Weddingbee PRO

I'm thrilled to announce a new series that I'm doing called “Ask Nancy!”. You could say it's the Dear Abby column with a wedding floral spin. Please keep your questions coming (and remember there are no silly questions!). Leave your questions in the comments, and I'll be sure to answer them.

We start with a question from a groom, Inviting600 (yes, the couple is inviting 600 guests to their wedding ). Inviting600 asks: “why do some flowers cost so much?” and “what flowers should I avoid if I am trying to save money?”.

Though I've answered this from time to time, I think I should address this again given our economic times.

Cost of flowers reflect:

1) Supply v. Demand.
2) Availability.
3) Overhead costs of suppliers.
4) Shipping.
5) Source.
6) Geography.
7) Seasonality or time of the year.

Avoid flowers that are:

1) High Maintenance
2) Out of season and must be imported from Europe
3) Low in supply but high in demand.
4) Rare and hard to find.
5) Have tight buds, don't open well.
6) Wilts or bruises quickly.

Here’s an example. This morning for around $50 (at wholesale not retail), you could take home 5 stems of white peonies, 10 stems of locally grown garden roses, and 5 stems of imported South American creamy hydrangea from one of the best wholesalers in the Bay Area, Torchio Nursery.

If you were to buy this from a floral shop, I would assume that it would be 2 to 3 times as much depending on the area. As a boutique floral designer studio, I paid $5.00 a stem for peonies, roughly $2.50 for one stem of hydrangea and $1.50 for one small stem of garden roses (of which many probably won't open by this weekend.) Since these are garden roses and not the more common hothouse variety, not all of them will open at the same time. Some are already open while others remain tight.

The cost of a designed arrangement also needs to factor in all sorts of other costs including the time to select flowers, clean flowers, deliver flowers, the vase, overhead, and labor charges. This is why it's possible that 5 peonies, 10 garden roses, foliage, and 5 cream hydrangea could easily be $100 to $200 in a market like NYC today.

As you can see from the picture above, not all 5 stems of those peonies are perfect or large and open enough to be presented in a bouquet. Because we cannot deliver tight buds, we had to overbuy this particular flowers by 3 times. That means that we actually paid for 3 times as many peonies than we needed so that the one bouquet would be in great condition; I call it delivery wedding condition. Experienced wedding professionals will anticipate this and budget accordingly.

In terms of the garden roses, these locally sourced garden roses are not very plentiful. I don't know how technically difficult it is to grow them, but I imagine that there's isn't enough land to grow them in abundance like the hot house roses that we find in corner markets, grocery stores and at the floral market. If you take into account the labor costs to maintain them plus the costs of land in the Bay Area, it doesn't sound unusual for them to cost $1.50 to $2.50 a stem, which means that for a customer it is easily $3.00 to $7.50 a stem… if not more.

Note also the size. This bunch of ten stemmed garden roses looks about the size of one hydrangea head. Size is important. It would take five times as many garden roses to fill a small vase while it would take 6 to 7 stems of hydrangea. Even though hydrangeas can cost more per stem, the size means that you don’t need as many total stems. When it comes to flowers, stem count is crucial. Many brides want garden roses instead of their inferior cousin, the hot house long stemmed roses. But if it's money you are trying to save, note that even South American imported roses at wholesale cost a fraction of a locally grown high maintenance garden rose.

Several years ago, imported hydrangea would cost me $3.00 a stem. Because many farms in South America jumped into the market, the cost of hydrangea has dropped over the years since I started buying them. As their availability has increased, there are more hydrangeas in the marketplace and thus the cost has decreased.  So ask, what is the availability?

In two weeks, Torchio nursery says that peonies will drop in price. However, the ones this morning were still imported from Europe. Shipping and importing from countries in Europe and Australia is also a factor in why flowers can cost a lot. In the fall when my favorite mini callas are available, it's typical to pay $5.00 for a stem of mini callas. They are coming from Australia or New Zealand and you are paying for the shipping, and not necessarily the flower itself. Another reason why peonies are currently so expensive is that not many vendors in the market are tempted to carry them. I could only find them with two resources. Keep in mind these two resources at the flower market service the entire Bay Area. Because of that, white peonies are especially hard to find. The demand might be high but the availability from a buyer's stand point is minimal, and thus my nursery knew that I would pay top dollar for them.

Bottom line: If you want to save on flowers for your wedding, find a floral designer who has the best experience, whose body of work that you trust. Ask them to buy what is best that week in the market. When you have to have something, you might also have to pay a premium. If you have to have a pricey flower, use it where you will get the most impact.