Wedding Flower Budget 101: What to Expect

While a couple will always take center stage at their wedding, florals are increasingly becoming an important focal point on the big day. With smartphones capturing more photos and video than ever before, wedding flowers have evolved from being merely accents at weddings to elaborate bouquets, large ceremony backdrops, floral photo walls and large-scale hanging florals. Florals are used to create gorgeous spaces that will be enjoyed and remembered by friends and families for years to come. 

How much should you budget to create the floral design of your dreams? 

For decades the accepted wisdom was to set aside 10% of your wedding budget for flowers. However, as florals have moved to the forefront of wedding planning, that number needs to be adjusted. Weddings of the past typically did not have hanging florals, flower walls, and the elaborate tablescapes that are expected today. These more elaborate designs require more flowers and more labor.

Modern couples also tend to opt for the higher end blooms as seen in royal and celebrity weddings. We have seen an increase in requests for ranunculus, peonies, English garden roses, Dahlias, anemones, and other unique blooms as well as greenery such as Smilax, Italian Ruscus and Eucalyptus. These popular flower choices will also increase the overall cost of your wedding flowers.

The expansion of flowers as decor pieces at weddings also leads to other increased costs. More elaborate designs require not just more design time in the studio, but also longer setup times, clean-up crews as well as multiple delivery vans are also needed.. Ten percent of your wedding budget just won’t be enough anymore to bring Instagram worthy floral installations to your venue.

Our advice is to plan to spend 15%, of your wedding budget on florals:  

If you have a $50,000 wedding budget, allocate $7,500 for flowers.

• With a $100,000 budget, plan to spend $15,000 on floral designs.
• A $200,000 wedding budget should plan to set aside $30,000 for flowers.

Using 15% as a guide, instead of 10%, will give you a more realistic idea of what you can expect to spend on flowers for your wedding day.

Note: Flower pricing does differ by city and region. Prices above are based on suggested pricing in the Metropolitan, D.C. area.