Why Is No One Sharing Their Pricing? Wedding Florist and Planner Costs in Atlanta, Explained.
Why is everyone so afraid to share pricing?
While planning your wedding in 2026 you will probably visit about 6-8 florist and event planners that have a beautiful portfolio, exciting and and robust brand and then….no pricing. You are often directed to inquiry for next steps or you are directed to fill out a form to get pricing. At Esse, we believe that everything should be transparent and up front from the start. We take the guessing games out of our pricing to present you with the best options up front. Give our Atlanta floral, event and business packages a quick glance!
The Atlanta Market at a glance..
The average cost of hiring a wedding planner in the US ranges from $2,500 to $7,000 with high-end planner going beyond that. In Atlanta, most month-of-coordinators start around $3,500 while full-service planning runs from $5,000 - $10,00- with experienced planners starting at $15,000. With this price range its very hard to understand what your money should be buying you! Here's what the numbers actually look like for an Atlanta wedding last year in 2025. The average total spend is $36,727. Of that, planning typically runs 10–15% of budget — around $3,700–$5,500 for a mid-size wedding. Florals run another 8% — roughly $2,700–$3,000 at the average. Together, that's $6,400–$8,500 going to two separate vendors who may have never spoken before your wedding day. At Esse, you can book both from one studio — florals from $350, planning from $4,000 — with one team, one design vision, and one less thing to coordinate.
What We Do Best
At Esse, we offer a wide range of services — and that's intentional.
On the planning side, we offer three ways to work with us:
Leave It All to Us — Full Wedding Planning from $4,000
The whole journey, handled. Venue search, vendor bookings and negotiations, contract reviews, design scheme, guest RSVPs, printed materials, transportation, rehearsal facilitation — plus unlimited time on-site on the day with up to one assistant. Bridal shower and rehearsal dinner coordination available too.
Partner in Planning — Partial Wedding Planning from $3,000
You've done the groundwork. We step in with three pre-wedding consultations, vendor reviews, a detailed day-of timeline, hotel block negotiation, attendance at three final vendor meetings, and full on-site support from rehearsal through load-out.
Your Party Planner — Pricing varies
Birthdays, anniversaries, elopements, graduations, rehearsal dinners, picnics — your one-stop shop for any celebration that needs a professional hand.
On the floral side, five packages built for every scale:
Just the Two of You — elopement florals from $350
The Bloom — intimate wedding florals from $1,200
The Garden — full ceremony and reception from $3,500
The Backdrop — draped floral and candle installation from $2,800
The Grand Esse — full venue experience from $6,500
All packages start with a free consultation. A 30% deposit secures your date. Book planning and florals together and your whole team is already talking.
What Actually Drive the Final Price Up or Down?
Our best and greatest advice when planning weddings or events is, please do not be afraid of “starting from”. Most planners and florist that list their starting price on their websites are doing you a big favor, not a dis-service! Take note of these prices and understand what they mean. Most florists base their pricing on things like, guest count, floral installation complexity, seasonal floral availability, labor and even logistics.
More guests means more tables, which means more centerpieces. It also means a longer aisle, more ceremony rows, and more surface area to fill at cocktail hour. Ten tables versus twenty-five tables is a fundamentally different event, even if every other detail stays the same. When you come to your consult, knowing your approximate guest count gets us to an accurate number faster than anything else.
Which flowers you choose — and when you're getting married — matters more than most couples expect. Peonies in May cost a fraction of what they do in November. Garden roses flown in from South America in January cost more than the same bloom grown locally in June. We always tell our clients: if you fall in love with a specific flower on Pinterest, bring it to the consult. We'll tell you honestly whether it's in season for your date, what it'll cost if it isn't, and what comes close enough that you'd never know the difference.
Pretty and bold floral arrangements also take time and labor to produce. There's a reason a draped backdrop costs more than a bouquet — it's not just more flowers, it's more hands, more hours, and more precision. A simple hand-tied bouquet takes one person an hour. A full floral arch with integrated candle styling takes a crew several hours to build, install, and wire in place. When you see "starting from" on an installation package, that floor price assumes a certain scale and density. The more lush, the more layered, the more custom — the more the final number reflects that.
Time and distance should always be factored in. We're based in Atlanta and serve all of Georgia — but distance matters. A wedding in Decatur is different from one two hours outside the city, and both are different from a destination event. Setup windows, venue access restrictions, loading zones, and travel time all factor into the final quote. We build this in transparently so you're never surprised by a delivery line item on your invoice.
Being realistic where it matters is the best starting point when looking at your floral packages and quotes. The packages are starting points, not ceilings. Candle and linen styling, cake florals, a sweetheart table arrangement, corsages for parents — none of these are extravagant requests, and none of them are included by default. They're add-ons we build into your final quote after the consult, so you can choose what matters and skip what doesn't. The difference between The Garden base price and what most Garden clients actually spend is usually in these details — and it's usually worth every one of them.
The Esse Approach
Here's the variable no other florist in Atlanta can offer you: what happens when your planner and your florist are the same studio. When we're handling both, there's no briefing gap between the two. Your design direction doesn't get lost in translation between two separate vendors. Setup on the day is coordinated by one team who already knows the timeline, the venue, and exactly where every arrangement needs to be. It's not just convenient — it tends to mean fewer surprises on the day, and often a more cohesive result. Booking planning and florals together with Esse isn't a upsell. It's just a smarter way to build your wedding.
Who We Are
One more thing worth saying plainly: Esse is queer-owned. That's not a footnote — it's the foundation. Every couple who comes to us is celebrated fully, exactly as they are. We don't design with a default template in mind. We don't make assumptions about who the couple is, what the wedding should look like, or what "traditional" means. Whether you're planning an intimate courthouse ceremony or a grand multi-day celebration, we bring the same intentionality to the design and the same genuine care to the relationship. If you've been searching for a planner or florist in Atlanta who gets it — not performatively, but actually — we'd love to hear from you.
When to Reach Out
One last thing: Atlanta books fast. Spring (March through May) and fall (September through November) are our busiest seasons, and dates at those times of year typically fill 9–12 months in advance. We keep our calendar intentionally small — both on the planning and floral side — so that every client gets our full attention. If you have a date in mind for 2026 or 2027, the best time to reach out is now.
If you've got a date and a vision and you're not sure where to start — that's exactly what the consultation is for. It's free, it's a real conversation, and we promise it won't feel like a sales call.
