Budget guide — 2026
A single focal installation starts at $2,500. A layered room starts at $7,500. A fully fabricated environment starts at $18,000. Every one of those numbers is all-in — design, materials, structure, install, strike and removal — and roughly 35 to 45 percent of any quote is labor and structure rather than flowers.
Almost every quote request opens with the same sentence: we have no idea what this should cost. Fair. Most floral studios publish nothing, and the ones that do publish a starting price that quietly excludes labor, structure, delivery and strike — so the number you planned around is half the number you eventually pay.
The bands below are what we actually charge, all-in. The only things that ever appear on top are venue-imposed costs: union labor, COI processing, freight elevator or dock fees. Those are passed through at cost, itemized, and never marked up.
Budget bands
Every build is custom, but the starting point is not a mystery. Your final estimate reflects structure, floral grade, venue access, rigging, crew hours and the strike window.
From $2,500
One focal piece done properly — an entry arch, a bar face, an 8ft photo wall, or a ceiling cloud over a single table.
Right for a press moment, a launch corner or a private dinner.
From $7,500
Two to four connected features that share one palette and one mechanical language, so the room reads as designed rather than decorated.
The usual band for restaurant openings, hotels and launches.
From $18,000
A fabricated environment: custom frames, integrated lighting, brand-matched blooms and a crew on site through the build.
For activations, galas and anything that photographs as a set.
From $1,200 / month
A weekly or biweekly refresh that keeps a lobby, dining room or office feeling tended all year.
The lowest-friction way to work with us continuously.
Budgets under $2,500 and over $50,000 both have a home here — the AI Studio quotes from under $2,500 through $50,000+. Rush windows under seven days, overnight installs and markets outside Miami-Dade carry a logistics line, quoted openly.
Rough it out
Pick the scale, then tick anything that is true about the space. This gives you a planning range to take into a budget conversation — an exact figure needs a photo and a date.
What scale is it?
Anything else true about it?
Likely range
$7,500 – $16,000
A planning range, not a quote. Every figure is all-in: design, materials, structure, install, strike and removal.
The most common budgeting mistake is assuming an installation is priced like a bouquet — stem count times stem cost. It is not. On a typical $10,000 build, the split looks like this.
| Line | Share of budget | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh floral and greenery | 35–45% | Varies most with season, stem choice and how specific the variety list is. |
| Structure, hardware, rigging | 15–25% | Higher for ceilings and for anything freestanding that has to hold itself up outdoors. |
| Design and pre-production | 10–15% | Concept, renders, sourcing, and prep on the workshop floor in Kendall. |
| Install and strike labor | 20–30% | Crew size times hours — roughly doubled when the load-in window is overnight. |
| Delivery and logistics | 5–10% | Truck, venue access fees, COI paperwork, dock and elevator time. |
Read that column again: more than half of a floral installation budget is not flowers. It is engineering, prep and the crew hours that make the piece survive a room full of people.
Anything above ten feet needs lifts, ladders or truss, plus a second crew member for safety. A ceiling installation typically costs 1.6 to 2 times the same square footage on a wall. If the venue will not release load documentation, we bring free-standing truss or design a floor-supported structure that reads as suspended — safer, and usually cheaper than fighting the building.
A 2am–6am load-in at a hotel ballroom prices higher than a 10am install in an empty warehouse. Overnight labor runs about 1.5 times standard. If your venue can release the room earlier, that is often the single easiest way to take money out of a quote without touching the design.
A piece that has to look perfect through four days of a trade show needs hydration mechanics, a refresh visit, or a fresh-and-faux hybrid. Budget 10 to 20 percent above the single-night version of the same design.
Asking for one exact variety in one exact color locks us out of substitution and raises cost. A palette brief — 'dusty rose through burgundy, heavy texture' — instead of a stem list usually saves 10 to 15 percent and survives a bad shipment week.
Peak imports around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day raise wholesale pricing on roses and peonies by 30 to 60 percent for a two-week window on either side. Miami's Art Basel, Formula 1 and Miami Open weeks raise labor and freight rather than flowers.
Miami is where we fabricate. Outside Miami-Dade, the structure is built here and freighted ahead of the crew, so travel, freight and crew lodging appear as their own logistics line — quoted openly rather than buried in the floral figure.
Example scopes
From $2,500 · The moment
One 8ft floral wall with real structure behind it, built for cameras at three feet. Design, materials, hardware, delivery, install and same-night strike. The right budget for a product launch corner, a press step-and-repeat, or a private dinner that needs one thing done properly rather than five things done thinly.
Flower walls →From $7,500 · The room
An entry moment, a focal installation over the bar or the main dining run, and a coordinated table treatment — all sharing one palette and one mechanical language, installed around service hours so the room never closes. This is the band where a space stops reading as decorated and starts reading as designed.
Restaurant installations →From $18,000 · The world
Custom frames, integrated lighting, brand-matched blooms and a crew on site through the build. Multi-day install, engineered structure, and a strike plan agreed with the venue before we arrive. This is the tier for activations, gala environments and anything that has to photograph as a set rather than as a backdrop.
Brand activations →For built work at each of these scales, the project archive shows the structure behind the flowers rather than only the finished photograph:
How proposals scale
A photo of the actual space, the dimensions of the wall or ceiling you want covered, your date, and a budget range. With those four things we return a concept render and a fixed quote, usually within 24 hours. Without them, any number you receive from any studio is a guess.
You get the design, the structural approach, the floral palette, the install and strike plan, and one price. Pass-through venue fees sit on their own line so you can see exactly what is ours and what is the building's.
Because the bands share one design language, moving from the moment to the room usually means adding features to an approved concept rather than commissioning a new one. Moving down means we cut a feature, not the quality of the ones that remain.
Half to reserve the date and start fabrication, the balance before install. The quote is fixed at signature — season and freight risk after that point are ours, not yours.
Ongoing programs are priced per month against a scheduled refresh cadence rather than per event, which is almost always cheaper than the same florals bought one delivery at a time.
Yes. Our installation minimum is $2,500, which covers design, materials, structure, install and strike for one focal piece. Below that number we cannot cover crew time and still build something that holds up through an event.
Always. Delivery, install, strike and removal sit inside the quoted figure. Venue-imposed fees — union labor, COI processing, freight elevator or dock charges — are passed through at cost and listed as their own line, never marked up.
That is our preferred way to work. Give us the number and the room, and we design the largest-impact version that fits it, rather than quoting a design you then have to cut in half.
Everything overhead has to be rigged, load-checked and installed from lifts or ladders with a second crew member present for safety. The same square footage overhead typically runs 1.6 to 2 times the wall version once structure and labor are counted.
Between 35 and 45 percent on a typical build. The rest is structure and rigging, design and pre-production, install and strike labor, and logistics. Studios that quote a flower figure and invoice production separately are showing you less than half the real number.
Peak import windows do move wholesale pricing. Roses and peonies can run 30 to 60 percent higher for roughly two weeks either side of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. A palette brief instead of a locked stem list lets us design around those spikes.
Start a conversation
Send the budget you actually have, a photo of the space and your date. We will tell you honestly what fits it — and if it does not fit, which of the three has to move.
Prefer email? info@myflowerfairy.com
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Upload a photo of the room, wall, ceiling, or stage in our AI Studio and we'll send back a concept render and a proposal scaled to your budget — usually within a day.