How to Quote Wedding Flowers (Without Underpricing Your Work)

Quoting is where most florists either win the wedding or quietly lose money on it. Price too high with no context and the couple ghosts; price too low and you are funding their day out of your own margin. A good wedding flower quote is not a number you guess at, it is a structured breakdown that follows directly from the concept you already agreed on.

Here is a repeatable way to quote wedding flowers that protects your margin and reads as professional.

Start from the concept, not a blank page

If you have already built a wedding mood board with the couple, your quote is half-written. The palette, the focal flowers, and, most importantly, the placements (arch, aisle, head table, centerpieces) are the exact line items you are about to price. Quoting from an approved board is faster and far harder to argue with than quoting from a vague brief.

Itemise by placement

Break the quote into the pieces the couple can picture:

• Personal flowers: bouquets, buttonholes, flower crowns.
• Ceremony: arch or arbour, aisle markers, signing table.
• Reception: centerpieces, head table, cake flowers, any installations.

Itemising this way lets a couple on a tight budget cut a line (say, aisle markers) without blowing up the whole quote, which keeps the booking alive instead of losing it to sticker shock.

Price each line honestly

1. Stem cost. Count the actual stems per piece at realistic seasonal prices. Peony season and ranunculus season are not the same quote.
2. Labour. Design, conditioning, mechanics, and your time. This is the number most florists undercharge.
3. Markup. A standard floral markup on hard costs (commonly 3x–4x on stems, plus labour) is not greedy, it covers waste, wastage, and the skill the couple is actually paying for.
4. Delivery, setup, and breakdown. Travel, install time, and teardown are real costs. Quote them as line items, not freebies.

Common quoting mistakes

• One lump sum. A single big number with no breakdown invites haggling and looks arbitrary.
• Forgetting labour and setup. The stems are the cheap part; your time is not.
• Quoting before the concept is agreed. You end up re-quoting every time the vision shifts.

Turn the concept into the quote in one place

The reason to keep your mood board and your quote connected is that the couple changes their mind, and every change has a price. When the concept and the numbers live together, swapping garden roses for a budget alternative updates the quote instead of restarting it. That brief-to-quote workflow is exactly what Windflower Works is built for. When you are ready, compare plans on the pricing page.