Full-service wedding flowers at Bucket Works start at $5,500. If you’re looking for flowers for just a few parts of the day, I’m happy to consider a smaller commission. That could be personal flowers, a couple of tables, or a few focal arrangements. Tell me what you have in mind and the budget you’re working with, and we can see what makes sense.
If you’re starting with a few saved images, it can be hard to work out what you’re looking at financially. A photograph rarely tells you how many people installed the flowers, what’s supporting them, or how much time the venue allowed for setup. And some of the things that sound like obvious ways to spend less, including bud vases or moving flowers from the ceremony, deserve a closer look.
What goes into the flower budget
The flowers themselves are a substantial cost. The varieties and quantities matter, along with details such as stem length and how much material a particular shape needs. A loose arrangement can still contain a lot of flowers. Leaving space between stems while making a piece feel full from several directions takes design work, too.
There’s also a lot of work before the arranging starts. Flowers need to be sourced, received or harvested, and cared for. Damaged stems get sorted out, vessels get cleaned, and the supports that hold an arrangement together need preparing. Then everything has to be packed so it survives the trip. That time needs to be paid for whether I’m doing it myself or bringing in help.
The design time belongs in the budget as well. A color you love in a reference image may look quite different against your venue’s walls. Working out those relationships, choosing the materials, and planning how the finished pieces will travel are all part of the job.
This is also why full service has a minimum. Fewer guests may mean fewer table arrangements, but there’s still a design to develop and an installation to plan. A shorter guest list doesn’t give me more time to set up, either. I may still need help getting everything into place.
If the budget accounts for the finished arrangements but leaves the planning and preparation unpaid, it hasn’t accounted for the job. The minimum makes room for that work; the actual design still needs to be costed. A small wedding with a complicated installation can involve more production work than a larger one with a simpler plan, and the total can be considerably above the starting price.
About those bud vases
I wouldn’t build a flower budget around the assumption that bud vases will be cheaper. Each one still needs to be filled, packed, transported, and placed. Repeating small pieces along a table can take quite a bit of handling, even when the finished arrangement looks effortless.
Then there’s the room. Small arrangements can get lost in a large space. A long table may need more vessels than you expected for the flowers to have the presence you liked in your reference, with room still left for place settings and food service. The amount of material and the time it takes to place everything both affect the cost.
Bud vases can be exactly right for a design. I just want to look at what they’re actually doing before treating them as a savings plan. Counting “centerpieces” alone won’t tell you much when one could mean a substantial arrangement and another could mean a group of small vessels.
Getting the flowers into place and out again
The route from the loading area to the room matters more than you might expect. Stairs, elevator access, and a short setup window can change how many people an installation needs. Some pieces also have to be finished on site because they can’t travel fully built.
For a larger installation, I need to work out the support and method of installation along with the flowers. Anything attached to or suspended in a venue depends on what’s permitted and what can be installed safely. Share those references early so there’s time to understand what the space will allow.
The end of the night needs a plan, too. Someone has to remove installations and collect rented vessels within the venue’s requirements. At Bucket Works, delivery and installation follow the agreed scope; breakdown, retrieval, and any client returns are specified in the proposal and contract. If you’re comparing quotes, check who is responsible for that work. A lower total may cover fewer responsibilities.
Moving ceremony flowers to the reception can be useful, but I’d want to know whether the pieces are built to move and whether there’s a practical route between the spaces. Someone also needs time to move them without getting in the way of the wedding. That extra handling and labor can affect whether repurposing makes sense. It’s worth planning before you count on it to save money.
Local flowers still have a cost
During the local growing season, I work with flowers from Bucket Works and other growers across Southeast Michigan, with additional material from specialty farms and suppliers as needed. Locally grown flowers still involve the work and cost of growing them. They aren’t automatically the inexpensive option.
Being flexible about varieties doesn’t necessarily mean spending less, either. It gives me room to choose flowers that are doing well around your wedding date, rather than trying to source a particular variety because it appears in a photograph. If a flower matters to you, tell me. I want to understand what you care about while I check what’s available.
What to bring to the conversation
Send your date, venue, approximate guest count, and budget or range, along with any layout information you have. Include a few references and tell me what you like about them. I may see the color when what you really love is the scale of the flowers in the room.
If you’d like help beyond the flowers, say that, too. Creative direction and the physical work of setting up non-floral elements change the scope and are agreed separately. You can read about the services on the Weddings page.
I also want to hear what you’re especially excited about. If the budget and the design are far apart, we need an honest conversation about fit. There isn’t much use in quietly reducing the flowers until the number works if the result has lost what you wanted from them.
Bring the questions you haven’t worked out yet. You can send your details through the wedding inquiry form, and we can start there.
