Typical Florist Budget

Karen62794 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 01:12 PM

Typical Florist Budget

Hi All,

I am going to start looking at florists soon and I was wondering what everyone is paying for flowers.

I'm getting married next summer, so I think most flowers are available. I'm going with typical flowers, nothing out of the ordinary and I'm probably going to use low centerpieces for 10-12 tables.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Please let me know what florist you're using as well. I'm thinking of looking at Flowers Michele, Jack & Rose, Colonial Flowers and Stefan's.

Thanks
Karen

jenny11.9 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 01:30 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

Karen, I think you'll find the price ranges to be just under $1000 to around $2500. I hear Flowers by Michele is wonderful - I have finally decided to go with Fleurs de Florissima because she does my reception site so often and I feel most comfortable with her. And I am pretty sure that is what counts! Burton's will come in very low as well. i just got concerned with them because no matter how hard I tried - they wouldnt' write down what flowers would be in the arrangements, and unfortunately - I SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF - ALL THE TIME!!!!! You will find tons of posts on this boards for florists - good luck and happy planning!

michele31 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 02:19 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I booked Burton's and I do know that closer to the wedding is when you work out the flower details because they don't charge you per stem, but rather per item. Anyway you can spend $200 or $10K on flowers. I think it depends on what you need or rather what you want. If you want dozen of roses lining the church pews it will cost you plenty. Also the larger the bridal party the more flowers you need. I am spending around $2K (with Burtons) and the same amount of flowers was $3K at Laura's in Commack. Also, high centerpieces cost a lot more than low ones. I have low ones.

stacedz Posted: Jun 11, 2002 02:29 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I am using Burton's as well and as the wedding gets closer I have to go in and choose my flowers just like Michele said. Since my flowers for the tables are provided by my hall, all I needed was my bridal party (10 of us including me and FH), MOB, MOG, 2 Fathers bouts, 2 sets of godparents, and one small corsage for a niece and they charged me $375. I thought that was very cheap! The hard part will be choosing the flowers come August!

Good Luck!

ChristineC68 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 02:47 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

We will probably spend around $2k for flowers. This will include my bouquet, MOH's bouquet, 4 coursages, 4 boutinnieres, big arrangement for the cocktail room, two big arrangements for the ceremony (that we will be able to move to the reception room), approximatly 16 centerpieces, flowers for the petal toss.

He basically figured out the cost of the personal flowers and the ceremony, deducted that from our flower budget and divided the rest by the number of tables. So depending on how simple or elaborate we want our centerpieces to be the price could change. This estimate is based on approx $70 per table.

tarakinspa Posted: Jun 11, 2002 04:19 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I am most likely going to go with Flower Michelle, John is a sweetheart, tell him i said so if you go there. I also went to Burtons but felt the same way about not knowing what I was getting and more importantly why it didnt matter. I think with 12 tables depending on high or low you should be below 2k, I am not decorating my church which will save me but i went with high centerpieces so I guess it evened out.
Good Luck!

Karen62794 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 07:57 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I met John from Flowers Michele at a bridal show and he was very sweet and spent about 15 minutes with us discussing flowers. He seemed really nice and his flowers looked much fresher than some of the other vendors there that night.

I figured about $2K, so I guess that should be ok. I need my bouquet, MOH bouquet, 3 bridesmaids, 3 corsages, 6 boutinners, 10 or 20 pew bows, and 10-12 centerpieces (probably low) and flowers for our dais.

Once my dress is picked out and the girls have a color all set, then I'm off to the florist!

Thanks for all your help girls!

Karen

michele31 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 10:22 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

Bring photos of your gown and the BM gowns to the florist meeting. It helps a lot.

Regarding Burton: They do not charge based on per stem because (this is what I was told by the owner) when he first started he did it the per stem way. But every few days brides would call him and change their minds about the type of flowers that they wanted thereby changing the prices, making him write a new contract etc... So he decided to change the way he prices and it makes his life much easier and the brides too.

jenny11.9 Posted: Jun 11, 2002 10:40 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

Karen to keep costs down, consider photographs of family weddings on your dais with some rose petals around. We are doing that on the cocktail tables,piano and placecard table. The families are really excited to have them displayed

Melissa Posted: Jun 11, 2002 11:56 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

We're using Oakdale Florist. 10-14 centerpieces (upgrades), bride's bouquet, 4 BM's bouquets, 10 boutiniers, 2 altar arrangements, 2-3 coursages, throw away bouquet, flower petals for about $600.

bodengallo Posted: Jun 12, 2002 11:07 AM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

We booked Burtons as well for October, my future sister-in law just used them last week and I was in the Bridal party. The flowers were beautiful, exactly what she had envisioned. She and I also met with Flower by Michelle and he was etremely nice, althought Burtons came highly recommended and about $600 less for the same exact thing. It is hard to decide but I can definitely recommend Burtons. Good Luck!!!

VickiC Posted: Jun 12, 2002 11:36 AM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I am also using Florissima. My flowers came in under $1000 since I am not using centerpieces (they come with my reception hall). I am using all roses.
I can't say enough great things about the way we were treated by them.

verdila Posted: Jun 12, 2002 11:37 AM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I booked FLOWERS BY LORRAINE in Massapequa Park. she is easy to work- customizing any package and lists your flowers on contract at the booking - of course you can revise any time. I paid 1850 for:

My bouq. (roses/stephanotis)
4 bms bouqs
7 bouts
3 corsages
12 tall centerpieces (2 doz roses in each)
organza pew bows
assorted flower arrange. for placecard table @ hall
throwaway bouq

She's on central ave- massapequa

jenny11.9 Posted: Jun 12, 2002 11:39 AM

Vicki

Vicki I agree! Arlene is very creative and really works with a concept! I know it's more money than I planned on - but I am very relieved to know that there will be a beautiful vision that day! She is an artistic planner - I am very excited. I just have to cut back on some other things - but it's worth it to me!

VickiC Posted: Jun 12, 2002 11:45 AM

Re: Vicki

I worked with Aubert, and he was a sweetie. Very personable and made me feel comfortable right away. All together I have my bouquet, 4 BM's, a Flower Ball for my Flower Girl, and about 15 corsages and bouts to get, plus pew bows with flowers (that my mom just had to get!). I was very happy!

Karen62794 Posted: Jun 12, 2002 02:51 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

Laurie,

Thanks for the advice. I'm in Seaford and my FH is in Mass Park, so that's really close to us. I will defintely check out Flowers by Lorraine.

I see that you are getting married at John Anthony's. That was one of my top 2 choices, but unfortunately my date was booked (and I wanted to book 2 years in advance). I've heard so many good things about JA.

Best wishes to you!

Karen

sp4747 Posted: Jun 12, 2002 03:42 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

I just came from Spitz and Peck in Huntington and they gave me a price of $1,935.00 which includes:
Bridal bouquet of red roses clutch
2 Bridesmaid bouquet roses
1 Man of Honor Bout.(rose)
1 husband Bout(rose)
2 best men Bout(rose)
1 toss bouquet
1 crd table arrangment of fresh flowers
1 cascading arrangment of flow for my table
6 high centerpieces of 3 dozen roses
5 low centerpieces of 25 roses in glass bowl
2 grandma coursage
2 grandpa bout
2 dad bout
2 mom coursage
and some flowers for the hourderve trays

Does this price seem reasonable?

tarakinspa Posted: Jun 12, 2002 04:03 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

sp Well you have low centerpieces and no BM bouquets which cost alot more than boutenierres, do a search I think there is something on prices for each item and what they should be try to do the math, I may be wrong but its sounds like a lot to me.

NIHA Posted: Jun 12, 2002 04:14 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

We went to them, but chose Burtons. Sptiz and Peck was the most expensive place we went to out of 6 florists. All of the others were willing to work with my budget except for them. Sorry, to sound so negative, but maybe other's have different budgets and opinions.

abc7077 Posted: Jun 12, 2002 05:58 PM

Re: Typical Florist Budget

My fi taught me to always ask for an itemized list. You will be surprised that the florists that don't want to give you one are usually the most expensive or have some shady reason why they won't itemize. We asked spitz and peck for an itemized list and they said they could not give us one, it was all considered a package and would be more expensive if itemized. They were actually $900 more than all of the other places we went to. Just my opinion but I would try some of the other places that people have talked about here.