From Our Inner Circle: The Art and Investment of Wedding Florals

We’re delighted to introduce a new series on the Drake Social blog: From Our Inner Circle — guest contributions from creative partners we trust time and again to bring our clients’ visions to life. These collaborators are the artists, artisans, and experts who help us craft weddings that are as intentional as they are extraordinary.

How do you begin to price an event?

I like to stretch a budget as far as it reasonably goes so that I can consistently deliver incredible value to our clients. At the same time, I never want clients to fall in love with an idea outside the budget discussed unless it’s clearly presented as an optional upgrade. With that in mind, I start by establishing what portion of the floral budget needs to be set aside for production costs — labor, design fee, applicable travel costs — to bring the must-haves to life.

After that, I like to itemize the straightforward floral pieces first, such as bouquets and low centerpieces, so I have an idea of how much of the budget I have left to play with when dreaming up the big installations that have become a hallmark of our work.

How do the various components of your floral service influence pricing, and what costs tend to surprise clients most?

The hard costs associated with floral production are often surprising to clients, particularly the cost of the flowers themselves and labor costs. Because people can go to Trader Joe’s and get bundles of peonies for crazy low prices, they sometimes think that we have access to that same kind of pricing. In reality, flowers are loss leaders at most grocery stores, so even with enormous buying power they’re still not getting the wholesale rates you think they are. As for labor, top-tier floral designers generally command the highest day rates of any freelancers in the wedding world. We work for long periods, often in less-than-ideal conditions, doing physically strenuous work that also requires a keen design eye and intimate knowledge of our exceedingly perishable materials.

Something else that I think surprises clients is the fact that I don’t offer fully fledged proposals without a contract and retainer fee. It’s crucial to outline the scope and associated costs from the beginning. I will always provide a quote, but that’s just a basic outline — nothing too visually exciting is shared at that point. My ideas are a big part of what you’re paying for; it’s not good business for me to be proposing original concepts or creating sketches and renderings before a client has committed to working together.

What are the hidden costs of floral design?

Oof, so many to be honest. It’s easy to forget about the weeks and months of work that go into an event before the flowers arrive. Aside from the time it takes to create the floral design concepts themselves, it takes an enormous amount of prep work to bring those ideas to life. I spend a significant amount of time sourcing new vessels and writing the floral “recipes”, both of which contribute heavily to the overall aesthetic.

Five years ago, we stopped using Oasis or any other petrochemical-laden floral foam products and chose to shift to as many sustainable practices as we reasonably could. Everything from designing with chicken wire and pin frogs to composting our green waste is more time-consuming and therefore more expensive. However, I don’t specifically charge for that labor because I want our methods to be a draw for clients rather than a deterrent.

Working with a highly perishable product also means that it is imperative to do everything we can to make sure your flowers are at their peak on your wedding day. Buckets, vases, and pin frogs must be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized to prevent bacterial growth. Every bloom type needs to be treated in a particular way to ensure its longevity — daffodils need something different than garden roses, which need something different than orchids, which need something different than dahlias, and so on. We also have coolers for temperature control, including a mobile cooler, Trailer Swift, but for larger productions, we often must rent refrigerated trucks as well.

It’s also best to procure an appropriate amount of overage for certain ingredients, particularly those that are the most delicate or volatile so that we are hedging our bets on having all the happy blooms we want on wedding day. Something that means I can make an install extra bodacious, and sometimes that means I have just enough of the statement bloom to pull out and replace the flowers that couldn’t handle the transit stress. Either way, it’s a necessary expense in my opinion, and another one that I don’t specifically charge for.

What is an element you wish all clients would splurge on?

My favorite place to have a “wow factor” is at the bars, particularly any bar near the dinner and dancing spaces because those will be open all night. Every guest will visit the bar multiple times throughout the evening, ensuring these “wow factor” elements have ample time to shine. Maybe that’s oversized statement arrangements or a hanging installation; perhaps it’s built into the bar front itself, whatever it is, make it a moment.

I also love when clients splurge on a custom non-floral element that can become part of their home décor after the wedding, such as commissioned ceramic vessels or textile art installation pieces. I’m very sentimental, so anything that translates well to becoming a cherished heirloom is worth the investment in my opinion.

What are some cost-saving measures a client can take to reduce their spend on florals?

The economy of scale is everything in floral production, so the greatest cost-saving measures will occur if you’re using one floral team across all your wedding weekend events. This is even more true when travel is involved. While I wouldn’t advocate repurposing most items with cut flowers, you can do so with live plants or more hardy, branchy arrangements. I also think it’s wise to identify your floral priorities at the beginning of your planning process. Consider the items that will have the biggest impact on your space and be guest-facing for the longest time.

How does the season affect the price of certain florals/labor/preparation?

Labor rates typically don’t fluctuate seasonally unless production runs through a major holiday like New Year’s Eve. In those circumstances, I pay my team holiday rates, like overtime. Hard goods like vessels, candles, and custom builds will only fluctuate if the production timeline is super short; either because it’s an expedited booking timeline or a last-minute addition to the design plan. Otherwise, those are relatively static too.

Floral varieties, however, will fluctuate wildly depending on the product and the season. That’s just one of the reasons why I’m always going to advocate for choosing blooms that naturally grow during any given time of year. Costs aside, I also think there’s something special about creating a floral “recipe” that could only exist surrounding a particular date; that’s going to give the design a distinct look and feel that’s specific to that moment in time — sort of like a little botanical time capsule.

What is your average team size and why?

My typical team size is 12-14 people on a wedding day, with fewer team members before and after the installation. In any given year, I’m likely to have a production with as few as seven or as many as 18-20 onsite the day of a wedding. A baker’s dozen is the most common. Production typically begins in the studio on Tuesdays for Saturday events and usually includes two days of post-production after the event.

Want to see more of Heather’s work? Make sure to follow Pearl & Sky on Instagram! Eager to learn more about the wedding planning, design, and production process? Stay tuned for more posts from our inner circle.

Main Photo: Michelle Scott