How flower arrangements are priced

Hi my flower lovers! I'm kicking off our new(!) blog by trying to de-mystify something we get asked a lot. Or maybe many of our clients think about it - how do we actually price our arrangements when we send out a proposal to you?

Now, I'll begin by saying every florist does it a little bit differently, but I'll tell you a secret - it's not just a shot in the dark. It's a tried-and-true formula that helps florists like us maintain a business that can stay in business. Let me continue by sharing bits and pieces of my own process, so you can see how much thought (and math) goes in to pricing your arrangements.

It all starts with a recipe

A florist's recipe for an arrangement is just that - a specific list of ingredients (flowers & greenery!) needed to complete your arrangement. We may start creating a recipe from an inspiration photo you sent us, from experience or most of the time, both.

For example, here's a recipe for this beautiful moody bridal bouquet:

1 fuscia cymbidium orchid

5 purple calla lily

4 leucadendron

3 James Storie orchid

5 astrantia

2 burgundy anemone

We'd calculate the price per stem that we need to pay for each of these flowers multiplied by the number of stems required to make this bouquet.

This can get complicated quickly if we're trying to price a large arch piece, but we can simplify by breaking your arch piece in to smaller 'sections' counting the flowers in the a section from your inspo photo, and multiplying the recipe for that section by the number of sections needed for an arch.

This is why inspo photos are pretty important and why we include them in our custom proposals, so you can see the approximate look and size we've planned for in each recipe.

Cost of flowers

The first and maybe most obvious cost is the cost of the flowers that go in to the arrangements. We pay a wholesale cost for those flowers and usually include an industry standard markup on those stems. I know you're thinking - a markup? Why? Why doesn't the client just get charged the wholesale price of the flowers?

Well, for lots of reasons, a few listed below:

• We have lots of overhead costs to run our businesses - admin costs, marketing, website, supplies, studio supplies, utilities.

• It takes time to create recipes and actually order the flowers. I may source flowers from my own garden - which means a lot of time goes in to nurturing the flower from seed to bloom. I may also source from local farms, online wholesalers and local wholesalers. There may be 3 or 4 separate orders I need to make for just one event

• Receiving the flowers also takes time. Imagine this; I've ordered flowers for your event from a local farm, a local wholesaler and some from an online wholesaler. I have to drive to both the farm and local wholesaler to pick up your flowers, then have to be present to receive the flowers from an online wholesaler when the delivery is made. All of this takes time

• Last, the flowers need to be processed before we can work with them. Stems need to be trimmed, some leavers stripped, some need to be re-hydrated and some (like roses) need several days to open before they are usable in an arrangement. And there are always flowers that don't make it on their journey to our studio. Broken or dead flowers need to be discarded - but we pay for those too.

For a typical event, our team may spend an entire day or two receiving and processing flowers.

Labor cost

Every arrangement, bouquet or large installation is created by a person, a floral designer. This takes time, so florists will generally allow for a % of the cost of the flowers to go in to the labor needed to create that arrangement.

Even bud vases, while they seem simple and not so labor-intensive, need time and a good eye to cut stems to appropriate length and have a good amount of diversity and texture, so they all don't look exactly the same. You can maybe imagine how the time adds up if we're making 100 of these for you!

Larger installs, like arches or hanging flowers, may have a separate line-item cost of labor on your proposal, as they require a designer to be present on site to install or create them. For example, a lush arch could take 2-3 designers a few hours to complete, and we need to pay those designers an hourly rate and for their time to travel to your event.

Hard goods

Hard goods also need to be considered - these are not only your compotes, vases and vessels but may also include the other 'mechanics' required to make your arrangement a stunning one! Chicken wire is used in foam-free compote arrangements to stabilize the stem position, floral tape is used to stabilize the chicken wire. Tape and ribbon are used in all of our bouquets and boutonnières. Those need a vessel to be delivered in - usually a vase or a box.

All hard goods needed and/or costs to rent larger pieces are included in the arrangement cost.

Does this sound kind of overwhelming?

It can be a lot! But that is definitely one of the reasons you should hire a professional Vermont wedding florist. We manage all of these things so you don't have to. We create a customized proposal for you - within your budget - then bring you in to design conversations and execute all of it for you! Our job is to do all of these things in the background and show up on your perfect wedding day so you can have that 'wow' moment when you see your venue adorned in beautiful, fresh and well-designed florals. Or that teary-eyed moment when you see your stunning bouquet for the first time.

Leave that to us, that's what we're here for. We love being a wedding florist for Stowe, Woodstock, Burlington and beyond. It's our passion. And so is giving our clients that 'wow' moment on their wedding day.

Want your own custom proposal? By all means please review our services and minimums, then submit our easy inquiry form today!

Is there something you'd love us to discuss on the blog next? Drop a comment below, we'd love to hear it!

XO Jess