Floral Budgets - Flowers for wedding in Southern California

So I totally get your fear, but any legit florist just wants to know your budget so they can give you a proposal within your means. They won’t mark things up if what you want is $1,800 worth of floral.


I’d Google florists in your area, send them a detailed email list of what you’re looking for and ask for a quote. Then you can compare the quotes. If any ask you your budget, you can say at this stage you’re just collecting information. You’ll be able to get an idea of who’s super pricey from this, or if your budget isn’t doable.

Agree with Kylie, a good professional will not mark up the prices, but you can always start by sending inspiration pics and getting quotes without ever telling them your budget. I don't recall my florist asking for budget before sending my first quote.

Obviously every location is different, but if it helps any, my style is really similar, with eucalyptus and white and lilac roses. I'm getting married in Florida in a really expensive area for weddings so it might be pretty similar so SoCal. Here are some of the prices I was quoted:

Large bride bouquet (roses and greenery) $150; bridesmaid bouquets $75 each; centerpieces $50-60 each; arch $250; cake flowers, hair pieces, misc garlands for signs and such ranging from $15-$45 per item; bouts $8-10 each, corsages $25 each.

As far as negotiating, I tried to do this a little with my florist but didn't really get anywhere. Your best bet is probably to cut some roses and swap them for other flowers if you need to reduce the overall cost. Also, my florist is very familar with my venue and offered up her own ideas for saving some money by repurposing the arch flowers as a spray on the sweetheart table, the aisle garlands on the bar, and the bridesmaids bouquets in vases to fill other space as needed.

Southern California is a vast area. Be specific as to what you want. While some vendors will con you, not all of them do. Don’t settle for the first person you meet.

Take a look at Instagram, Google, Yelp to get a list of vendors in your area to interview and go from there.

I would go in and give them a price range that you’re willing to spend. I wouldn’t give them an exact price, I would just let them know that the most you want to spend is X but tell them between X and X is what you’d like to spend. Florists will try to get the most for their job that they can. 3K is a relatively smaller floral budget for your location as so cal is on the much higher exorbitant price end vs some others states. If you’re willing to do some of the floral yourself, you could also just have them price out certain things whether it be bouquets or centerpieces only.

Have you considered Fifty Flowers? They have beautiful prearrangements for centerpieces, bouquets, boutennaires (some with a lot of greenery and white) for a quarter of the cost of a florist. Costco also has wedding floral packages and greenery.

Daughter was married in South Orange County, CA, two+ years ago. She loved ALL her vendors, but especially her florist, Erika Alvarez, owner of Vestra Rosa Weddings in Fullerton (https://www.vestrarosaweddings.com/). Erika was WONDERFUL about working within daughter's budget -- and came in $1000 below daughter's next lowest bid. The florals were gorgeous and Erika was a delight to work with! Good luck!

Also major cities like LA have wholesale flowers districts where you can buy arrangements at wholesale prices to either DIY or they will put them together.

I tried to negotiate with my florist and she would barely budge. Ask for simple types of flowers, not necessarily roses, and see if you can reuse pieces. E.g. use the arch arrangement for your sweetheart table.
I live right outside of DC (high cost of living) and I paid $3900 for relatively simple white and purple flowers with greenery - my bouquet, 5 bridesmaids bouquets, 10 boutonnieres (groom, groomsmen, dad's, brothers), 5 corsages, ceremony arch arrangement, 4 high centerpieces on trumpet vases, 6 low centerpieces, flowers for the cake, petals down the aisle, and flowers for the guestbook table.

Thank you everyone! Its helpful to see what others have run into!

Say your budget is $2k. Get their proposal for $2k, then make changes/upgrades as you see fit and tell them you'll pay extra for it. You get what you want and won't have to go above your original 3k

Second Fifty Flowers - they do consultations to figure out what you want and help you order everything wholesale. Also I've found a few places that do a la carte options where you order exactly the pieces you want.