If you read our blog last Tuesday then you’ll know that we’re currently talking to New Hampshire Florist Emily Herzig Alberini of Emily Herzig Floral Studio about wedding flowers and why they cost what they do.  Last week she gave us a brief introduction into the world of flowers and how to come up with an appropriate budget for your wedding. This week, Emily is going to discuss cut flowers and how their pricing is determined.  She explains to us why the wholesale price of a rose can be $.65 one week but then jump to $2.50 the next due to  weather, supply and demand, and economic trends.  She also touches upon the elaborate  process of conditioning of flowers, which is where much of the labor costs come from.

Photographer: Hinkley Photography

What Cut Flowers Cost

I am far from an economist, but one of the influencing factors of the cost of individual flowers is determined similarly to the way value is given to the dollar on a daily basis in the stock exchange. This is based on supply and demand, economic trends, weather and travel conditions, import and export fees, and so on. Due to the many snow storms on the East Coast and particularly the snow in NY, flowers have been more expensive this winter than in past years.

Consider the short but well-traveled life of a flower and all that it takes to get from the green house or field to your wedding.  Your wedding shoes may have been made in Italy, but to get them to your front door they did not have been be refrigerated the entire way!  Sometimes I am amazed that flowers don’t actually cost more than they do.  Locally grown flowers purchased at farmer and flower markets cost much less due to the fact that they are local and less traveled.

The wholesale price of a rose may be .65 one week and $2.50 the next week.  South American hydrangea holds a very stable wholesale and retail price due to the stable growing conditions in South America and the fact that they are easily grown, imported and exported year round.  However the Dutch varieties of hydrangea are much more expensive because of their solid dark blues, hot pinks, wonderful greens and hearty texture which makes them much more viable in the hot summer months.  This variety of hydrangea is much more costly due to their popularity and demand during busy wedding months. You might pay upwards of $15 per stem for these beauties, but only $2.50 for the others.

The retail cost of a flower is typically 2 or 3 times the wholesale price and has been established as such to take into account that these delicate blooms have a tough short life once cut and unfortunately not every stem survives to its intended life expectancy because of these conditions.   Most retail florists also sell gift items to help offset the high expense and labor intensive needs of their floral products.  A studio florist may also encounter an even bigger challenge since most do not offer “walk-in” specials to help move their unused product.

These are only a few of the factors your florist is considering when writing your estimate and working with your budget.  The particular flowers that are used will greatly influence the cost of your wedding bouquets.

Purchasing, Handling, and Caring for Cut Flowers (Labor Costs)

As well as purchasing flowers from local growers and wholesale distributors with delivery services, I also handpick from the Boston Flower Exchange (with travel, this is usually a 12-15 hour work day that starts at 4am and ends at about 7pm after finishing conditioning the flowers I purchased).  The quality of the flowers I choose to work with is president; this stage is the most important in my studio.   Once the flowers have been purchased the real work begins.  Conditioning flowers properly means stripping lower leaves, removing guard petals and hydration.  Hours and hours of time is spent carefully preparing stems for the delicate design process.   A Wednesday afternoon in the EH Floral studio is always a busy day, it all takes a lot of time and sometimes a lot of people to make it happen.  I am lucky to have such great friends and family often willing to help, but labor costs are certainly a significant part of the costs involved in getting to the finished design.

To actually create the arrangements for an event will take a minimum of 6-8 hours of just design time, but it can take up to days and hundreds of hours and many people to complete the design process.

Next week Emily will discuss the cost of actually creating the floral arrangements!

* The opinions provided for this post came from a member from our Prepare to Wed family. Every vendors opinions may vary based on their location, their pricing, their clients needs and their overall aesthetics. If you disagree or if you would like to add your own opinion please feel free to e-mail us and we would love to include you on this subject matter.