Pricing wedding delivery, installation and teardown

1. The items not to forget

A quote that lists only arrangements leaves out a large part of the working day. Before setting a price, list everything between the studio and the end of teardown.

• Preparation and loading: vessels, structures, equipment, checking the list.
• Driving: round-trip time for each person, for the installation and again for collection.
• Vehicle: fuel, wear, insurance, or a van hire if yours is too small.
• Installation: unloading, placing pieces, adjustments, packing up empty equipment.
• Teardown: collecting vessels and structures, cleaning the venue, sorting, returning to the studio.
• Extra costs: tolls, parking, handling help, equipment hire.

Teardown is the item most often forgotten. It may fall the next morning or late at night, on a second journey, with a team you have to bring in a second time.

2. The method: start from hours and kilometres

1. 1

   Write the run of the day

   List the steps in order: loading, driving, unloading, setting up, leaving, then collection. A forgotten step is an hour given away.

2. 2

   Count in person-hours

   Two florists working three hours make six hours. Count each person’s travel too, even if only one drives.

3. 3

   Set an hourly selling rate

   Start from your cost price (direct and indirect costs), then the income you aim for. This rate is not take-home pay.

4. 4

   Calculate the vehicle

   Multiply kilometres by a cost per kilometre you have worked out for your vehicle, then add tolls and parking.

5. 5

   Add for difficult cases

   Stairs without a lift, long carries, restricted access, tight timings: add hours or a dedicated line, and tell the client.

Calculate an arrangement price from its costs

3. Worked example for a venue 45 km away

Assumptions in this example: two people, a venue 45 km from the studio (1 hour each way), installation the same day, teardown the next morning, a selling rate of €40 excluding tax per person-hour and a cost of €0.70 per kilometre. These figures are guesses to replace.

If the flowers and their making come to €3,000 excluding tax in this example, logistics weigh about 28% of the total (€4,151 excluding tax). For a close, easy venue the share would be much lower. That is why a fixed percentage applied to every project is risky: measure each wedding instead.

4. Flat fee, percentage or itemised lines

Three presentations exist, and none is mandatory. Itemising reassures on transparency and makes adjustments easy. A flat fee reads more simply for couples. A percentage is quick but ignores what the site demands.

• Itemised lines: installation, teardown and travel appear separately. Useful when the client can drop collection or arrange it another way.
• Flat fee per venue: one “delivery and installation” amount, calculated as in the example, with what it includes written out.
• Percentage of the floral total: keep it for a first estimate, never for a final price.

As a foreign illustration, a US wedding flower company states a delivery and setup fee of 20% of the floral total with a $470 minimum, and treats teardown and travel beyond the included radius as separate. That is one business’s practice, not a French reference. Under French rules, an invoice must detail each service and show transport costs, which favours readable lines.

5. Teardown and collecting equipment

State in the quote who collects what, and when. A venue that requires the room to be cleared at midnight, or the next day at 9 am, changes your schedule and may mean two return visits. If the couple keep the flowers, say that flowers are not collected, but keep the collection of vessels and structures.

• Venue access times for set-up and collection, confirmed in writing.
• Borrowed or hired vessels and structures: who returns them, and by when.
• What happens to the flowers after the party: kept by the couple, given to guests, discarded.
• Charges if the venue is late or access is impossible at the agreed time.

Price a complete wedding, from brief to quote

6. Presenting these costs without upsetting the client

Explain in one sentence what the amount covers: “Delivery, installation from 1 pm and collection the next day at 9 am”. A client understands a described service better than a line called “miscellaneous costs”. Offer collection as an option, with its price, when the venue allows it, rather than cutting the line without cutting the work.

In Flolya, you prepare arrangement pricing, costs and the client proposal in the same event, so logistics has its place in the quote from the first send.

Prepare a wedding quote with delivery and installation costs

Check a wedding’s profitability once every cost is estimated

What a florist quote must show