Note: Cost of Wedding Flowers Updated for 2024 on February 2

Once the whirlwind of excitement over your engagement begins to drift away and thoughts of wedding planning and budgeting start creeping their way into your mind, you can easily find yourself overwhelmed. Naturally, questions revolving around how much certain aspects of your wedding are going to cost, present themselves. One important category that brides sometimes seem to overlook or, at the very least, low prioritize, is their wedding flower budget. To some brides, picking out their wedding dress, wedding venue, DJ, etc. all tend to be the most exciting things to plan, while wedding flowers tend to find themselves on the bottom of the long to-do list of a bride. Wedding flowers should, however, be given proper attention and priority as they do play an integral role in the overall design, theme and atmosphere of your wedding day. The key to planning the perfect wedding is creating a solid budget that covers all aspects of your big day. In this blog, I’ll tackle one of those aspects and outline how much you should plan to budget for your wedding flowers.

OPTIONS, OPTIONS, OPTIONS…

Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast answer to this frequently asked wedding question because there are just so many options and variables when it comes to you wedding flower budget… Types of flowers, are they in season, how full do you want your bouquets, how big is your bridal party, will you be needing reception flowers, how about ceremony flowers… The list can literally go on and on. That being said, we have a couple of things to consider here. Let’s delve a bit more into your options for wedding flowers and what kind of budget you’ll need for each, seeing that these two things usually coincide with one another. One question you need to ask yourself is, what kind of wedding flowers should I use for my big day? Well, there are three main options to choose from when it comes to professionally designed wedding flower arrangements – fresh wedding flowers, silk wedding flowers, or dried wedding flowers. Each of these categories have a different price point, along with different benefits and drawbacks. So let’s explore some of the top wedding florists on the search engine to date and take a closer look at what’s right for your wedding day florals!

Fresh wedding flowers are by far the most well known and most commonly used floral option for weddings. Their beauty is exquisite, they smell lovely, they feel nice, and there is not any negative stigma associated with them. However, they are the most expensive option out there when it comes to professionally designed wedding florals and you do have to be mindful of what’s in season. Fresh wedding flowers will usually need to be delivered and set up on the day of the wedding which can sometimes entail extra fees and added stress. It’s also important to take note of just how sensitive fresh flowers can be to hot temperatures and direct sunlight, which may cause them to wilt. Some brides also have trouble wrapping their heads around spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on fresh flowers that will simply die a few days later. Let’s take a look at the pricing now. As of the date this blog was written, at FTD.com, a lovely fresh wedding flower bouquet ranges from about $70 to $500 dollars. Fresh wedding flower boutonnieres will cost you about $25 and the price for a fresh wedding corsage ranges between $25 and $65.

Many brides are now turning to silk wedding flowers as an alternative to fresh wedding flowers. Professionally designed silk wedding flowers have an appeal to brides because they are budget friendly, don’t die or wilt, are not subject to seasonality, can be kept as a wedding keepsake, are not sensitive to outside elements, can be taken anywhere, are not fragile, and often times are just as beautiful as fresh flowers. That being said, silk wedding flowers do unfortunately carry a very negative stigma of being fake or cheesy, which can be enough of a reason for some brides to not even entertain the idea of using these at their wedding. Let’s go ahead and look at an example of pricing. As of the date of this blog, at WedIdeas.com, you can buy a beautiful silk wedding bouquet for as little as $35 or as much as $220. Their silk boutonnieres range from about $6 to $13. And finally, their silk corsages are priced between $9 and $18.

Preserved wedding flowers are a wonderful wedding flower option that, unfortunately, many brides are completely unaware of. With professionally designed preserved wedding flowers, you can have the best of both worlds. You’ll see almost all of the same benefits of silk flowers, only you won’t have to worry about the negative stigma associated with them being fake, because preserved  flowers are still real flowers. Preserved wedding flowers are gorgeous, budget friendly, won’t wilt or die, can be picked out and shipped out well before your wedding date, are not subject to seasonality, can be kept as a wedding keepsake, and are just as beautiful as fresh wedding flowers. That being said, preserved flowers can fade over time and exposure to large amounts of moisture may cause them to droop. So, let’s take a look at how much preserved wedding flowers are going to cost you. As of the date this blog was written, at PickABloom.com, a beautiful preserved flower wedding bouquet can range from about $95 to $375. Preserved  flower boutonnieres have a price range of about $19 to $35 dollars and preserved flower corsages have a cost between $35 and $40.

Now that we have a better understanding of a variety of wedding flower options and examples of their corresponding pricing, let’s get an overall picture of what you need to budget for wedding flowers. According to a survey conducted by TheKnot.com, the national average cost of a 2016 wedding came out to $35,329, with $2,534 of that being allotted to a florist/decor category. A good rule of thumb when it comes to budgeting for your wedding flowers is to plan on dedicating about 8% of your total wedding budget towards wedding flowers, including all bridal party flowers, moms’ corsages, ceremony flowers, and reception flowers. For example, if the total budget for your wedding was $10,000, you should then plan on budgeting about $800 for your wedding flowers or if your total wedding budget were $20,000, you should plan on spending somewhere around $1600 for your wedding flowers, and so on. That being said, it’s important to remember that while this number is a good place to start, it can be skewed based on your personal floral taste, the size of your wedding party, the amount of reception tables you’ll be needing, etc. The beautiful thing about averages though, is that means there’s always something cheaper out there – you may just have to hunt for it!

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

When shopping around for a wedding florist, it’s important to beware of scams and misleading pricing. When considering fresh wedding flowers, be sure to get things like delivery fees, setup fees, mileage fees, consultation fees, size and shape of each floral piece, etc. ironed out and quoted to you before signing a contract. The last kind of surprise you want from your florist are surprise hidden fees. Be sure to read over the contract carefully and look for any obscure clauses that allow your florist to no-show on your wedding day without being held accountable. Yes, these do exist so read the fine print! When considering dried or silk wedding flower options, which are typically handled online, be sure to get the actual sizes of each floral piece, rather than just going off of a photo. Some photos aren’t scaled and therefore, floral arrangements may seem larger than they actually are. A good florist, will have the sizes outlined for you instead of trying to mislead you with an unscaled photo. Also, be sure to iron out shipping details and costs ahead of time with your online florist. You don’t want any surprises there either. To make a long story short, just be smart and go with your gut when it comes to choosing a reputable florist!

DECISIONS, DECISIONS…

Whew, we sure have covered a lot of information… Glad to see you’re still with me! It’s now up to you to ponder and process everything you learned in this blog and come to a decision on what’s right for you and your wedding. You see, every bride is special and unique and has their own vision of how their perfect wedding should look. Every bride has their own dream. So no matter what that dream is, I’m confident you can achieve it by choosing the right florist and just getting creative with your options and your budget. Whether you decide to go with fresh wedding flowers, silk wedding flowers, or dried wedding flowers, you just can’t go wrong. All flowers are beautiful and perfect in their own special way for their own special bride.

Now it’s time to go forth and plan! Just remember, the day of your wedding, and the days leading up to it, are supposed to be memorable and full of fun and happiness. Try not to stress out over the little things and just really enjoy the whole process. When you’re feeling overwhelmed with the planning process, just go somewhere quiet and let the reality that your are marrying your best friend in the whole world really sink in. Because when it actually comes down to it, the commitment you and your hubby-to-be are about to make to each other is what will really make your wedding the happiest, most perfect day of your life – not the material things. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Happy planning and happily ever after! This post was originally written February, 16 2017 and was updated March 12, 2022 to reflect the cost of wedding flowers in 2022.