Congratulations on your engagement!

A wedding is an exciting, memorable occasion but one that requires thorough and thoughtful planning.

For many engaged couples, acquiring flowers and booking a florist capable of capturing (and executing!) their vision can appear deceivingly simple.

However, the devil (aka budget and logistics) often lurks in the details. So let’s pull the curtain back and take a peek at what it takes to achieve a seamless and stunning floral representation of your most important day!

Booking an experienced florist is key to staving off floral anxiety, of course. But before booking your first meeting, thought and preparation is essential. We’ve created a thoughtful and comprehensive checklist–drawn from many years of experience–to help you and your partner navigate the wedding planning process.

It’s important to note that by providing all of your details upfront coupled with an awareness of budget, timing and overall expectations, you can rest assured that your wedding florals will be incredible!

1. What Kind of Bride/Partner Are You?

Brides/Partners fall into many different categories when it comes to flowers. Upon booking an appointment with a florist, let them know how you envision the flowers fitting into your wedding day. This will allow the floral designer and support team to set expectations, address timing and adjust budgetary constraints accordingly.

Which of these statements represent you best with regards to flowers?:

High priority – you love them and have very specific ideas about what you want

Medium priority – you’d like traditional arrangements and have some ideas

Low priority – you know you need them but they’re not as important as other items.

2. What is Your Budget?

This piece of the planning puzzle, though sometimes unpleasant, is critical and must be addressed as early in the process as possible. Budgetary information is vital and allows your florist to match your vision with the resources available. Remember, your florist has to consider the following:

Floral availability (what’s in season?)

Equipment rental (do you need an arbor, chuppah or various centerpiece elements?)

Flower delivery (are there multiple locations?)

Timing and proper staffing

Pick up fee for any rental items afterwards (eg. vases).

These details allow your florist to take you and your partner out of the process as much as possible (less stress!) so that you can concentrate on other things.

In general, you should expect the flowers to cost 10– 20% of your overall budget but the three items that most impact the budget are:

Size of guest list

Size of the bridal party

Any special requests for large ticket items.

In our experience, we find that for weddings of 125 to 175 guests with bridal parties of three to four attendants, the cost of wedding flowers ranges from $3,500 – $6,000. Couples can expect their floral cost to be similar to that of their professional photographer.

To help give you an idea of standard, premium or deluxe florals, we’ve added examples for each category.

* Standard: button, cushion or daisy chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, asters, carnations, babies’ breath, status, sunflowers (in season), wax flower, stock, snapdragon, Gerbera daisies, certain varieties of hydrangea, lemon leaf, and leather leaf.

* Premium: roses, spray roses, delphinium, stock, hypericum, hydrangea, tulips, lilies, hyacinth, foxglove (in season), zinnia (in season), peonies (in season), pittosporum, and ruscus.

* Deluxe: dahlias, peonies, garden roses, large headed roses, ranunculus, clematis, lilac, hellebore, berzillia, astilbe, anemone, jasmine, parrot, double and French tulips, freesia, stephanotis, orchids, sweet peas, Dutch varieties of hydrangea, gardenia, lotus pods, eucalyptus, olive, bay laurel, maidenhair fern, fiddlehead fern, sea star fern, and magnolia.

Working with a bigger budget means more leeway in terms of the types of flowers and greenery to choose from. Prices do vary greatly due to supply and demand for flowers and greens in peak wedding months which drive up the price, as do larger ticket items (arbors, chuppahs or large ceremony pieces).

With that in mind, what type of flowers and greenery suit you best? Bear in mind that numbers will come into play here, if you have five bridesmaids and five groomsmen you need to multiply!

Bridal bouquets $250 – $600

Bridesmaids bouquets $140 – $180

Flower girl crowns $50 – $75

Corsages $35 – $50

Boutonnieres - $20

Table centerpieces (low) $89 – $150

Table centerpieces (high) $250 – $450

Garlands (priced per foot)

Ceremony arrangements $275– $500

Escort card table arrangements $170 – $350

Cocktail table arrangements $40 – $75

Arbor or chuppah rentals $200 – $500

Arbor florals $350 – $5000

Cylinder candle rentals $15 – $25 each

Votive candles $3 – $15 each

Couples should note that if they are going to hire a florist whose location is more than an hour away from their ceremony and reception location, they will pay additional delivery fees for time and travel. If your wedding ceremony and reception are at different locations, you will likely incur additional delivery fees. There is also the option for flowers to be picked up with a packing fee.

Set up and delivery 10 – 20% of total

Pick up packing fee 3.5% of total.

Years ago (too many to mention) I was hired by Wengers Flowers to work at their flower shop.  It was run by the Wenger family with grandfather Wenger at the helm and then the daughters, Betty and Millie and their husbands and children all part of the business.  they took a chance on hiring me without any experience and took on the task of training me in the floral industry.  Of course, I started at the bottom, cleaning the cooler, preping flowers, working in the greenhouses, wiring and tapeing stems (a lot of them!)  I was a "farm girl" myself being born and raised in Bird In Hand (Amish country) with my father after having played professional baseball, took over the family egg processing business and my then husband was a Holstein dairy cattle dealer..so the country life was for me.  I felt right at home getting dirty and putting in a good days work...and taping into my creative side!

As I grew in the job, I found that I had a real passion for weddings and was the design employee that was entrusted to set up and deliver the bouquets to the bride and her party and stay until everything was in order.  That, shall I say, was history and I have been working with brides and special events ever since.  There is nothing better than the look on her face when the bride sees her bouquet the day of the wedding!  My job complete!