The Real Cost of Bud Vases
Bud Vases have been a popular trend in the wedding world for a few years now, especially among Utah brides. For florists, the relationship with bud vases is bittersweet, and as a Utah wedding florist, I want to help educate you on the REAL costs of bud vases. They LOOK like a budget-friendly choice, but their cost adds up fast because they require lots of work from the florists. Here’s why they add up fast:
The Cost of the Vase
Ask your florist about rental options for the vases, which will be cheaper than buying them yourself! Also chat about the number of bud vases per table. Depending on the look you’re going for, you could have anywhere from 3 - 50 bud vases per table.
Premium Flowers
If your wedding is full of premium flowers like anthurium or ranunculus, one bud vase with a premium flower might cost more than a bud vase with 3 affordable blooms. Talk to your florist about flower choices for bud vases to keep the cost down! I’ve seen costs of a bud vase range anywhere from $10 each to $40 each.
Number of Flowers
Depending on the look you’re going for, multiple flowers in a vase will be more expensive than a single flower in each bud vase.
Labor
Designing a bud vase isn’t just sticking a stem in a vase. Each set of vases need a balance of color, textures, and heights. If your florist is designing hundreds of vases, this will take several hours of design work. The following below are more labor examples:
Cleaning Vases
All those bud vases won’t be getting cleaned themselves!
Filling Vases
All the vases will need to be filled with water to last throughout your event! This takes time!
Prepping Flowers
Each flower that goes in a bud vase needs to be perfect before we can even put it in a vase. Some flowers need to be wired so they don’t droop. Roses may need to be opened by hand.
Packing
Bud Vases need to be protected during transport to your event. They are often split up in crates or wrapped in paper to protect them from breaking during the drive.
How Bud Vases Add Up Fast!
To give an example of how quickly bud vases add up: I recently designed flowers for a wedding where there were 165 bud vases (there were 125 people in attendance).
There were 8 long tables (18 feet each). Each table had 6 clusters of 3 vases per table (18 per table). The head table also had 7 clusters of 3 bud vases each (21 total for head table).
If each bud vase cost $10 (flower + vase only), the total cost would be $1,650, plus labor and sales tax on top of that price.
If each bud vase cost $40 (flower + vase only), the total cost would be $6,600, plus labor and sales tax.
To keep bud vases more affordable, I recommend mixing bud vases with candles and traditional centerpieces. If you’re a Utah bride looking for a Utah wedding florist, I’d love to talk to you about your floral vision and see if we’re a good fit! Inquire on our website for Full Service Floral Design, or order from our Wedding Collections, with options for both bud vases and traditional centerpieces!
