Flower shortage brings bridal woes

DECATUR, Ala. (WAFF) - If you are getting married or celebrating your anniversary soon, order flowers now! There is a shortage of fresh flowers and it’s impacting local florists.

Co-owner of Simpson’s Florist in Decatur Kristen Bentley says they’ve never seen a shortage like this before, and quite a few things contribute to that. Flowers are a huge part of many events, especially weddings.

“Whenever you’re at a wedding, of course everybody wants wedding flowers it just beautifies your moment,” said Bentley.

Bentley says the backlog started getting really bad about six months ago.

“First it started trickling in with just a few things like white roses or yellow roses, but now it’s really gotten a little more extreme,” said Bentley.

Bentley attributes this to COVID. As a result of the pandemic, a lot of farms shut down and transportation issues are a factor. Not only that, but Bentley says most of their flowers come from California or out of the country, and there’s been a lot of weather issues.

“There’s either droughts or there’s flooding. Either way, it’s affecting the product. It’s either killing it because it’s getting mushy from all the rain, or it’s not getting enough rain,” said Bentley.

Erica Thimsen is a local wedding and event planner and the owner of Helping Hand Parties & Weddings. She says she’s seen the wedding demand almost double recently, and the lack of flowers has had a huge impact on the events.

“I have to make sure that my brides are very flexible with the type of flowers they get, because we can’t always get exactly what they want,” said Thimsen.

Bentley says they’ve been playing catch-up with all of the weddings and events that were postponed at the beginning of the pandemic. She says they’ve had to adapt at her shop.

“We can sell by color families, do all pinks and whites and things like that, but we have a really hard time promising any specific flowers,” said Bentley.

This all also means the prices of flowers have gone up. So, the pro-tip for future brides: order your flowers as early as possible and be flexible.

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