Carefully selected wedding flowers can signify the things you love about your partner and the traits you hope your marriage will have. Red roses for love and passion. Alstroemeria for devotion and support. Violets for faith and affection. Hydrangeas represent togetherness and unity. Sweet Peas for friendship and blissful pleasure. The Lily of the Valley signifies happiness and youthfulness. There are multitudes of flowers in this world with endless meanings– or at least there were before the flower shortage.
In theory, you could choose the perfect blend for a beautiful floral arrangement that says exactly what you feel. But what do you do when the flowers start disappearing? Well, the best thing you can do to ensure you get your dream bouquet is to schedule a florist a year before your wedding. This increases the likelihood that they’ll have time to find the best vendors and prices.
Unfortunately, the flower market is struggling right now, making prices skyrocket. There are a lot of contributing factors that led to the flower shortage, which we’ll explain more about in this guide. The good news is that if you read to the end, you’ll be able to find Hidden Creek’s preferred wedding vendor list. Every florist on there has been vetted and will strive to find the perfect flowers even amid mass flower shortages.
Climate Change
Earth is getting hotter every year. Not to mention we’re already seeing the consequences of generations worth of global emissions and pollution. One side effect you might not have been expected? A flower shortage.
Entire countries are being ravaged by fire, hurricanes, tsunamis, and floods. While things are obviously worse for the inhabitants of those regions, it’s also affecting the flower trade as many wholesalers and florists buy flowers from those countries.
As for domestic flowers, California produces about 75% of American flowers, earning itself the name “the cut flower capital”. Unfortunately, flowers in Cali are getting more expensive as entire farms are destroyed by the wildfires and demand continues to increase as couples who postponed their weddings because of COVID-19 and newly engaged couples try to buy flowers at the same time.
COVID-19
Yeah, yeah, yeah– we’re all tired of talking about Coronavirus. But aside from ruining our plans and causing major public health concerns, it also led to mass layoffs. Unfortunately, many people were fired or laid off meaning they had to seek out other ways of making an income. Once COVID restrictions were lifted, a lot of the flower farmers never returned, meaning there’s no one to grow, harvest, or ship the flowers to the wholesalers that keep florists stocked. On a grander scale, entire flower farms went out of business during quarantine because no one was buying flowers and they were hemorrhaging money.
Demand Skyrocketed
Many couples were planning to get married in 2020, but their plans were nixed after the pandemic started. The CDC reports that the pandemic likely started in the United States in January 2020, and by February, nearly everything had shut down. Things didn’t really go as planned so now all of the couples who postponed their weddings are now trying to book in the same season as newly engaged couples. This means there’s 2x the demand and only half of the resources.
Costs Have Risen
As if things weren’t hectic enough already, overall costs have risen. Fuel costs are high so it makes transporting flowers more expensive. There have also been well-documented staff shortages in the service industry so businesses are having to pay more to keep operations running.
Dallas Event Venue and Wedding Vendor Recommendations
Hidden Creek is a top Dallas wedding venue with a view and a staff of experienced wedding planners. We know there’s a lot of obstacles to jump over when finding the perfect flowers to carry down the aisle and adorn your wedding venue, but Hidden Creek is here to help. You can check out our list of top Dallas wedding vendors here or call today to discuss it in person.
