Something I encounter frequently is clients sending me bridal bouquet inspiration for a retail flower order. While I absolutely offer both bridal bouquets and retail offerings—and always appreciate inspiration—there are significant differences between the two! Understanding these differences is crucial to ensure you get a product you are happy with.  While both bridal and retail bouquets are beautiful, they serve different purposes and are created with different considerations in mind.

Below, I will break down how wedding and retail bouquets differ.  Hopefully this blog clarify the difference, and help align your expectations of your retail order if you have bridal bouquet inspiration on the mind!

Let’s get into it!

Flower Lifespan: 

Retail orders are designed to last. Most of the time, the flowers arrive closed so they can gradually open over days, allowing the client to enjoy them for at least a week. In contrast, wedding florals are at their peak openness on the big day. I carefully time the blooming process days’ prior, so the flowers look their absolute best for the wedding day!

If you had a bridal bouquet at home, it might look beautiful, but not for very long. On the other hand, if you had a retail bouquet at a wedding, it would take a few days to a week to look its best. Additionally, in a retail bouquet, I include flowers with different lifespans so there are always flowers opening across the week, rather than all at once.

Variety:

A bridal bouquet can feature up to 20 different types of flowers, showcasing a wide variety of blooms. This variety requires a significant investment, as us florists need to bulk buy every single bunch, not just 1-2 stems of each. A minimum spend for weddings is implemented to allow for the purchase of all desired flowers, which can be used in all the other floral designs for the wedding. On the other hand, a retail order typically includes around 10 different flower types. While still beautiful and garden-inspired, retail bouquets have less variety. This design approach keeps it more straightforward, especially with requests for colour or flowers, as it can sometimes mean the flowers can’t be reused elsewhere.

Value and Size:

Retail bouquets often include more foliage and a mix of premium and standard garden blooms, aiming to create a gorgeous garden style bouquet that still provides a sense of value and size. A $100 retail bouquet might appear similar in size to a $360 bridal bouquet, but the wedding bouquet uses only luxury florals with minimal or no foliage. If you ordered a $360 retail order, it would be such a large bouquet you’d struggle to pick it up, whereas this is a standard size for a bridal bouquet, which includes many more flowers and varieties. I could imagine you’d be a bit disappointed if you ordered a retail bouquet, and it wasn’t to the size expectation in mind because it included x 2 $22 stems which skewed the price.  Whereas with a bridal bouquet, a reason they cost what they do is to accommodate for us using luxury, high quality flowers that we think would go with the vision. In bridal bouquets, bigger isn’t always more desirable; the focus is on including luxury quality, dainty blooms, which might be less desirable in a retail bouquet due to their shorter lifespan or high price tag. Furthermore, retail bouquets include foliage and greenery not in excess, but to complement and hold the shape of the bunch so it sits well in a vase. In contrast, a bridal bouquet doesn’t need this structural support, as it’s carried by hand. The focus is solely on the flowers, ensuring a luxurious, high-quality design.

Time & Preparation:

Creating a wedding bouquet involves a lot more time and preparation. I pre-order wedding flowers 4-6 weeks in advance, carefully pre-planning recipes and selecting colour combinations and floral varieties. This ensures that I get the exact flowers needed for the bridal bouquet. Retail orders, are still filled with so much love and consideration, but are however, spontaneous! I offer next day orders for retail orders, whereas my bridal bouquet cut off is 3 months.  For retail orders, I go to the market on the morning of the order and pick whatever flowers I am drawn to or I think will fit the requests of the client (if there are any).  The brief is entirely up to me, and I’m not requesting premium flowers that might need special ordering. Additionally, the pressure is much higher for wedding bouquets because they are a one-off design that must be perfect, as it only happens once! This attention to detail and quality is what makes bridal bouquets stand out!

Technique:

Wedding bouquets are “straussed,” meaning they are designed in a spiral motion to minimise stem snaps and breakage from movement. This technique ensures that the bouquet is durable and beautiful, with florals extending from the hand to the top of the bouquet. The stems are kept short so it’s more ergonomic for holding – there is no consideration for the bouquet to be displayed or placed in water as this is not its purpose. The bouquets are also a 360 design, meaning it is designed to be beautiful from every angle, as it will be seen and held from every angle!  In contrast, retail bouquets are designed for vase display. They are not 360 designs and instead have an intentional front and back, as they are typically placed on a counter or table, or on a buffet against a wall.  Having florals at the back of a retail bouquet would double the price unnecessarily, so this is filled with foliage most of the time as it isn’t displayed. The stems are also much longer as they are typically displayed in a large vase of water too, so the stems need to be long enough to drink the water. 

It’s a common misconception that wedding bouquets or wedding flowers are expensive due to “wedding tax.” In reality, the higher cost is justified by the labour-intensive process involved. Wedding bouquets take so much more effort to design and often use flowers that have been meticulously cared for to ensure they are at their perfect open state on the big day. This level of care and attention to detail is not required for retail bouquets, which includes florals grabbed off the market floor morning of and are designed to be as fresh and tight as possible for everyday enjoyment.

In summary, while size, value and longevity are the main priorities with retail bouquets, diversity, design shape and flower varieties are the main priorities with wedding florals.  Of course, there is clear overlap as both include high quality flowers, attention to detail and are always designed with so much exceptional love and care, but I hope this has provided you with some clarity on the differences and can help manage your expectations when ordering a retail bouquet!  Although my Instagram page is predominately filled with wedding work, don’t forget that I also have lots of retail bouquet inspiration on my website, too!

Here’s a flower quote I’m loving lately: “A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too.” – Miranda Kerr