A florist’s honest guide to what you’ll actually invest — and what you’ll get
By Penny Hoffman, The Gilded Garden — Somerset, PA
If you’ve started researching wedding flowers, you’ve probably noticed something frustrating: hardly anyone publishes their prices. You have to fill out a contact form, wait days for a response, and sit through a full consultation before you hear a single number.
I understand why florists do it — no two weddings are the same, and pricing really does depend on your vision, your guest count, your venue, and your timeline. But I also know how hard it is to plan a budget without anything concrete to anchor to.
So here’s what wedding flowers actually cost when we design for weddings across Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Bedford, and Western Pennsylvania — based on our real packages, the ones we’ve built and refined over years of creating florals that make people stop and catch their breath.
Why Wedding Floral Pricing Isn’t Simple
Wedding flowers aren’t priced like a grocery order. What you’re investing in is design, sourcing, skilled labor, setup, and often takedown — coordinated around the most important day of your life with no room for error.
A few things that move the investment significantly:
Scope. The biggest factor is simply how much you want. Personal flowers only? Or full florals throughout the ceremony and reception? A welcome arrangement, arch, and tablescapes across 12 tables are very different from a bouquet and a few centerpieces.
Seasonality. Blooms that are in season are easier to source and less expensive. If you fall in love with a flower that’s out of season, we can almost always get it — but it costs more.
Installation. An arrangement you carry in by hand is simple. A large arch that needs to be built on-site, or hanging installations that require equipment and a team, add labor time that has to be accounted for.
Design complexity. A loose garden-style arrangement and a tight structured cascade bouquet use similar flowers but very different amounts of time and skill.
Our Wedding Floral Packages
At The Gilded Garden, wedding floral design is offered as a full-service, package-based experience — not an à la carte order form. That’s intentional. We design from a whole-event perspective, where every piece works together to create something cohesive and beautiful, not just a collection of individual items.
Here’s what our three wedding floral packages include and where they start:
Package
Investment
What’s Included
The Garden Gathering
Starting at $5,000
Bridal bouquet, up to 4 bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, 10–12 garden-style centerpieces, sweetheart table florals. Perfect for couples who want beautiful, complete florals without large installations.
The Signature Garden
$8,500–$10,500
Everything in the Garden Gathering, plus ceremony florals, full tablescaping with bud vases and candles, compote arrangements, and a statement focal feature. Penny’s most-requested package.
The Bespoke Garden
Starting at $12,000
A fully custom, high-design experience. Statement installations, layered ceremony florals, full reception design, and hands-on creative direction from start to finish. For couples who want florals to define the atmosphere.
Every package is a starting investment, not a fixed menu. The composition of each one is flexible based on your guest count, venue, and priorities. Delivery and setup are always quoted separately based on distance from Somerset, PA.
What That Investment Actually Gets You
When couples see a $5,000 starting price for wedding flowers, the most common response is surprise — followed, after we talk through it, by “oh, that actually makes sense.”
Here’s what goes into a package like The Garden Gathering:
Your bridal bouquet is a bespoke design, built specifically for you — your colors, your aesthetic, your personality. It takes hours to design, source, and build. It will be in virtually every photo taken of you on your wedding day.
Your centerpieces are the atmosphere of your reception. Guests will sit with them for hours, photograph them, and talk about them. Designed garden-style, they’re layered with seasonal blooms, texture, and often candlelight — not a few stems in a vase.
Your sweetheart or head table is the focal point of the room. It deserves to feel intentional and full, not like an afterthought.
Add in bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, the labor to source and condition flowers in the days before your wedding, the time to build every single piece, the transport, and the setup on the day itself — and the investment reflects all of that care, not just the cost of the flowers themselves.
How to Think About Your Wedding Flower Budget
Budget Level
What It Includes
Best For
$5,000–$7,500
Full personal flowers + ceremony florals + centerpieces + sweetheart table. A cohesive, beautiful wedding from start to finish.
Couples who want complete, elevated florals without large statement installations.
$8,500–$10,500
Everything above plus full tablescaping, compote arrangements, additional candle styling, and a statement focal feature (arch, drapery, or backdrop).
Couples who want florals to be a central part of the atmosphere — ceremony through reception.
$12,000+
Fully custom, high-design installation. Statement moments throughout. Every detail intentional, expressive, and unforgettable.
Couples where florals are the defining visual element of the wedding.
One thing worth saying directly: if a florist is quoting you significantly below $5,000 for full wedding florals, ask what’s included. It’s either a very small package, an early-career designer building their portfolio, or corners being cut somewhere. Beautiful, well-executed wedding florals take time, skill, and quality blooms — and those things have a real cost.
How to Get the Most from Your Floral Investment
A few things I’ve learned designing weddings across Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Bedford, and Somerset County:
Book early. Dates fill up quickly, especially spring and fall. The earlier you reach out, the more time we have to plan thoughtfully within your vision and budget. We recommend booking 6–12 months in advance.
Be honest about your number. I’d rather design something stunning within your real budget than have you stretch beyond what’s comfortable. Tell me what you have to work with — I’ll tell you honestly what’s possible, and we’ll build something beautiful together.
Prioritize what photographs. Your bouquet, your arch, your sweetheart table — these pieces are in nearly every frame. If you’re deciding where to invest more, invest here.
Trust seasonal guidance. Some of the most beautiful florals I’ve ever designed used blooms the bride hadn’t originally considered. Being open to seasonal flowers gives us more creative range and often results in something more unique than what you pinned.
Ask about seeing a mock bouquet. Before your wedding day, we create a sample so you can see your vision in person — not just on a mood board. That process is one of my favorite parts of working with couples, and it means there are no surprises on the day.
Ready to talk about your wedding flowers?
We design full-service wedding florals for couples across Western PA — Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Bedford, Somerset, and beyond. Packages start at $5,000. We take a limited number of weddings each season so every client gets our full attention.
→ Start the conversation at thegildedgardenluxuryflowers.com/contact
The Gilded Garden | Penny Hoffman | Somerset, PA | thegildedgardenluxuryflowers.com
