WHY ARE WEDDING FLOWERS SO EXPENSIVE?

Rachael (owner)
May 9
4 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Floral Design

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, “Why are wedding flowers so expensive?” — you’re not alone.

With Pinterest brimming with dreamy inspiration and picture-perfect floral setups, it’s easy to assume flowers are just a pretty detail that can be pulled together quickly and effortlessly. But in reality, they require detailed planning, expert knowledge, and hours of behind-the-scenes work to get right.

Product and Service

What most people don’t see is the 30, 50, sometimes 100+ hours of work behind the scenes - from consultations to sourcing, production and setup.

We are not just selling a product, we are providing a service that's both artistic and deeply involved. Understanding this extensive labour commitment helps explain the costs associated with wedding florals.

In-Depth Consultations and Labour

We are involved behind the scenes from 12 - 18 months out. The planning begins with personalised proposals and in-depth consultations. We then spend hours on logistics, floral recipes and stem counts to ensure every detail is accounted for.

Around eight weeks before the wedding, we have a final meeting and start tying up loose ends, refining the design concepts and sourcing your flowers. We pre-order flowers weeks (sometimes even months) in advance - crucial to ensure we can access the best possible varieties and quantities. We also coordinate with your venue manager and/or wedding planner, to plan the floral installations and timeline for the big day.

Overheads

Our costs go far beyond flowers. From studio outgoings, commercial fridges to vans, skilled labour, insurances, software and marketing. It takes a lot behind the scenes to run a professional wedding floral business.

Importing

We rely heavily on imported flowers to ensure year-round availability and access to premium varieties. Since COVID-19, global flower supply has tightened. Varieties that were once budget-friendly now come with higher freight and import fees.

Preparing your florals The week of the wedding On Wednesday, we head to the flower markets at 6am to pick up your pre-ordered florals. From there, the detailed process of prepping each stem begins - cleaning, hydrating, and conditioning to ensure they're in perfect condition for your wedding day. This step alone can take hours - sometimes even days - when working with hundreds or thousands of stems. By Thursday and Friday, we dive into full production mode, creating bouquets, buttonholes, centrepieces and smaller arrangements.

Image one shows how our flowers arrive—tightly packed in boxes or sleeves, Image two shows the transformation after we’ve stripped, trimmed and rehydrated.

Delivery, setup and install... The day of the wedding

We’re up at 5am, the van is packed, the team is briefed, and the logistics begin!

Wedding days are physically demanding, time-sensitive, and must unfold flawlessly, no matter the weather. Many venues have a restricted bump-in time, often just one to two hours - which means we’re required to complete large-scale installations in a very limited window before guests arrive. Hotels typically have short bump-in windows and strictly require pack-down to occur at midnight.

To meet these tight deadlines without compromising on quality, we often need to bring in additional labour. This not only adds to the logistical complexity but also increases costs, as more hands are needed to achieve the same high standard in a fraction of the time.

Wedding days usually look like:

Hand delivery of the bouquets and buttonholes to your getting ready locations,
Unloading the van at the ceremony venue and designing on-site. We arrive with buckets of flowers and all the necessary mechanics, and we build each installation stem by stem. This approach allows us to respond to the space in real time, ensuring the design is tailored to scale and achieves the most refined result.
Ceremony floral installation at Joondalup Resort
Then we install any hanging or statement arrangements in the reception, followed by placing centrepieces - bringing the whole space to life!
Chandelier floral installation at Sandalford Wines - Estate Room
And lastly, we almost always stay on-site after the ceremony to repurpose and refresh your ceremony florals in the reception.
Ceremony plinth arrangements repurposed as reception ground florals Venue: Burswood on Swan

Pack-down Post wedding We return to the venue(s) for pack-down. Everything is dismantled, packed, cleared and cleaned. The emotional weight of wedding florals

We manage shifting timelines, adapt to last-minute changes, work within strict venue rules and timeframes, and handle unpredictable weather—all while working with delicate, perishable materials. The pressure to get everything exactly right is immense, because there is no room for error. We simply can’t fall short, because even the smallest mistake could affect one of the most important days of someone’s life. The responsibility is huge, and we carry it with the utmost care and responsibility.

This isn’t just any event. It’s your wedding. There are no do-overs. No second chances.