Hi everyone! Hope you are all well and surviving what we hope is just a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

It seems with recent government announcements that a little bit of confidence is returning to both wedding vendors and engaged couples – and for that we are all so thankful!

But simultaneously there has been a lot of chatter on wedding vendor Facebook forums about the cost and availability of flowers as we begin our journey back to normality. So I thought I’d share this information with you, as you begin to re-imagine the wedding of your dreams 😊

So let’s start with the not-so-good news:

1. Most of our wedding flowers have been imported for the past few years, due to more consistent growing conditions year-round, and (I hate to say it), cheaper prices than a lot of locally-grown flowers. So when we were hit with lockdowns and travel restrictions, our imported flowers were no longer able to get to Australia. Now, every florist in the country is scrambling to pull together enough locally-grown flowers to stay in business.

2. Top that off with very low numbers of flowers coming into WA from the Eastern states, also due to border closures and travel restrictions.

3. Imported flowers and Eastern states grown flowers are starting to slowly trickle into WA, however prices are now 30-50% higher than prior to COVID-19. So you can expect to be paying higher prices for your wedding flowers for the foreseeable future.

4. You should also prepare yourself for the fact that you may not be able to get your hands on those uber-trendy flowers and colours like Toffee roses, Quicksand roses, garden roses, phalaenopsis and cymbidium orchids, dried and preserved flowers and foliage etc, due to limited availability and an increased demand when the next wedding season finally begins.

Before you start to panic, there is some good news:

1. Our WA wholesalers are working their butts off to get their hands on more flowers from WA and Eastern states growers, and they are hopeful that we might start to see a slight increase in availability come July, but prices are likely to stay high for at least 12 months.

2. If travel restrictions ease just a little, we might get a few more imported beauties back on our shelves too.

So when you send your brief around to your fave florists, please be understanding when they reply with quotes. We will be as open and honest with you as we possibly can, to manage your expectations about flower prices and availability … and do you know what would be really great? … if you don’t reply with “you are too expensive”, because this whole situation is way beyond our control and so many of us are already struggling to pick up the pieces after a disastrous few months for the wedding and events industry. Please be kind!

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

Nardine
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