated prices e.g a red rose in December can be 3 times the price and sometimes as high as Valentines day.

The Over the Bloom way......

The enquiry stage - This is the part where all the important information needed is noted to make a start on envisaging the flowers for your special day, this can be done by filling out the enquiry form on the wedding page. This will enable me to put together a palette and some ideas for you along with some prices working within your budget. There's then a booking fee of just £100 to secure your date and we move to the next stage.

The Consultation - We can visit the venue together and explore different ideas…..Pinterest is my best friend or simply go through all our collective ideas together over a coffee with some cake (obvs). We will also go through the some of the logistics....even though these do tend to change depending on how far away your wedding is. Planning your wedding flowers is very much a collaborative experience, and if you want to send me a million Pintrest pins......im completely up for that. During this process I will be able to determine which items from ceremony to reception can be repurposed thus making you a saving.

What do you get - Included in OTBs quotes are hire fees for vases, stands, frames and moongates. Also included are delivery and logistic charges, for example delivery of bouquets, venue set up and take downs along with moving items from ceremony to reception.

6-8 weeks before - Prior to your special day and depending on the florals you book, we’ll go through every detail to make sure everything is right. I will then send you the final quotation with all the details of the wedding costed, a brief over view of the logistics of the day.

Behind the scenes - I'm one of those florists who work to recipe so I will start by working out all the recipes for all the elements of your wedding florals ready to place an order with the various wholesalers. Once thee flowers arrive a few days before, every stem will be conditioned by removing all the leaves placing them in buckets of water with flower food for 24hrs so they have a god drink. They will then sorted according to where they will be used ready to create your wonderful wedding flowers.

The wedding day - The best day…..I get to see both of you…. I’ve never seen a stressed bride yet but lots of hungover grooms . Brides fear not I pin the button hole to their suits for them so they are not squiffy or lopsided.

If you are looking for wedding florals please visit the wedding page to find out more about thee Over the Bloom process and see previous weddings.