It’s time for another Ask Emmaline wedding advice question! This week’s etiquette dilemma comes to us from bride-to-be, Laura, who wants to know who pays for flowers at a wedding. She writes,
“Hi Emmaline! I’m planning a summer wedding and we’re looking at flowers. My question is, who typically pays for wedding flowers? My parents are contributing financially but we are also sharing the costs. My parents are covering decorations… so, I’m wondering, are flowers considered decor or their own category?”
Hi Laura! Great questions. Let’s discuss it.
Who Covers the Cost of Wedding Flowers
Typically, the person who pays for flowers is whomever is hosting the wedding. You mentioned your parents are contributing towards costs, but you’re also adding in your own finances towards the event. While flowers are a major part of the event decor, you can categorize them separately if they won’t be a major part of the centerpieces, the aisle decor, cake table, etc.
However, if most of your wedding decorations are, in fact, wedding flowers, I’d put them together in the same category.
(TIP: Use our wedding budget planner to see how much of your budget to allocate towards flowers.)
Now, on to the hot topic: who covers the cost of the flowers? In your case, it really depends on how you have plan to share costs with your parents. Discuss decorations with them and see what they think about flowers. While doing so, consider what kind of flowers you have in mind. When someone foots the bill of certain wedding items, they have more freedom to choose what they want – and what works best, in their opinion. So, if you are very particular about your flowers – you want extravagant, lush bouquets or you’re more minimalist and prefer cutting costs on flowers – then you may wish to be the one to pay for them.
But “traditionally” speaking, the wedding host pays for the flowers and the decor that goes along with it the big event.
I hope it helps — and thanks for writing.
xo
Emma
