Garlands: Unpacking the Truth
Unpacking the TRUTH about garlands and the many misconceptions that garlands are an inexpensive, budget-friendly option for your wedding or event. Here's a little surprise...they're not.
I’ve come to realize that the "world" is totally unaware about the truth of garlands. I’m sure you love garlands! Don’t we all! 😃 They’re timeless, elegant, and incredibly versatile. It’s a fact that generally speaking there are many misconceptions about the true cost and price of garlands. It may be because we see beautiful photos on social media and think, “Oh that’s simple and easy”, when in reality simple doesn’t always mean “budget-friendly” and when things look “easy” it’s because a professional is doing it. My hope and goal is to bring truth, insight, education, and inspiration to you as you navigate your flower journey, and specifically today your love of GARLANDS.
What is a garland? A garland is a lush, full, textural, continuous line of fresh foliage leaves that are bound together with either wire or floral tape.
There are many types of garlands and the options for diversity are endless. For simplicity purposes, I’m going to break garlands into two categories.
- Greenery garlands
- Floral garlands
Ready for the TRUTH?
Here we go! Garlands are not a budget-friendly option. If you have a low or tight budget for your wedding or event flowers, garlands should not be your go-to. They typically always cost more than an arrangement with flowers and greenery.
Why is this so, you might be asking?
I’m so glad you asked. Here’s why.
-
Garlands require a lot of floral product. It takes numerous bunches of foliage to create that lush, textural, full, continuous thread. → side note: not all greenery is “cheap”. But that’s for another blog post another day.
-
Garlands require a lot of time to create and are very laborious. For example, an 8-foot garland will take 1-2 hours to make from start to finish. If you have 20, 8-foot tables that you want garlands on, that translates to 20-40 hours of work, just to make GARLANDS. And on a wedding week, a florist has about 3-4 days to do all the floral prep, design, and work, so garlands can easily max out that allotted work time. This results in additional staffing, outsourcing, or assistance.
-
Garlands are tedious and require a keen eye that has great attention to detail. There is a difference between a good-looking garland and a poor-designed garland.
A good-looking garland has all the right movement, textures, flow, and finished ends. A good-looking garland makes you think, “Oh that’s easy!” Haha ;) (it’s because the good-looking garland has a designer with a keen eye, fantastic attention to detail, and tedious ambition.)
A poor-designed garland can look lop-sided, flat in places, spacey in the wrong ways, has exposed ends, or heaven-forbid exposed mechanics. These things should not be so. And that my friends, requires an expert.
Basic pricing information for Greenery Garlands.
Greenery garlands range anywhere from $10 to 25+ per foot of garland.
Types of greenery that would be on the lower end include:
- leather leaf fern
- plumosa fern
- salal/lemon leaves
Types of greenery that would be on the higher end include:
- eucalyptus (all varieties such as silver dollar, seeded, willow, etc)
- Italian ruscus
- olive branches
Now for a real-life example. Lets say, for average purposes, that your fresh greenery garland costs $18/per foot and you have 20 tables that are 6-feet long rectangle, wooden tables. The garland price would be $108 each, multiplied by 20 tables, making a total garland cost of $2,160 for your reception garland centerpieces.
Pricing would increase based on multiple foliages, various textures, additional fresh flowers, and fillers.
That leads me to the topic of floral garlands and pricing.
Floral garlands start with a base of greenery then include however many flowers that you desire. It’s common for clients to ask for garlands that have flowers added in sporadically throughout the garland. This offers the beauty of fresh flowers, but keeps the budget at a reasonable amount due to the quantity of tables needed for the event.
Floral garlands typically start at $20 and can go up to 50+ per foot of garland.
The pricing of floral garlands will vary greatly depending on the amount of fresh flowers, the type of fresh flowers, and the thickness of fresh flowers added in.
Now for a real-life example. Lets say, for average purposes, that your fresh floral garland costs $30/per foot and you have 20 tables that are 6-feet long rectangle, wooden tables. The garland price would be $180 each, multiplied by 20 tables, making a total garland cost of $3,600 for your reception floral garland centerpieces.
Questions from YOU
Q. If choosing floral arrangements over garlands, do the arrangements look small or dinky?
A. They don’t have to be small. An average garland can be $85-180, and we can create a lovely medium-sized arrangement for $80 or less than the garland price.
Q. Why are garlands more expensive than a floral arrangement?
A. Many times garlands can be more expensive than a medium-sized floral arrangement due to the large amount of product, time, labor, and expertise it takes to create one. Whereas floral arrangements, for a medium-size with greenery and flowers, doesn’t take nearly as much floral product or time.
For a custom flower/garland proposal specific for your wedding or event, get in touch with me by filling out our contact form. I’m happy to assist you in making your garland dreams come true. ❤️
*Photography of our garland work by Esther Ziegler, Hannah Arnzen, and Jordan Brittley
