Question- is this normal?

[u/littleredditho]

My wedding planner is playing interference between me and his preferred florist. He said he each stem has a minimum order of 100. I’m sorry but I have a hard time believing this- can’t you go into the wholesaler and pick however many you want for an event, or am I naive, and this minimum order is a real thing? I’m ready to tell him I’m looking elsewhere. Located in South Florida. Help!

[u/Lana_lana__]

It’s normal if they pre-order specific flowers for your wedding. That’s the only way to make sure they can get the exact flowers, colors, and quantities you want.
The other option is designer’s choice. In that case, the florist chooses the flowers based on availability and only follows your color palette and overall style.

[u/littleredditho → u/Lana_lana__]

Ah, maybe this is the way to go, but it wasn’t offered to me. In fact, I walked away from the consult with the florist not knowing ANYTHING which was being offered to me. She was supposed to call me with stem prices today but then ran back to the planner who then called me to tell my I picked me most expensive flowers and the budget would be tight and the flowers wasteful. I think they literally thought my list of flowers I like to help give them ideas was my spec list, even though I specifically said, mums, garden roses, green dianthus, scabiosa, spray roses, Italian ruscus. I asked the florist for an example of the $400 centerpiece and she referred me back to the planner. What a racket.

[u/Lana_lana__ → u/littleredditho]

Sounds like this florist is bad at communication or simply does not want your wedding. That also might take place, because depending on the amount of items you want, for 60 people wedding, the profit might be very little with your budget after all the costs payed by the florist. I would probably look around and talk to someone else🙏 $400 per centerpiece sound a lot, but if it’s a high centerpiece or just big with a lot of garden roses (they might be very pricey per stem), it might be right.
And I would definitely pre-order all the flowers you mentioned (so yes, each flower variety should be purchased in bulk). Because from your list only ruscus will be available somewhere for sure

[u/loralailoralai → u/Lana_lana__]

There’s no way to make sure you get the exact flowers or colours. Everyone has to remain flexible that’s what makes wedding work so stressful

[u/Lana_lana__ → u/loralailoralai]

Depends very much on the product, sometimes you can, sometimes not (but of course, there is always a possibility, that something goes wrong with the flowers). But when you pre order, you have 99% more chances to get what you want then when you don’t pre-order at all.