Why Florists don't want to give you a quote
The Quick Guide
- Beyond the “Quote”: Understand that a “from” price is just the starting point; the final cost is a bespoke calculation of scale, season, and flower varieties.
View it as a Whole: Think of your flowers like your wedding breakfast; you are investing in a complete, professional experience, not an itemised list of ingredients.
Trust the Expert: Granting your florist creative freedom allows them to pivot and use their professional expertise to maximise your budget and the final look.
Partnership over Pricing: Realise that a consultation is a sign of professionalism. Building a foundation of trust and clear communication is the key to a perfect proposal.
Budgeting is, undeniably, one of the most significant pillars of wedding planning. When you are attempting to balance a dozen different moving parts for your big day, keeping a firm grip on your expenditure isn’t just sensible—it’s vital. However, when it comes to flowers, while it’s perfectly natural to want a fixed quote and a “locked-in” price early on, the reality is rarely that simple.
In this article, we’re going to look behind the scenes of floral pricing to understand the “why” behind the “from” price, explore why a rigid, itemised approach doesn’t always lead to the best aesthetic result, and explain why building a foundation of trust with your florist is the most effective way to protect your budget while achieving the look you love.
Why It Isn't as Simple as "Getting a Few Quotes"
At British Flower Market, one of the questions we are most frequently asked is: “Can you just get me quotes from a few different florists so I can compare?” It is a perfectly logical request—in almost any other industry, that is exactly how you would start. However, in the world of professional floristry, it simply doesn’t work like that.
A skilled, professional florist might be able to provide a rough “from” price based on your initial ideas, but a final figure is governed by a complex set of variables. The specific flower varieties you choose, the seasonal availability at the time of your wedding, and the sheer scale of the installation all play a role. Furthermore, the cost of an individual item—like a single centrepiece—often depends on how it sits within the wider order.
The Pitfalls of the Itemised Approach
When couples insist on an itemised bill right from the start, they often inadvertently stifle the very creativity they are paying for. By focusing purely on the itemised cost of every stem, you risk losing the bigger picture and make it much more “off-the-shelf”.
If you get hung up on the exact cost of twelve bud vases versus ten, or the specific price of a single buttonhole, you will often end up getting less overall. When a florist is forced to work within a rigid, itemised framework, they are less likely to suggest those spontaneous, creative flourishes that truly make wedding flowers memorable.
Maximising Your Budget Through Expertise
An experienced florist is your greatest ally when it comes to your budget. Rather than being regimented about the cost of each tiny element, it is far more effective to have an open conversation about your total spend. A professional can talk you through where to “spend” and where to “save”—perhaps suggesting you go grand on a pedestal arrangement at the entrance, where every guest will take a photo, while being more modest with the foliage on the cake table. Trusting their expertise to balance the budget across the whole day will always yield a more high-end look than trying to micro-manage the cost of every stem.
Moving Away from the "Shopping List" Mindset
To get the most out of your floral design, you need to think of it less like a supermarket trip and more like booking a high-end caterer. When you sit down to plan your wedding breakfast, you don’t ask the chef for an itemised breakdown of the cost of every steak, the price of each individual potato, or exactly how many pence they’ve assigned to the garnish.
You pay for the expertise, the service, and the final experience of a delicious, three-course meal. You trust the chef to source the best ingredients within your per-head price. Floristry is no different; you are commissioning an artist to curate an atmosphere, not just someone to deliver a specific count of items and stems.
Understanding the Economies of Scale
One of the least understood parts of the industry is how wholesale ordering works. Flowers aren’t bought one by one; they are bought in “wraps” or “bunches”—often in multiples of 50 for popular stems like roses. This means that adding “just two more” bud vases isn’t always a small, linear cost. If those two extra vases require the florist to break into a brand-new wholesale wrap, that cost has to be accounted for. By looking at the order as a whole, the florist can ensure they are using every single stem efficiently across your entire venue, giving you far better value for your money.
Building a Partnership of Trust
If a florist is hesitant to give you a hard price over email before they’ve really spoken to you, they aren’t being shady or underhanded. Quite the opposite—they are being professional. They want to avoid giving you a “guess” that might change later.
The goal is to build a foundation of clarity and clear communication. A professional florist will want to sit down with you for a proper consultation to understand your vision, your venue, and your priorities. Only then can they create a tailored proposal and a final price that reflects the quality of their work and fits comfortably within your budget. When you move from “purchasing items” to “building a partnership,” that is when the real magic happens.
Find Your Ideal Wedding Florist
At British Flower Market, we can match you with a florist who can discuss your needs and come up with a well thought out proposal, maximising your budget and creating wedding flowers where the value is greater than the sum of its parts .
Fill in our quick enquiry form, and we’ll connect you with a florist.
