How much to pay for wedding flowers???

sal-ad_daze

I was in a florists recently for a not so happy event, my daughter isn't getting married for 2 years but we are starting to plan the budget so I asked if they had a guidance leaflet for wedding prices. They didn't but he asked me about colours and dates. Nothing is firm except daughter's dress is white and sil2b has grey frockcoat and burgundy ruche so he mentioned red and cream(?). I also said that she wanted a teardrop shaped bouquet, the date is near Christmas. He immediately did the indrawn breath thing and said ooh, the most expensive time for flowers because of the season and the festivities and then proceeded to quote at least £200 for the brides bouquet!!!!
We have a friend who is a florist and, although we'd said it wasn't fair to invlove friends, I was so flabbergasted I told her about it. She too was flabbergasted and showed me a picture of exactly what my daughter wanted which was a 'shower' (I believe it's bigger than teardrop) with all the flowers and colours that she wanted and our friend sold it for £100 LESS!!!!
So I agree, shop around don't go with the first quote!

Just realised how that reads! The 'not so happy event' was a funeral NOT daughters' wedding LOL

kazwookie

I did my own wedding flowers some years ago for about £45, they wanted £80 odd for my bouquet alone without the other flowers etc.

I also did my late mothers coffin spray, they wanted about £80, all I wanted was orchaids for the coffin, cost about £20 in the end....................

Def shop around, and then shop around again............

paddingtondoo

If you have plenty of time why not have a go yourself?

My friend did mine for a total of £180 which included gorgeous avalanche roses, bound handles and diamantes. This was for me,3 bridesmaids, 2 corsages, bridegrooms buttonhole (cala lily) and 30 buttonholes plus gerbera for the bowls in the evening.

We had a trial run with cheapy market flowers a couple of weeks before and on the day they looked stunning and i got exactly what I wanted which I didn't the first time. If you are using a florist be very specific about what you want so you're not disappointed on the morning of your wedding.

liza83_2

ive been looking into making my own.
had an inspiration when looking at the flowers in tesco.
they do bunches of pink flowers (coupke of roses, some other flowers no idea of names) for 7.50 its a medium sized bunch... so if i as to buy 2 so it would cost me £15 that would be enougth for a hand tied boquet?

Alleycat

I think you need to be careful about supermarket bought flowers as they may not have much life left in them and need to be pretty fresh to withstand a day our of water.

Could you see if there is a trade market near you as you would be able to get better quality and fresher flowers without the florist shop mark up.

As we live in London, we intend to go New Covent Garden flower market on saturday morning (will be a very early start as I think they get going at 4.30am!!), store them in a cool place in water for the day and then make them up on the morning of the wedding.

owtfornowt_2

Have you tried getting in touch with your local council to see if they do flowers? I know Glasgow City Council does though not sure if other councils do this. Or if you know/visit a flower seller who trades on the street ask them, one that I asked for our wedding said he could do my flowers for £25.

chickien_2

I was thinking about buying a hand tied bouquet from somewhere like Interflora and tieing ribbon round them stems. It sounds like a good idea in my head, maybe not in practise, has anyone tried this???? This is the sort of bouquet I would be getting.
http://www.interflora.co.uk/catalog/product.xml?product_id=2194274;category_id=2002653;pcid1=;pcid2=

Neeny82

Hi there,

Have you tried enquiring about any flower wholesalers in your area? There is one in my area who supply all the fresh flowers to lots of the florists around our area. Two of my friends enquired with them directly and got their flowers significantly cheaper than from a florist by buying them direct.

One friend had:

-Brides bouquet - shower style with cream roses & diamante
-3 Bridesmaids single cream roses, dressed beautifully with coloured ribbon & pearls
-1 flower girl 'flower ball' full of roses
-15 centrepieces, all with roses and other foliage
-1 'long and low' for the top table - gorgeous
-4 thank you bouquets
-9 beautiful rose buttonholes

All in all the flowers were amazing and she got it all for less than £200!

The only thing is that we had to pick the flowers up rather than them being delivered! Small price to pay really. We picked up the centrepieces, thank you bouquets, top table display the evening before the wedding and took them to the reception venue then got one of the ushers to pick up the rest the following morning!

It's defo worth a try! Just might be harder to find as they don't advertise. I suppose you could always ask a local flower stall or shop who their supplier is?! Bit cheeky but worth it for the saving!

louisebbctlc

I had a lady who has a florist and is doing my weddin flowers she charged £259 and that was for- My flowers
4 bridesmaids flowers
2 thanks u flowers for mums
and 13 button holes

I think i have got a bargin!!!