Comparing florist quotes: the same list to every florist

Every florist prices differently. Send one list, ask for every line by name, define substitutions, price garland by the foot, and know what doing it yourself really costs.

Florists price three ways, and none is wrong: itemized by piece, a single design fee, or a share of a budget you name. Three quotes in three languages cannot be compared until all three have priced the same list, with the same lines asked for by name.

One list to every florist

• The pieces and counts: bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, a ceremony structure, the aisle, centerpieces by table count, cake flowers, bar and welcome pieces.
• The date, the venue, the ceremony and reception times, and the delivery times you want: personal flowers before photos, room flowers after the tables are dressed, ceremony pieces last.
• Your inspiration brief: what you love, what you do not, and that you are open to alternatives.

The lines that go missing

• Delivery (one trip or two: bouquets to the getting-ready address and flowers to the venue), setup labour and installation time, and the late-night strike. Poppy’s delivery and setup guide and InvoiceQuickly’s florist invoicing guide both single out strike labour as the line most often forgotten.
• Rentals: vessels, stands, the arch frame, candle holders, and whether they are returned, by whom, and the charge if they are not.
• The deposit and payment schedule, the date the count locks, and what a late addition costs and is made from. Poppy’s order-deadline guide puts most final flower orders at thirty to ninety days out, with count changes accepted to around forty-five days and nothing in the final thirty.

The substitution clause

Flowers are a crop, so every florist contract allows substitutions when a flower is unavailable. Curate’s contract template calls this putting the client on notice, and names the unreasonable version: dandelions in place of David Austin roses. Define “reasonable” before signing: like for like in colour, shape and value; a message first when there is time and a note after when there is not; and your short list of flowers never to be swapped in.

Garland is sold by the foot

Greenery is cheap per stem and expensive per foot of hand-wired garland. Poppy’s garland guide quotes fifteen to twenty-five dollars a foot for greenery alone and thirty to forty-five with flowers, with ten to twelve feet per eight-foot banquet table, fifteen to twenty for a round arch, and fifteen to twenty percent added for draping and waste. Measure the feet before deciding which tables get garland and which get bud vases and a candle.

The do-it-yourself line

Wholesale flowers arrive closed, thirsty and thorny, two or three days before the wedding, and want stripping, cutting, clean buckets and a cool room. Joy’s guide to DIY wedding flowers quotes a planner on how busy that week is; Poppy times fifty feet of do-it-yourself garland at eight to eleven hours. Price the buckets, the flower food, the cold space, the vehicle and two free people on the Thursday and Friday. Keep the forgiving pieces (bud vases, loose stems in jars, candles) and give the bouquet and any structure to a florist.

Handoff

You send the one list and the brief; each florist answers every line; the one you book gets the final count the same day the caterer does, in one email to both. The quote with the lowest number is usually the one that left the most out.

A wedplan.ai guide on the Vendor coordination board. More planning guides.