Couples say it with bulk buds

Tough economic times have made some people cautious about spending, but weddings are still seen as a special day for couples to splurge on.

Perth wedding experts say clients are well prepared for the cost of celebrating their nuptials and though most spend cautiously, some do not hold back.

High-end floral designer Matthew Landers said the most expensive wedding he had worked on cost $116,000 for the flowers alone — including 80,000 stems of roses and orchids.

“I believe it was an $800,000 wedding, ” he said.

This year alone, he has had three weddings with a flower budget of more than $30,000.

“Is it common? For me it is, ” Mr Landers said.

“Everything is so much more expensive in Perth. For example, cut flowers from interstate or overseas must be fumigated and quarantined in WA, which is an additional cost.”

Mr Landers said big weddings involved huge teams of people to work on preparations, which increased labour costs.

“But the flower type can be just as costly as the volume, ” he said. “Orchid phalaenopsis retails as a cut flower for $70 a stem, or out-of-season peonies from Turkey are $30 to $40 a stem.”

Blissful Affair event planner Suman Mutu said for a wedding he worked on the couple spent $20,000 to import flowers from China and another $20,000 to have them arranged in Perth.

This love of flowers is not confined to floral arrangements. Cake Love owners Winnie Lee and Glenda Crawford decorated one of their most expensive wedding cakes — a $3000 seven-tier couture cake — with 800 roses.

“This wedding had 18,000 roses flown from overseas for $30,000 arrangements, ” Ms Lee said.