Why Are Wedding Flowers So Expensive?
If you’ve ever looked at a floral proposal and thought, “Why are wedding flowers so expensive?” you’re not alone. Wedding florist costs can come as a surprise, especially if you’re comparing them to grocery store blooms. But wedding flowers aren’t just about the flowers itself. For weddings especially, they involve hours of labor, additional staff, an entire design process, premium product, shipping from out of the country, logistical challenges, and years of floral expertise.
Here’s exactly where your money is going (and why you aren’t getting scammed even though it feels like it).
You’re Not Just Buying Flowers, You Are Buying a Service
Wedding flowers aren’t just picked up, assembled, and handed off. You’re paying a floral designer to:
Create a custom floral design tailored to your wedding aesthetic.
Build mood boards and visual mockups (sometimes even photoshopped stem by stem. I have seen florists who will sit at their computer for hours and photoshop single floral stems all together to create arrangements digitally for their brides peace of mind that it will look like her vision).
Conduct venue walkthroughs to plan floral placement and strategy the day of. Florists have an understanding of the wedding industry. They know that brides are stressed and worried about how things will look, they know brides have a vision, they know brides have specific things in mind that the florist is being relied on to deliver. Florists are going to put in additional work, labor, and time for your wedding due to its high expectations compared to other kinds of events.
This is time-consuming design work that happens weeks and months before your big day. They aren’t just calling you once, asking what your favorite flowers are, throwing it together, and then dropping it off.
They are making sure their contribution to your vision sees through, they are guaranteeing that you have the highest quality of flowers for your wedding day, they are working hard to try and make your money on these flowers worth it.
Labor is a Huge Part of the Price Tag
Florists don’t just show up with pre-made arrangements. They spend hours, often days, assembling every bouquet, boutonnière, centerpiece, and arch. And it’s rarely a solo job.
Labor includes: prepping, arranging, transporting, and installing florals
Florists also hire assistants to meet your wedding day timeline. Flowers have a short life span once they are cut at the farm. They have to make it through packaging, shipping, and unboxing at the florist shop. That short life span requires more people to keep them alive and assemble them the week of your wedding.
The assembly often happens over several days, not just on your wedding date.
You’re paying for an entire team’s time and skills.
Installation and Cleanup Add to the Cost
Wedding flowers often require on-site installation. Whether it’s a ceremony arch or hanging installation, these setups require:
Transportation of delicate blooms
Construction at the venue (often in tight timelines). This means getting on tall ladders, hanging up arrangements on the ceiling, hanging arrangements on bar backs, standing outside in the heat attaching all kinds of stems to your arch.
Teardown and cleanup at the end of the night (or the next day)
This is physically demanding work that most brides never see, but it’s essential.
You’re Paying for Floral Expertise and Experience
Florists know how to:
Keep flowers alive for days (or weeks) Florists don’t just have to put the flowers together. They are on a time limit as to how long certain stems can last, how they should store them to help them last, what they can do to prevent them dying. It is a challenging job. They aren’t going to let your thousands of dollars worth of florals just die. That is why their expertise is part of the price.
Hydrate and preserve delicate stems. (I have seen florists go through hundreds of blooms. Picking out the ones that are ahead of the others. Going in and individually tying them closed so they can slow down their life span so the others can catch up).
Spray-paint blooms to match exact palettes. I have witnessed florists spray painting flowers one by one, hundreds of them, the week of weddings to achieve a certain look.
Strategize bloom timing for peak freshness on your wedding day
Their techniques and insider knowledge come from years in the industry.
Premium Flowers Come at a Premium Price
Brides often request high-end blooms like peonies, garden roses, Lilly’s, or ranunculus but those aren’t cheap:
Peonies can cost triple the price of standard flowers
Pricing changes depending on season and availability. It can double and even triple. Especially if they have to be imported.
Florists often import from international growers for better quality. Better quality means prettier colors, consistent colors, larger blooms, and longer lasting blooms.
A single arrangement may contain 10+ types of flowers and greenery, it adds up quickly.
Trader Joe’s flowers isn’t a Fair Comparison
Your florist isn’t sourcing from the local grocery store they’re working with wholesalers who offer florist-grade stems:
Higher quality, longer-lasting, and more consistent in color. They also can be much larger. If you compare a Trader Joe’s hydrangea to one from an out of the country farm, it is often times triple the size.
Typically shipped from international farms. This also comes with a price.
Must be processed, hydrated, and prepped for days before use. Trader Joe’s flowers are often sitting in those buckets, not in a fridge where they need to be, with stems that need to be cut for freshness. You also never really know how long they’ve been there. They can be over a week old. (Think about if you go to the grocery store every day for a week. Sometimes the same flowers that were sitting there on Monday are still sitting there on Saturday, for the same price that they were on Monday).
That $9.99 bouquet at Trader Joe’s isn’t remotely comparable.
Final Thoughts
So yes, wedding flowers are expensive. But they’re also custom, handcrafted, and logistically complex. From design to setup, your florist is executing an art form that transforms your venue and enhances your entire event.
If florals are important to you, trust that the investment is going toward craftsmanship, experience, and beauty that lasts long after the day is over (at least in your photos 😉).
