Why Are Wedding Flowers So Expensive in Boston?
If you’re thinking, “Oh god, wedding flower prices in Boston, WHAT??” and want to understand why flowers are priced the way they are, I’ve got you!
As a New England florist, I absolutely understand that yes, wedding flowers are expensive, and I can promise you that no, it’s not because you slapped the word “wedding” onto your inquiry (my corporate clients are priced the exact same way!).
Keep reading to discover what actually goes on behind the scenes in determining the cost of your wedding flowers.
Why Are Wedding Flowers So Expensive in Boston?
Two things go into the cost of your wedding flowers: the flowers and the labor.
Flowers
First, let’s discuss the flowers…
You wanna know why Trader Joe's flowers are so cheap? It’s because Trader Joe’s actually owns flower farms in Ecuador, Colombia, etc. They cut out all middlemen, saving BOAT loads of money.
As much as I truly wish I could own a rose farm in Ecuador, that’s just not in the plan right now. So, I got middlemen that need to be paid in this process! By the time a rose gets to my studio, it has already experienced: being harvested, being packaged, shipped by truck, plane, another truck, maybe another truck, pulled for Althea at the wholesalers, put into my flower-mobile, and hauled into my studio.
For the majority of this process, this rose is stored without water. The supply chain must stay cold the WHOLE time to ensure freshness by the time it gets to Massachusetts from Ecuador or the Netherlands, and a rose gets to my workbench 3 to 5 DAYS after harvest.
If you think about it, that’s absolutely bonkers, y’all! That’s a lot of coordination, fuel, and humans doing work! These things cost money!
The above example is for imported roses, but here at Althea I like to use locally grown flowers when I can. And to tell you the truth, flowers grown here in New England are usually more expensive than flowers I get imported. Why? Because labor in Mass is a lot more expensive than labor abroad. My flower farmers deserve to be paid a living wage just as much as I do, so locally grown flowers are priced accordingly.
The first time I walked into the wholesalers, I expected flowers to be dirt cheap, but was shocked when that actually wasn’t the case. Flowers are sold in bunches, and here’s an example of the wholesale cost of flowers:
Roses (bunch of 25 stems) $50
Anthurium (bu of 12 stems): $108
Calla lily (bu of 10 stems): $35
Cymbidium orchid: $32 per STEM (yes, 1 STEM)
Dahlia (bu of 5 stems); $20
Shocking, right?? And here’s more tea: florists often can’t use every single one of those stems we’ve bought. Stems break, blooms get bruised, something just looks a little wonky, so we won’t use it in your wedding flowers.
Sometimes we buy flowers and bring them to the studio, and they decide to spontaneously die overnight, and then we have to go back to the market and buy more. Working with a perishable product means that there’s a lot of loss involved in the process, so pricing needs to be able to cover that.
So for simplicity’s sake, let’s say we’re making you one bouquet using the above flowers. Even if I just use 5 roses and 1 anthurium, I still have to buy the whole-ass bunch. So your bouquet flowers, for what I pay to the wholesaler, are $245 before I ever even touch a flower to start designing. Yikes! Flowers aren’t cheap, even for me.
The labor
The second part of why flowers are so expensive: the labor.
We got our flowers, nowwww everything else has to be paid for. Like…..studio rent, cooler electricity, the cost of the ribbon that’s the perfect color for your palette, business insurance, gas, chicken wire, vases, my accountant, spray paint for the hydrangea that came in the wrong color. Plus, I also have to account for the time it takes for Althea Florists to de-thorn your roses, drive to the flower farm or the wholesaler, clean buckets, sweep the studio, create recipes and order flowers, write emails, and create mockups.
All of this has to be paid for before I even start actively designing your flowers or setting up your wedding. Wowza, I’m stressed just writing this! Floral design, especially something as personal and hands-on as working with wedding clients, takes a lot of labor with a significant amount of overhead. I price myself to cover all this AND pay myself a living wage in a very high cost-of-living city of Boston, MA.
When you invest in a small business like Althea, you can trust that your investment covers the flowers themselves, fair wages for every set of hands that helps bring your wedding to life, and all of the very unsexy behind-the-scenes stuff that makes the pretty stuff possible.
You’re not just paying for the bouquet you hold; you’re paying for the entire invisible process that gets it safely into your hands looking gorgeous on your wedding day.
Wedding flowers are a luxury, and there is absolutely no shame in deciding they aren’t where you want to put a big chunk of your wedding budget. But the price isn’t arbitrary, and it definitely isn’t because florists see the word “wedding” and start adding zeroes.
Flowers are expensive, running a floral business is expensive, and skilled labor deserves to be paid fairly. That’s the real answer to “oh god, wedding flower prices, WHAT??”
How Much Do Wedding Flowers Cost in Boston?
I’m sure the next question on your mind is: so how much do wedding flowers actually cost? And while I do wish I could give a straightforward answer with a set price, many factors influence what your New England wedding flowers will actually cost. But I wrote another post covering what you can expect to pay on average for your New England wedding flowers and more info on pricing, which you can check out here!
Ready to Invest in Your Wedding Flowers?
I hope you found this info about wedding flower pricing helpful and that it gave you a better idea of why flowers are priced the way they are!
Looking for a florist for your New England wedding? I would love to bring your unique vision to life! Let’s toss out the old wedding norms and craft your very own custom floralscape that brings your love to life in wild, living color.
Althea Floral Design specializes in bold wedding florals and custom floral installations in Boston, Massachusetts, and across New England. Inquire today with Althea Floral Design to get started!
*Photography credits (in order of photos in this blog post)
Brenda de Los Santos Photography
Thomas Audiffren
