When to Book Your Wedding Florist in Lagos for a December Wedding

Why December is the hardest month to book

December is Nigeria’s wedding season and it is not close. The diaspora is home, the weather is dry, families are together, and the calendar compresses an outsized share of the year’s weddings into about four weekends.

From the florist’s side this produces a specific bottleneck. A wedding is not like a bouquet order. It occupies a team for most of a day, it requires conditioning space in the cold room for several days beforehand, and it consumes an enormous share of a week’s imported stem supply. A florist can deliver a hundred bouquets in a day. They cannot run four weddings.

So capacity is small and fixed, and in December it is competing with Christmas gifting and corporate hampers at the same time. Every serious Lagos florist is doing all three from the middle of the month.

The practical consequence for a couple is that the good Saturdays in the second half of December are committed well before most people start looking. By the time a couple is comparing quotes in October, they are frequently choosing between whoever is still free rather than whoever is best.

This guide sets out when to book, what a deposit actually buys, what it costs, and the decisions that are expensive to change late.

The booking timeline that actually works

Working backwards from a December date.

Twelve months out, so the December before. If you already have the date and the venue, this is not too early to have a first conversation. You are not designing anything yet. You are finding out who is good and getting a sense of budget.

Eight to ten months out, meaning February to April. This is the right window to book. Availability is full, you have choice, and deposits are usually smaller this far ahead. If you are getting married in December and it is currently April, book now.

Six months out, June. Still workable. The best florists are starting to fill. You will get a date but you may not get first choice of date.

Four months out, August. This is the line. After August, the remaining December Saturdays are the ones nobody wanted, and you lose the ability to choose your florist rather than be assigned one by availability.

Three months out, September. You are now taking what is left. Some excellent florists will still have a weekday or an early December date.

Under eight weeks. Possible, more expensive, and the design conversation gets compressed into a window that does not allow for changing your mind. We take these and they work, but nobody enjoys them.

The simple version: if your wedding is in the second half of December, your florist should be booked by the end of August.

What a deposit buys, and what it does not

This causes more confusion in Lagos wedding planning than any other item, so it is worth being plain.

A deposit holds the date. That is its job. It takes your wedding day off the florist’s availability and commits their team to you.

A deposit does not lock the design, the stem count, or the final price. Those are agreed later, usually at a design meeting two to four months before the day, once you know your colours, your venue layout and your guest numbers.

This is good news, not bad. It means you can secure a florist you trust in April without having decided what the bouquets look like. Couples who delay booking because they have not chosen flowers yet are solving the wrong problem in the wrong order.

Typical deposit in the Lagos market is around thirty percent, with the balance due in stages toward the date. Get the stages in writing.

Ask what happens if the date moves. Weddings move, families intervene, venues fall through. A florist who has a clear written policy on date changes is one who has done this before. A florist who waves the question away is one who has not.

And ask what happens if your guest count changes significantly. Venue florals scale with the room, and a wedding that grows from 200 to 400 guests is a different job.

What wedding flowers cost in Lagos

Honest ranges, because this is the question couples most want answered and the one least often published.

A bridal bouquet alone runs N120,000 to N400,000 depending on size, stem choice and whether it uses imported premium roses or a mixed design.

Bridesmaid bouquets run N45,000 to N120,000 each. Multiply by your bridal party and this adds up faster than couples expect. Six bridesmaids at N80,000 is nearly half a million naira before the venue is touched.

Boutonnieres and corsages sit between N15,000 and N35,000 each.

Ceremony florals, meaning aisle arrangements, an altar or arch piece and entrance pieces, typically run N250,000 to N900,000 depending on scale and whether an arch is involved. Arches are the single biggest line item couples underestimate.

Reception table centrepieces run N35,000 to N120,000 per table. At twenty tables that is between N700,000 and N2,400,000 on its own, which is why centrepiece choice is the most consequential budget decision in the whole package.

A full December package covering bridal party, ceremony and reception typically lands between N400,000 and N1,500,000 for a moderate wedding, and well beyond that for a large one.

December specifically carries a premium. Imported stems are flown in from Kenya and Ethiopia into a market where every florist is bidding for the same freight, and the naira moves. A quote given in June may not hold in December, so ask whether your quote is fixed or indicative, and get the answer in writing.

Aso-ebi, and why it has to come first

This is the Nigerian wedding planning detail that international advice completely misses, and it is the one that causes the most expensive rework.

Your aso-ebi colour sets the palette of the entire room. Hundreds of guests in a coordinated colour is the dominant visual element of a Nigerian wedding, far more so than the flowers, the linen or the lighting. Flowers chosen without reference to it will either clash or disappear.

So bring the fabric, or a photograph of it in natural light, to the first design meeting. Not a colour name. Fabric, because the word burgundy covers a dozen shades and the one your family chose is specific.

Some practical pairings. Deep burgundy or wine aso-ebi works with cream, blush and soft gold florals, and fights with bright red. Royal blue works with white, cream and soft peach, and fights with purple. Gold and champagne works with almost everything, which is part of why it is popular. Emerald works with white and blush and is overwhelmed by strong colour.

If the aso-ebi is not decided yet, say so at the design meeting and agree a palette direction rather than a final design. Changing a florist’s plan after stems have been ordered is where couples get charged for changes they thought were free.

And remember that the traditional ceremony and the white wedding often have different colours entirely. Those are two separate floral briefs, and a florist quoting for one has not quoted for the other. Make sure your quote says which.

Outdoor weddings and the Lagos weather problem

A large share of December weddings in Lagos have an outdoor element, usually the ceremony or the cocktail hour, and flowers in Lagos sun behave differently from flowers indoors.

Heat is the main enemy. An arrangement that looks perfect at ten in the morning can look tired by two in the afternoon if it has been standing in direct sun with no water source.

The fixes are practical. Use flowers with structural resilience for anything outdoors. Roses hold reasonably. Hydrangeas wilt fast and are a poor outdoor choice in Lagos despite being beautiful. Chrysanthemums and orchids hold up better than their reputation suggests.

Every outdoor arrangement needs a water source, whether that is a hidden reservoir in the structure or floral foam properly soaked. Dry-mounted outdoor arrangements in Lagos sun are a false economy.

Install as late as the venue allows. The difference between installing at seven in the morning for a two o’clock ceremony and installing at eleven is several hours of sun the flowers never have to survive.

If any part of your day is outdoors, read the forecast before you set the layout rather than after. NiMet’s Seasonal Climate Prediction sets out expected rainfall onset, cessation and temperature for the year, and it is free. A December wedding usually falls in the dry season, which is why the date is popular, but above normal temperatures change what an arrangement can survive standing in the sun for four hours.

And have an indoor fallback for the bridal bouquet specifically. It is photographed more than anything else on the day and it is in a warm hand for hours. We routinely make a second bouquet for the reception for exactly this reason, and couples who do it never regret it.

Questions to ask before you pay a deposit

A short list that separates florists quickly.

• How many weddings do you take on one day? The answer should be one. Two is a warning. Three means you are getting a team you have not met.
• Will the person I am meeting be at my wedding? In Lagos it is common to meet a principal and be served by a junior team. That is not automatically wrong, but you should know.
• Is this quote fixed or indicative? December imported stem prices move. Get the answer in writing.
• What is in the quote and what is not? Setup, breakdown, transport, vases, hire items, and whether containers are returned. Scope is the commonest dispute, not price.
• What happens if the date moves? There should be a clear written policy.
• What is your substitution policy? If a flower does not arrive on the week’s freight, will you be told before the day or will you discover it at the venue?
• Can I see photographs of your own recent work, not a mood board? Ask for a wedding they did in the last three months, with the venue named.
• Who sets up at the venue and when? Confirm the install window matches what the venue actually allows, which couples often assume rather than check.

Where to spend and where to save

If the budget is tight, and for most couples it is, these are the trade offs that cost you least.

Spend on the bridal bouquet. It is in nearly every photograph of the bride, it is held for hours, and it is the one piece that cannot be fixed by lighting or editing.

Spend on the entrance and the ceremony focal point. Guests see these properly and for long enough to register them.

Save on reception centrepieces by varying them. Alternate three substantial arrangements with simpler low pieces across the room rather than paying for twenty identical tall centrepieces. The room reads as designed and the cost drops materially.

Save on bridesmaid bouquets by making them smaller rather than cheaper. A small well made bouquet looks intentional. A large bouquet made from cheap stems looks exactly like what it is.

Save on anything behind the head table, which is blocked by people all evening.

Reuse ceremony pieces at the reception where the timeline allows it. This is normal, it is not cutting corners, and a good florist will suggest it before you ask. Confirm there is somebody responsible for moving them, because that is the step that gets forgotten.

And do not save on installation time. A beautiful design installed in a rush looks worse than a simpler design installed properly.

The traditional ceremony and the white wedding are two separate jobs

This is the detail that trips up couples working from international wedding advice, and it causes real budget surprises.

A Nigerian wedding is frequently two events, often on different days, with different venues, different colours, different guest lists and different expectations. The traditional ceremony and the white wedding are not one wedding with two outfits. For a florist they are two complete briefs.

The traditional ceremony typically wants richer, warmer, more textural arrangements that sit comfortably with aso-oke, coral beads and the colour of the occasion. Bright and generous rather than pale and restrained.

The white wedding usually wants the softer palette, the structured bridal bouquet and the formal ceremony pieces that international wedding imagery has made familiar.

The practical consequences. Get a quote that explicitly states which event it covers, or that it covers both and how it splits. A quote that just says wedding florals is a dispute waiting to happen.

Ask whether anything transfers between the two. If the events are on consecutive days at reachable venues, some pieces can move, which saves real money. If they are a week apart, nothing transfers, because flowers do not wait.

And decide early whether you want a second bridal bouquet for the traditional ceremony. Most brides do, the photographs demand it, and finding out late that it was not quoted is an avoidable argument.

What to send the family, separately from the wedding

A short section on something couples routinely forget until the week of, and then order in a panic.

The bride’s mother. Flowers to the family house on the morning of the wedding, while everybody is getting ready. She has organised more than anybody and will be acknowledged least on the day itself. This is one of the warmest things a groom’s family can do and it costs very little.

The groom’s mother. Same logic, same morning.

Grandmothers and elders who cannot attend. A delivery on the day with a card from the couple means more than a mention from the stage.

The bridal party the morning of. Small arrangements to where the bridesmaids are getting ready, which is almost always a hotel room full of people and noise.

The hosts of the introduction, if a family hosted it. A delivery in the week after is correct and almost nobody does it.

And a delivery to the couple’s own home for when they return. Walking back into a house with fresh flowers after the wedding is the small thing people describe years later. Arrange it beforehand with whoever has a key.