Wedding Flowers: Size/Price Comparison for Reception Flowers
Pricing for flowers, especially wedding flowers can be an absolute mystery to many couples looking to book flowers for their special day. With Pinterest throwing beautiful images at us with no reference for what arrangements cost, couples can easily have false expectations. Fret not! I am giving examples of some of our favourite style arrangements, how we like to use them and how much they’ll run you. If you are trying to plan for your Hamilton, Niagara, or Toronto-area wedding flowers, listen up! Because the best way to fight wedding planning budget disappointment is to have realistic expectations to begin with!
For many people, their most common interaction with flowers is at the grocery store check-out line. This means you have a benchmark for what $20 of flowers looks like. But when it comes to your wedding day, grocery store flowers have no place. I’m sure you’d expect the food at your wedding to be much higher quality than the hot lunch counter at the grocery store and subsequently you expect there to be a price difference. The same goes for wedding flowers! However, knowing what to expect – both size and price – can be really hard.
To help clear up some of the mystery around pricing and sizes of wedding flower arrangements, I got together with my friend, Anastasia, from Olive Photography to capture some comparison images.
Each arrangement has a starting price for that size/style as well as the price for the arrangement shown. Keep in mind that the starting price point would include fewer premium flowers/more filler flowers or more greenery. As a rule of thumb, I’d suggest budgeting $100-$150 per round table, $100-180 per rectangular table, and at least $500-600 for your ceremony florals.
Check below to see examples of different size arrangements and how I like to use these for a wedding reception.
Classic compote bowl centrepiece arrangement. Starting at $100, shown here $125.
Perfect for a round guest table (seating 8-12).
Long and low hedge style arrangement. Starting at $145, shown here $145.
Ideal for a long, rectangular guest table (seating 8). You could also use a few of these to line your aisle before repurposing them to your guest tables.
Small arrangement. Starting at $60, shown here $75.
I suggest using these in a pair down a rectangular table. These are perfect if your harvest tables are on the narrower side and won’t accommodate a long and low arrangement, or if you prefer to spread the flowers out more.
Cocktail-sized arrangement. Starting at $45, shown here $50.
Our most versatile arrangement: Similar to the idea above, these smaller cocktail-sized arrangements can be used in a pair or a trio down a rectangular guest table. They’re also perfect during cocktail hour on bistro tables (seating 4) or cruiser tables. They can even be used as little accent arrangements anywhere you want to add a little extra colour.
Medium-sized arrangement in footed glass vase. Starting at $75, shown here at $85.
Although the footprint of this arrangement is smaller than the compote centrepiece, it is taller making it perfect as a floral accent on an additional tables: guestbook table, escort card table, signing table, or on the bar.
Bud vase. Starting at $15, shown here $15.
Similar to the cocktail-sized arrangements, bud vases are super versatile:
- Cluster 4-5 as a round table centrepiece
- Spread 6-8 down the centre of a rectangular guest table
- Add them as an accent anywhere else!
Statement compote arrangement. Starting at $200, shown here $250.
Perhaps you want really lush, full centrepieces on your guest tables, perhaps you want something showy to anchor your escort card display. You could even use these to frame your ceremony space or mark the end of the aisle, just add a couple of pillars to elevate them.
Large, ceremony urn arrangement. Starting at $300, shown here $375.
Generally used in pairs, ceremony urns can be bigger or smaller than this example. If you have more than 200 guests, I suggest starting with this size so the arrangement isn’t dwarfed in your venue. Smaller venues will be fine with smaller ceremony arrangements, though they will often need to be elevated on pillars/columns. Check with your venue to see if they have these available, or plan to rent them from your florist or decor provider. Remember these can be repurposed to your reception!
The above price points should help you plan your wedding floral budget according to your guest count and unique reception layout. Keep in mind that you will need to account for your Personal Flowers (bouquets, boutonnieres and anything else that’s wearable) and any other fun floral add-ons (cake flowers? place setting greenery? greenery chandelier?).
Happy wedding planning!