“I’m Already Spending 10 Grand On My Wedding” Bride Asks Florist To Work For Exposure Because She ‘Can’t Afford’ To Pay Her

It’s one of the most monumental occasions in a person’s life – their wedding – but unfortunately, it can also be one of the priciest, all for those Instagram worthy shots. According to The Knot’s 2017 Real Weddings Study, Americans spend, on average, $33,391 on their weddings, and that doesn’t even include the amount they spend on an engagement ring. Well, one woman found out a bit too late in her wedding planning process just what one of these decadent occasions can set you back.

In an Imgur post, someone shared screenshots of an interaction between a bride and a florist “negotiating” the price of some floral centerpieces and it’s safe to say the conversation did not go how either of them thought it would.

A bride tried to get a florist to ‘negotiate’ her prices for her wedding and things got pretty thorny pretty fast

The conversation started out simple enough with the bride sending some inspiration photos to see if the florist would be up to the task. The woman ‘Mimi’ sounded happy to take on the request and even gave her an estimate of $18 per foot for the table garlands.

The bride was thrown off by the pricing, so ‘Mimi’ was happy to give her a cost break-down. For 8 foot handmade garlands, it would take her three and a half hours to complete and for all 18 tables the bride had requested – 80 hours in total. Los Angeles wedding planner Tessa Lyn Brand of Tessa Lyn Events told Bride magazine she has seen wedding flower budgets as high as $75,000 and recommends allotting 10 percent of your overall budget to flowers as a good rule of thumb.

Soon it was clear to the florist that the bride was not intending to pay her, with the excuse that she had already spent $10,000 on her other wedding expenses. While it is not specified at what stage in the planning she is contacting Mimi, it appears it is late enough she had not thought about her flower budget. The Wedding Wire recommends hiring your wedding florist at least eight months before your wedding day.

As you can imagine 80 hours of work for no pay is not something that any sane person would agree to, so the florist politely declined the offer. The average cost of wedding flowers in the U.S. is around $1,400 with most couples spending between $700 and $2,500, according to The Wedding Wire.