At Dream Flowers, our starting point is $5,500. That said, every wedding is custom-quoted — there's no price card, because the cost depends entirely on your guest count, your vision, the scale of your florals, and the complexity of the design. The quote I put together for you is a full picture of what your vision actually costs: flowers, labor, delivery, setup, breakdown, and sales tax. This is something a lot of couples don't account for upfront — delivery, installation, and strike fees are real costs, and I always make sure they're visible in your proposal rather than showing up as surprises later.

A helpful way to think about your floral budget: most couples allocate ten to fifteen percent of their total wedding budget to flowers. If you're working with a smaller guest list or a more intimate celebration, I do take select smaller events as well — particularly on weekdays or during the off-season when scheduling allows.

At Dream Flowers, every proposal is custom, so there's no universal answer — but here's a realistic way to think about it. Most couples spend ten to fifteen percent of their total wedding budget on flowers. Our minimum investment is $5,500, which works well for intimate celebrations with a focused floral plan. For larger weddings with full ceremony and reception florals, installations, and detailed personal flowers, budgets typically range from $8,000 to $20,000 and beyond depending on scale and complexity.

One thing I always want couples to understand: the quote you receive includes everything — flowers, labor, delivery, setup, breakdown, and sales tax. Those line items are sometimes overlooked when couples try to fit a vision into a number they have in mind.

Completely fine — you don't need to know a single flower name to end up with something beautiful. What I need to understand is the feeling you want: the mood, the colors, the overall direction. A few inspiration images go a long way. I've designed entire weddings from a single bouquet photo and one centerpiece concept. From there, I unfold the vision.

What I bring to that process is the professional knowledge of how flowers actually behave — and that matters more than people realize. Hydrangeas, for example, are a favorite, but I won't recommend them for an outdoor ceremony in ninety-degree heat in Napa. They simply won't hold. Knowing what works in your specific season, at your specific venue, and in your specific climate is part of what makes each proposal different. A wedding in March and a wedding in September might have completely different flower recipes even if the inspiration boards look identical.

Absolutely — and I love when couples come with one. A Pinterest board tells me a lot: the color palette, the mood, the overall direction. I look for patterns — which flowers repeat across the most images, which colors are consistent, where the exceptions are. From there I can build and unfold an entire vision.

If you don't have a board yet, I'll still ask you to share a few images before we go too deep into the proposal process. Even something as simple as a single bouquet photo and one centerpiece image gives me enough to start. One thing worth knowing: I have strong opinions about certain flowers. Baby's breath, for example, is something I steer away from — to me it flattens a design and undercuts the overall quality of the work. If I see it in your inspiration board, I'll tell you honestly and suggest alternatives that achieve the same softness with more intention.

Yes — we provide everything needed to display and support the florals, including compote vases, tall glass vases, candle holders, hurricanes, pedestals, arches, metal and wooden structures, circle arches, mandap structures, and all the elements that make up the tablescape or ceremony design. You don't need to source these separately.

Most vessels and structures are rentals that return to our studio after the event. Your proposal and contract will clearly outline what goes home with you and what gets collected at the end of the evening — I always make sure the couple and the coordinator both know this so there's no confusion on the night.

If you'd like to use containers you already own or have sourced yourself, that's usually possible. I ask to see them first to make sure they're a good fit for the design — the proportions need to work with the arrangement, and sometimes a container that looks perfect in a photo isn't quite right for the scale of what we're building. If it works, I'll use it and put more of your budget toward the flowers themselves.

When a couple has a full wedding planner, we typically work together throughout the entire planning process — not just on the wedding day. Planners often come with a design deck that outlines the overall aesthetic for the event, and my job is to take that vision and unfold it into a detailed floral proposal: bouquets, ceremony pieces, cocktail florals, reception centerpieces, bar pieces — all of it building cohesively from those initial inspiration images. When that proposal comes back to the planner, it's usually the first time they see their vision fully realized in floral terms, and that collaboration is one of my favorite parts of the process.

We stay in close contact via email and calls throughout, finalizing details, adjusting quantities, and problem-solving anything that comes up — all of it handled between the vendors so the couple isn't pulled into logistics they don't need to manage.

Working with a day-of coordinator is a little different. They typically come in one to two months before the wedding to pull all the vendors together, and my communication with them is more focused: arrival times, delivery details, setup flow, what can be taken home at the end of the night. On the wedding day itself, if something needs troubleshooting, we handle it between the team — the couple only gets involved if there's something they genuinely need to know.

Not always — and I'll always be upfront about that in your proposal. Seasonality makes a real difference. When I review your inspiration board, I note which flowers are in season for your date and which ones may need a substitute. Any flower that won't be available is flagged in the proposal description, along with alternatives that preserve the same feel and aesthetic. The goal is never to simply swap one flower for another — it's to make sure the overall vision stays intact even when specific varieties aren't an option.

In most cases, yes. For events with a larger floral investment, I typically create a sample centerpiece so the couple can see the actual flowers, scale, and feel of the design before the wedding day. It's a meaningful step — it's the first time the vision becomes real, and it gives us a chance to adjust anything before we're working at full scale. For smaller events, a sample may not always be included, but I'll always let you know upfront what to expect as part of your planning process.

Yes — and this is something I genuinely love about the work. I've designed for Hindu weddings including mandaps and pre-wedding celebrations that run across multiple days. I've designed Jewish ceremonies with chuppahs and worked with families who wanted to honor tradition while also bringing in a more contemporary aesthetic. I've worked with Persian, Ethiopian, Filipino, and many other cultural traditions, and I approach each one with the same commitment: to understand what matters, what's required, and how to honor it beautifully.

Some families have strict religious requirements. Others want one or two meaningful cultural elements woven into an otherwise modern celebration. Both are welcome. If there's a tradition I'm not immediately familiar with, I'll research it thoroughly and ask the right questions. Nothing about your culture or your ceremony should feel like an afterthought in the design.

Over the past 14 years, I — Lana Starr, founder of Dream Flowers — have worked at more than eighty venues across the Bay Area — from intimate private estates in Los Gatos to grand hotel ballrooms in San Francisco, wineries in the Tri-Valley, country clubs in Pleasanton, and cultural venues like the Asian Art Museum. There are venues I know so well I could navigate them in the dark — I know the loading docks, the storage rooms, the best places to stage florals, and the quirks of every space.

For venues I haven't visited recently or haven't worked before, I always do a site visit — either a self-tour or a formal walkthrough with your planner — to make sure logistics are mapped out well before your wedding day. I'm looking at loading and unloading access, elevator dimensions, coordinator requirements, timing overlaps with other events, and where my team can safely stage and store flowers during setup. The couples never see this part — but it's a big part of why the day runs smoothly.

Yes. For venues I haven't worked at recently, or venues that have undergone renovations, I always do a site visit before your wedding day. This is usually coordinated with your planner as part of a vendor walkthrough — we're there together to understand loading access, elevator sizes, coordinator requirements, timing with other events, parking, staging areas, and flower storage. None of this is information your guests ever see, but it's what allows the day to run exactly as planned. I've worked at over eighty Bay Area venues, and the ones I know best, I know because I've put in that groundwork every single time.

Wherever possible, yes. I source from local farms here in the Bay Area and from growers in Southern California, and I personally grow ranunculus, anemones, dahlias, sweet peas, and tweedia at certain times of year. There's something different about working with flowers grown close to home — the quality, the freshness, the connection to the season.

That said, not every design can be built entirely from local blooms, and I'll always be honest about that. A winter wedding calling for hydrangeas will likely use flowers from Ecuador. Orchids may come from Thailand, Hawaii, or New Zealand depending on the variety. Tropical flowers like anthuriums and heliconias aren't grown locally — but they're often exactly what a modern, high-design event calls for.

The goal is always to let the season and the location guide the design. A garden-inspired wedding in May looks and feels completely different from a dramatic winter reception in December, and the flowers should reflect that. Whatever you're envisioning, I'll tell you honestly what's available, what will hold up beautifully on your day, and what might need a thoughtful substitute.

Flowers are my professional focus, but design doesn't exist in isolation — and I know that. I can offer guidance on which linens would complement your centerpieces, how certain glassware or flatware choices will interact with the florals, and whether specific decor elements are pulling the room together or competing with it. The flowers often set the tone for everything else on the table, and I want them to work in harmony with the full picture.

That said, the wedding planner is the person best positioned to guide the full aesthetic of your event — from rentals to stationery to attire. If you have a planner, you already have that person. If you don't, and you have strong design instincts yourself, I can absolutely be a sounding board. I've worked alongside couples who pulled every element together themselves and created something genuinely beautiful — the flowers played a big role in making it feel cohesive, and that's always the goal.

In over 14 years and 350+ weddings designed by Dream Flowers, I've never had a catastrophic situation — and I think that's largely because we plan for the unexpected well before the day arrives.

If the weather turns, we have a plan B conversation days in advance. Ceremony moving inside? We adjust the layout and the florals to suit the new space. If a specific flower variety doesn't arrive from the farm, I mix, match, and substitute without compromising the overall vision — and if it's significant enough to warrant a conversation, I call the bride directly and walk her through the options. I keep spare vessels on-site for anything breakable, and I communicate with the coordinator and banquet team about how tall arrangements need to be handled at the end of the evening.

The only time I've encountered something truly outside anyone's control was in March 2020, when a shelter-in-place order came down four days before a three-hundred-person wedding I was fully prepared to execute. I got on the phone with the couple immediately. We froze their entire investment, moved it forward to whenever they could reschedule, and I rewrote my contract terms to reflect the reality none of us had a playbook for. If I was unavailable on their new date, I returned everything — including the retainer. That experience shaped how I think about the vendor-client relationship: when something is genuinely outside anyone's control, you figure it out together.

Our cancellation and postponement terms are outlined in the contract you receive at booking. In general, cancellations made with sufficient advance notice allow for the return of payments beyond the initial retainer, which is non-refundable as it holds your date. For postponements, we work with couples on a case-by-case basis to find a solution that's fair to everyone. If you have specific questions about terms, I'm happy to walk through them during our discovery call.

It depends entirely on the scope of your event. For a more intimate wedding with a straightforward setup, it's typically one to two people. For larger weddings with complex installations, multiple spaces, or a ceremony-to-reception flip, the team can range from three to seven people. The size of the setup team is something I account for in your proposal — it's part of the labor cost, and I want you to understand exactly what's going into your day behind the scenes.

Bouquet preservation is a beautiful way to hold onto your flowers after the day — but it's a specialized craft that we don't offer in-house. I'm happy to refer you to artists in the Bay Area who do this work beautifully. One important timing note: if you're interested in preservation, reach out to the artist sixty to ninety days before your wedding to check availability and pricing. It's a more involved process than most couples expect, and the best preservation artists book up quickly.

Honestly, the couples who've worked with us say it better than I can — the reviews consistently mention the quality of the designs, the clarity of the process, and how organized and communicative everything feels from the first proposal to the final setup.

From my side, the thing I care most about is presence. I'm selective about how many weddings I take each year specifically because I want to be there — not managing five events from a distance, but present at your wedding, overseeing the setup, making sure everything looks exactly the way we designed it together. The person you talked to throughout the entire planning process is the person who shows up on your wedding day — that's me, Lana Starr, and that's how Dream Flowers works.That matters to me, and I think it shows in the work.