“Why do wedding flowers cost so much?!” It’s a question every florist is asked repeatedly. Sometimes indirectly as it’s muttered under the breath of someone experiencing sticker shock when the proposal for their Pinterest-inspired floral vision comes back way over budget!
And honestly, we get it! Flowers can be expensive. But rest assured, it is not because every florist is living in the lap of luxury, counting our money while we casually play with flowers every weekend. Floral design and working with fresh blooms is hard work and requires a ton of specialized knowledge and equipment!
Today we’re going to deep dive into why flowers cost what they do! The goal here is not really to share how you can cut down the cost of your florals but to give the everyday person an insider’s perspective on why fresh floral design not only deserves to be a luxury good but must be priced accordingly to create sustainable jobs and industry for hundreds of thousands of people around the world.
Deep breath! Okay, let’s go!
It’s Not Just a Flower
You have to know that in most cases, your florist is not magically growing all of these blooms in their backyard. Fresh flowers are literally grown all over the world! South America, Asia, and Europe all have enormous floral markets that ship around the globe and it is quite likely that some ingredients in your designs are sourced from other continents!
Personally, we do love to pick locally sourced blooms whenever we can, but sometimes depending on the style, client requests, and availability, we need to have flowers shipped in. Even locally grown has some shipping cost. And since flowers have a short shelf-life, this whole process happens quickly! Flowers also must be kept cool at every stage in the process to prevent sad, wilted blooms. (Definitely not the look we’re going for!)
A single rose can go from a field in Argentina, to being cut, packaged, shipped via air, and then delivered via truck to our California Studio in a matter of 48 hours. That is a crazy turnaround!
Even flower farms here in California and around the United States require so much in the way of labor, refrigeration, and shipping to supply us with local ingredients. This sets the baseline price for fresh flowers.
Effortless Events are Never Effortless
Talk to any event pro and they’ll tell you the goal of any event is for it to feel effortless; like every element magically appeared with no stress. But the truth is, behind the scenes, any event that seems to have magically come together, only feels that way because of a team of professionals working their tails off!
You may see a beautifully set table with your floral centerpiece, place settings, folded napkins, and menus, but every single one of those elements had to be set by a person that day! Weddings and events are a true labor of love not only for our clients, but also for us. We want you to have that relaxed experience and in order to make that a reality, we’ve got to bring our team!
Labor is a huge component in the cost of florals. Without skilled people, those flowers would be sitting wrapped up in a box somewhere. Without skilled creatives, there would be no beautiful centerpiece or bouquet with 20 different types of blooms. It takes an eye for design, time, nimble hands, and a cool head in the face of hard deadlines to bring fresh floral designs to life.
Floral Design is an Art Form
At the end of the day, floral design is a luxury service. Florists spend years, decades even, honing their craft to make beautiful designs with ingredients that are temperamental, fragile, and short-lived. We develop our own individual styles and artistic expression. We curate skills that take your vision of your wedding day and bring that to life. Our designs are meant to be enjoyed and appreciated in a short amount of time.
All of this means that your bouquets, your centerpieces, your ceremony arch, etc. are all the culmination of so many factors and so much effort made by hundreds of people. It really is a little mind-blowing when you think of everything that comes together to bring those florals to your hands.
One thing is for sure, we will never stop being amazed at the process and we will certainly never stop being thankful that our couples & clients trust us to make this happen for them.
