The cost of wedding flowers

I’ve seen plenty of posts over this years wedding season on the increasing costs associated with weddings and events. It seemed appropriate timing, on the cusp of Autumn, to discuss some of the changes in costings and the impacts on the floral industry, after an insanely busy summer.

Discussing money, as a female creative business, is something that can be hard. Both with clients & suppliers, I have found it challenging to justify how things cost the amount they do, so I hope this can shed some light on why these beautiful flowers are worth every penny.

Covid Impacts

We are still reeling from the effects of Covid, professionally and personally. Demand for the huge return of weddings and events this summer has outstripped supply. Weddings are now on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the rest of the week booked up too, all the way up and down the country. We are unable to all get these huge quantities of flowers that are required for large scale events, so this pushes the prices up. And this isn’t just for the flowers themselves, gardening equipment, seeds, tools, vessels, you name it…

Mother Nature

As we continue to see the impacts of the change in temperatures and season, our flowers are naturally impacted. The lack of rain, sun, or increased early frosts & heat waves, all have an enormous impact on what can (or can’t) grow. We can’t hurry along blooms that aren’t ready, or cut too early from ones that are. These changes make things much more unpredictable, so crops can’t always be relied on to be available. At Bryonia, I will never promise to deliver a certain flower for any event, as this is never something that can be guaranteed. Instead, I will work with the seasons, to ensure that all flowers are sustainably chosen.

The big B

Brexit… the cost of wholesale dutch flowers is through the roof and stats are saying typically over 3x more expensive. Whilst Bryonia uses British flowers, the impact on the industry of these larger quantity orders, means more florists are reliant on local flowers than ever before. This continues to push up the costs to an astronomical amount, and the costs need to be included in the costs of any flowers sold, otherwise we would be unable to sustain businesses for longer than a couple of weeks.

So what can we do?

Respect your florist’s judgement

We are becoming much more experienced in adapting to these changes, after months of intense wedding planning. Trust us! We do this everyday and can use the best picks of the season to ensure we can create the best impact for your budget. You probably wouldn’t tell a painter how to use their brush and canvas, and it’s much the same for our creative role too, we can work together to ensure you are left feeling astounded by beautiful blooms.

Order as soon as you can

The more time we have, the more planning we can do. It’s a simple as that really! We can let our growers know what we need for next years crops and they can be prepared to provide these. Last minute changes and demands are what can cause costs to sky rocket.

Be flexible

Seasonality means exactly that, there are no promises. Nature will do whatever it wants on its own timescales and we have to allow it the freedom to breathe. I will always be seasonally led in my approach, ensuring that the bountiful beautiful flowers are the first to be picked. And I hope you understand that this will mean no promises on flower varieties can ever be made, but nothing will ever be any less beautiful.

I enjoyed creating this Journal post for you, and hopefully it helps with your own wedding or event planning.

Please do get in touch if you need to discuss your own flowers and how Bryonia can help.

I also wanted to point to this amazing article, which clearly illustrates the cost involved for our flower services, if you’d like to keep reading.

Chat to you all soon,

Jenna x