Key Things to Know & How To Plan Accordingly in 2022 and beyond.

As we head into the second half of 2022, we wanted to address a very important topic that has hit us from all industries and areas of the world: at this crucial time, we felt it was important for us to discuss Inflation and its effects on the wedding floral business.

With rising inflation rates due to supply chain constraints, annual price increases, labor shortages, and distribution bottlenecks, costs are going up in virtually every industry – including all of the industries and supply chains that service weddings, too. 

Today we explore a bit deeper into the reasons behind some of the price increases you may be seeing across many vendors and suppliers in the wedding space, including us in the floral industry.

What is Inflation, Anyway?

I’m sure you’ve been hearing all about inflation, often tied to stories about how our everyday goods are getting more expensive (have you seen gas prices, lately?) 

Despite your keeping up-to-date with the latest news on this topic and all of the buzz around it, what might be less familiar is exactly why these goods and services are getting more expensive.

A high-level explanation from the International Monetary Fund captures this and how it’s directly related to what we are seeing & experiencing in the wedding industry:

“Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time… such as the overall increase in prices or the increase in the cost of living in a country. But it can also be more narrowly calculated—for certain goods, such as food, or for services, such as a haircut, for example… Inflation represents how much more expensive the relevant set of goods and/or services has become over a certain period, most commonly a year.

Pressures on the supply or demand side of the economy can cause inflation. Supply shocks that disrupt production, such as natural disasters, or a rise in production costs, such as high oil prices, can reduce overall supply and lead to “cost-push” inflation, in which the impetus for price increases comes from a disruption to supply.”

What’s Up With the Supply Chain?

Over the past nearly 3 years of the Pandemic, we’ve experienced significant supply chain issues – it’s become harder to get the goods and materials we all need due to supply issues or shortages of raw materials, production slowdowns or shortages, distribution slow-downs, and lack of staffing for producers, manufacturers, and distributors.

The Impact of Covid

Many suppliers and manufacturers shuttered or slowed down production because demand for their materials and goods dropped (as we were mostly at home.) 

Labor shortages also contribute significantly to the supply chain issues and thus rising product costs. These labor shortages in critical areas like manufacturing, but also shipping and receiving at major ports, and in the trucking industry, have also created vast bottlenecks – and make it extremely difficult and slow to move product from the supplier to the consumer.

Impact on Flowers, The Floral Industry & Us

In the case of the floral industry, many flower growers slashed their crops as they would not be used and are still recovering those lost crops over the last 2.5 years as a result. When the boom of weddings resurfaced around June of last year, there simply wasn’t enough inventory of flowers to satisfy the sharp increase in demand, thus causing a supply chain shortage all along the way. There were specifically two weeks last year when no florist in the US could secure white roses – can you imagine that?! 

Manufacturers of hard goods (stands, vases, candles, other wedding rentals, tableware, flatware, etc.) also significantly decreased or halted production altogether and are still recouping. Wedding florists and rental vendors are still receiving hard good orders placed 6 months – 1 year ago.

Over the past year, flowers getting stuck in transit or being extremely hard to find were commonplace. Of course, we are able to find substitutions, so it was (and continues to be) important for our couples and families to be flexible with wedding floral vendors as we continue to recover from the supply shortages of flowers and hard goods. 

Just like all other vendors in our space (and all other industries), we’re directly impacted by the shipping & receiving ports and docks, as well as the distribution and trucking industries to get our flowers and hard good products (vases, rentals, candles, etc.) to our studio. Let us also not forget – this also includes the increased cost of fuel for both airline fuel and gasoline for trucks – which have significantly increased for both consumers & distribution networks alike!

While we continue to get nearly daily deliveries of fresh, beautiful shipments of product, the prices of our flowers – especially specialty flowers – are significantly more expensive per stem or per bunch. 

Lastly, like many florists, we have a small but mighty team. Therefore, we are working tirelessly throughout the week and into your wedding day & weekend to create and perfect your wedding floral vision, ensure it’s packed and ready for delivery & deliver and set everything up on your wedding day.

All wedding florists will include this, so please do keep in mind that we charge a labor and delivery fee – our labor and delivery fee is a minimum of 1 of our staff members/designers for 4 hours. Depending on the size of the wedding and flora order, we will send 2 staff for a minimum of 4 hours. Why?

Our delivery and set up time actually reflects the moment us starting at the packing the delivery vehicles – driving to the location and setting up and driving back. This fee and timing cover: taking one of our vans, and reserving for your event, including packing, delivering, setup, and driving back to our studio, as well as the fuel needed to get us there and back.

Repurposing arrangements from ceremony to reception also require us to remain on-site and therefore incur additional fees for our time – usually, a minimum of 2 hours for however many staff members are there for setup. Venues do not typically move florals from ceremony to reception.

Our Best Advice for Couples On How To Navigate This New Normal

What are your biggest priorities for your wedding florals? This is an important conversation to have with your partner, and family and ultimately be communicated with your wedding florist: 

• What are the most important focal areas of your ceremony, and reception?
• How many people will you have in your bridal party?
• Do you want an Arbor, Arch, or Chuppah? 
• Do you want a full floral look or more minimal (greenery with fewer blooms?)

Another big question:

• Are there any priority focal flowers you’d like? 

It’s important to understand your overall vision and priorities, but it’s also important to be flexible. Combined with today’s increased costs of flowers, and the knowledge that florists order in bulk (i.e. we cannot just order 1, 2 or even 6 blooms, we order in bunches of 10 or more), know that there are many incredible flowers that can replace the most expensive blooms and there are many creative ways to achieve your desired style, design, or look with fewer specialty blooms that won’t completely break your wedding floral budget!

Be flexible with your flower choices – we can always suit your color palette perfectly with a variety of flowers and greenery that are suited to your design needs and desired spending.

Be sure to connect with your venue on their ceremony focal structures – many venues have them, but cannot guarantee their safety/sturdiness for floral designs. You can rent one of our many arches, arbors, chuppahs, or even a flower wall, which we can include the cost of the rental and will include a strike (break down) fee for us to retrieve the rental items after your wedding.

What Makes Us Different

• Led by AIFD Certified Allison Hassard, our award-winning floral design team brings a combined 75+ years of floral design experience.
• We were awarded The Knot ‘Couples Choice Award’, Wedding Wire ‘Best of 2022’, and inducted into Wedding Wire’s ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2022.
• We use only the highest quality, seasonal blooms to create breathtaking, memorable wedding floral design experiences for the modern bride.  
• We’ve recently expanded to include gorgeous, pre-curated wedding floral packages to suit smaller budgets – starting at $1,150
• We’ve also created beautiful a-la-carte floral options for easy ordering and delivery on our website in a variety of arrangements for ceremony 7 reception (bouquets, boutonnieres, arrangements, centerpieces, and more!)

Sources: International Monetary Fund, WeddingPro