How to Budget For your Wedding

maybe You’ve Got Ideas Of How You want Your Wedding Day to Look- But You have No Idea What The Costs Will Be.

As a SUSSEX BASED WEDDING FLORIST, I have meetings with clients every week who are at various stages of their wedding planning journeys, some have just got engaged, some have been planning for the last year and just getting down to the finer details. One of the big factors I take into consideration is your budget, not only does this give you a better understanding of what you can get for your money, but it saves SO much time when designing. Here’s how I help decide the budget of your dream wedding.

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TELL ME ABOUT YOU, YOUR STORY

This is the most important factor of the consultation process for me. I spend time getting to know you, your story and what truly makes you tick as a couple. It’s all well and good saying you want a classic wedding look because that’s all you may know that looks ‘nice’, but if I get to know you a bit more and you tell me you met at a rave in Ibiza, you moved cities to be nearer your family, then you had children and you love minimalist art- I would probably give you a few more ideas of how the flowers can represent you and your story.

You many be thinking, what the heck has this got to do with budget, but ultimately seeing references of just one type of wedding and then liking them isn’t going to wow you on your wedding day. You may regret not including something that really represents you both, your family or something that you will remember. Once I get to know what makes you tick, I can factor into consideration different stems, styles and colours that may affect budget.

YOUR DREAM VISION

Then we go onto what would be your ideal vision. If you close your eyes and walk me through the wedding day, what do you see, what stands out. This is imperative as you may say , ‘oh, we want flowers at the pre reception drinks’, but when you close your eyes, it’s not the flowers you’re mentioning, it’s your Nana and Mammy having chats and laughing, it’s the band playing covers of Wet Wet Wet (okay, cool!) and it’s the trees rustling in the background where everyone is gathered. Walking through dreams helps us illuminate the areas where you’re most interested in spending time, what it looks like, and yes- even if it’s well out of your price range, we can start to prioritise the most impactful areas to dress and elevate.

Again, here I can see why people think- well, there’s no point telling Eloise that I’d love giant zorbing balls in the background and an orchard of disco balls because we won’t be able source that. But, together we can come up with ideas that maybe can incorporate the same feelings- and even have a few extra components that help to bring those dreams into reality. We can that ‘referencing’, a nod-to, if you like!

YOUR WORRIES

Lots of my couples have worries that there won’t be enough or there may be too much of one factor, one of my brides for this year was ‘worried it would look empty, maybe we need to hang greenery’.

Voicing these worries really helps to build an understanding of what you want and need from the design of your wedding day. In particular this client didn’t want the space to look bear, however I felt hanging greenery from the ceiling would in fact not create a sense a fullness because the ceiling was so high. Instead of stringing lengths of greenery from the central chandelier to the edges of the walls, we opened for taller tree like plinths in various parts of the room to accentuate the height of the room, but did not not block any light and was a much more affordable and time efficient option.`

Concerns are meant to be voiced. I want you to be able to trust in our collaborative design, and I will always let you know my professional opinion.

PRICING

Quite far down the list isn’t it? I think more than 75% of my couples say ‘we don’t really know how to budget for the floral design’. There will be ideas you can gauge through friends and family who have recently got married, or even online resources like the recent BrideBook document which said the average UK spend on wedding florists was £1375… which does feel very minimal- maybe a rise of DIY weddings/ micro weddings/ abroad weddings?

I have packages available to view on my website on every page, so you can gauge a rough idea of what you can get at each price bracket, these were the three main averages in 2024. We do get clients that spend £15k and over, and we do take clients that spend £500- it just depends on what your priorities are for your day, and what you envisage your day to look like.

Once we’ve spoken about your dream vision, worries and what you both like, I can start to guide you through focal areas to dress, designs, rough estimates, and you can choose to add, remove or refine these ideas even within the first consultation.

Budget isn’t scary, as long as we are transparent from the start. This is why I also ask for both you and your partner are at the first consultation, so there’s no worries about understanding the style and where the money is going.

REFINING COSTS

Sometimes we can get really swept up in the way a wedding looks, rather than how it feels. And after a few months of planning and a few suppliers adding on VAT, or secretly charging for the use of the already hung disco ball- and all of a sudden you’re nearing your overall budget and you’re worried.

If you discuss transparency with all your suppliers at the start, you should have very little nasty surprises that might tip you over the edge.

I ask for a deposit of just £500 to secure your wedding date(s), and then remaining amount between 3 months and 6 weeks prior to your wedding day, depending on the size. If, however, in the few months running up to the wedding you decide you need more flowers or indeed you’d like to rethink the areas of focus, we can absolutely do this. We secure your minimum spend package (at the point of deposit payment) and then the amount can vary depending on your changing needs.

KEEPING IT SEASONAL

Yep, it’s true. If you work seasonally the likelihood is that you’re going to get more bang for your buck. More greenery and gestural branches in the Winter with stunning Mistletoe or early Primula, and in the Summer just think of the abundance of Dahlias or reaching giant branches of Beech- I can’t tell you how important it is to talk to your suppliers about working with the seasons.

Too long we have opted for the boring roast dinner for every sit down meal, if you are being catered for and you are food driven- eat seasonally. The vegetables will taste better, the colours will be more vibrant and more often that not, you’re working with a local farmer somewhere in the supply chain.

You all know I work strictly seasonally, because I truly believe the grade of the product is better and genuinely has feeling, Each stem has character and a story, just like you and your story. It’s been chosen for a reason, and that makes it special- every stem has a purpose.

Using nostalgic stems, to evoke memories and create new ones!

All photos in this page by the divine @lexflemming taken at the parents home of J, the Groom in September 2025.