Cassie’s Wedding Flowers on Euphoria Cost Much More Than $50K

Nate and Cassie’s wedding ended in disaster in Sunday night’s episode of Euphoria. But at least Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) got her flowers—literally. The aspiring internet star made clear to her now-husband, Nate (Jacob Elordi), that she would not settle for less than $50,000 worth of florals at their nuptials. And though he scoffed at the idea at first, he ultimately obliged—if not, Cassie would pay for them herself, through her burgeoning OnlyFans presence.

The result was an explosion of florals in various shades of pink at the ceremony, which was shot at Huntington Langham Hotel in Pasadena, California. There were rows of bushy arches constructed with roses, ornate potted arrangements, and a river of petals lining the aisle. Ivy and more roses climbed up the pergola under which Cassie and Nate exchanged vows and up the columns that lined the guest entrance. The décor continued throughout the reception space (in reality, a studio on the Warner Bros. lot), with abundant arrangements lining the tables and cascading off the bar. Plus, Cassie and her bridesmaids each toted full pink bouquets.

The total flower count was 10,710 stems, including 2,875 roses, at the ceremony and 14,382 stems, including 4,600 roses, at the reception, according to TheWrap.

Euphoria production designer François Audouy was inspired by a “shrimp cocktail” for the color scheme, which seems to reflect the ridiculousness of the whole event. “I literally sampled the pinks from a shrimp, and then that became the color palette for the wedding, which I thought was kind of fun,” he said in a behind-the-scenes video that aired after season 3, episode 3. “It’s a bit over the top, all of these incredibly detailed tables, and the flower arrangements and the food. It’s supposed to be very Californian.”

However, the actual floral budget to shoot the wedding was “considerably more” than $50,000, Audouy told TheWrap. “The number is kind of shocking and almost embarrassing to tell you but…it was a decision that we all made together” for the story, and for Cassie’s character motivation.

According to a Zola interview with the real-life florists who worked on the wedding episode (Flower Song LA and Magpie Floral), the actual cost of the flowers approximated a whopping $117,000. The exact number remains under wraps, though. “I’m unbelievably proud of this work and so grateful we were a part of it,” says Christine Murphy of Flower Song LA, who has a background in larger-scale production and brand events.

The national average for a wedding floral budget is somewhere between $5,100 and $7,600, also according to Zola. But the numbers vary depending on location, overall budget, and the intended design. As is frequently the case when planning a wedding, couples are often surprised by how much flowers can cost.

“Flowers, especially good flowers, are way more expensive than people think,” says floral designer Jeff Leatham. “And most of the time at weddings it is the most important aspect of the decoration. So yes, they are expensive but also what people will remember the most in most cases.”

ELLE spoke to a number of floral designers and experts to break down the real cost of Cassie’s vision.

Cassie’s flowers definitely would cost more than $50,000 in real life.

Even before the total cost of Cassie and Nate’s Euphoria wedding was revealed, experts agreed: In reality, Cassie’s wedding florals would cost $100,000 or even $150,000.

“What was in the episode would actually be quoted at closer to $100,000 for that many flowers,” says Michelle Edgemont, sales director at Poppy. (She previously owned a luxury floral design company in New York that regularly handled contracts over $50K.) “It was extravagant for sure.”

The $50K figure “seemed very low” for what was shown on-screen, agreed Sora Lee of The Sora Lee.

In fact, Cassie’s florists would’ve been “over-delivering” for just $50,000, says Lillian Wright of Mimosa, a floral design studio based in Brooklyn. (She usually works with floral budgets ranging between $50,000 and $75,000.) Wright estimates a floral design like Cassie’s “definitely would be $150K-ish.”

The design was so ornate that the experts believe Cassie and Nate’s ceremony alone would’ve gobbled up their budget—to say nothing of the reception florals. “The aisle for Cassie’s wedding, with multiple arches covered in vines and roses, would far surpass a $50,000 budget—it takes not just a lot of florals to create that look but a lot of labor,” says Sophia Moreno-Bunge, founder of Isa Isa, a floral design studio based in L.A. (The studio arranged Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco’s wedding flowers.)

Installations, hanging pieces, and larger structures, like the pedestals and the monogram, also cost extra. Cassie and Nate’s “large monogrammed flower detail could exceed $5K to $10K for custom fabrication, design, and product—just to call out one element for reference,” says Jenn Sanchez, founder of Jenn Sanchez Design.

Sure enough, Murphy of Flower Song LA confirmed, “If you were trying to recreate what you saw on screen: the bridge moment, welcome signage, personals, and the full ceremony install, you’re realistically in the $50K–$60K range.”

In the ceremony space, “the arches and gazebo ate up the majority of the budget,” she adds. The flowers in the reception, including those lining the 20-foot head table, would’ve cost about $60K in real life, even if some arrangements were repurposed from the ceremony.

$50K is not a typical wedding budget for everyone—but it is for some (wealthy) couples.

“I would say [$50K] is average for a luxury wedding,” Edgemont says. “If your total wedding budget is, say, over $500K, your average floral spend is going to be around $50,000. It is definitely not average for all of America.” Many couples Poppy works with, for example, spend between $4,000 and $5,000 in New York and about $3,500 nationwide.

Moreno-Bunge agrees. “Yes, $50,000 and upwards is a common budget for a luxury wedding in California, especially for this look,” she says. “Of course, there are ways to bring budgets down—bud vases on dinner tables instead of centerpieces, candles instead of florals, or something more DIY.”

But of course, budgets depend on each couple’s priorities. “For some people, it’s unthinkable to spend $500 on wedding flowers. For others, it would be out of the question not to blow the doors off. There’s also everything in between—there is no real normal,” Sanchez says. “It’s affected by both the spectrum of those priorities, compounded against a client’s spending ability.”

Adds Lee, “It also depends on where you’re getting married. We’re in New York, but it’s going to be different than if somebody’s getting married in Ohio, and also how many guests and what type of flowers [you use].”

Couples often face a lack of transparency in wedding budgets, especially when it comes to flowers. “There’s definitely a disconnect in the wedding industry between what is [shown] to the consumer versus what the majority of consumers either can afford or want to spend,” Edgemont says.

Labor is a huge, often unrecognized factor in floral budgets.

The process of putting together these flowers was “intense,” according to Murphy. “We were in the studio for three days and on-site for two with a team of 12 designers.” The ceremony arches were much more involved than usual wedding arches (and most weddings usually only have one). Cassie and Nate’s were 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide and covered with flowers on all sides, whereas usual arches are usually only six to nine feet tall and are only covered on one or two sides, according to Murphy. Meanwhile, the reception decor required “three days of design and installation labor with a team of 15,” she adds.

“I think people don’t understand the level of production and labor that goes into an event of this scale,” Wright says. “I often equate it to a theater production or film production.” (Of course, in the case of Euphoria, it is indeed a television production.)

“You have to bring all these people on site,” Wright continues. “You’re working on a limited, tight timeline. Also, because it’s usually fresh flowers, you can’t make those arches and have them sit out in the sun for tons of hours. You have to bring a large crew so that they can execute that design in a short amount of time so that the sun doesn’t bake everything, so it looks perfect for photos. I do think that a large part of a floral budget is going to go toward your labor.”

Sanchez agrees, adding, “Staffing skilled designers for the week, arranging team travel if necessary, refrigerated transportation, installing all items in various spaces in a single day, and cleaning up at the end of the event—often 12 A.M. or later—is just an overview.” The bottom line? “Flowers are a luxury item and labor-intensive to produce.”

And most of that production work goes “unseen” by couples, says Cameron Hardesty, founder of Poppy. The complexity of the design also dictates the amount of labor. “When you’re a designer, you know intimately how complex a certain arch is going to be or a ceiling installation is going to be,” Hardesty adds. “And you can do the mental math of, ‘This is how many labor hours it’s going to cost me. I’m going to have to hire these types of freelancers.’ If you have a lot of complex installations on site, you need to bring more people and they need to be experienced, and then that costs more money.”

Guest count also affects the cost.

“As soon as you start to invite lots of people, you have more tables, more chairs down an aisle, more bridesmaids, more everything,” Wright says.

$50,000 “is not an over-the-top budget on flowers,” depending on the size of the crowd, according to Lee, who operates at an “upper-middle” price range. If, hypothetically, Cassie and Nate had 200 guests sitting at 20 tables, each with a $1,000 centerpiece—as Lee estimates—that would be $20,000 just for table decor. “It really depends on the guest count, which drives up the flower cost or brings it down,” Lee says.

The types of flowers matter.

The episode used “ultra-high-end flowers you’d see at uber affluent weddings but dialed up to an 11,” Murphy says. The varieties included poppies, peonies, garden roses, and ranunculus—and at very high quantities.

“One of the biggest reasons why I was like, ‘no way is that $50K’ is because the varieties of flowers were so expensive,” Edgemont says.

Cassie was carrying a bouquet of pink peonies, and garden roses were scattered throughout the venue. They’re both “pretty much two of the most expensive flowers you can get next to orchids,” Edgemont explains. Garden roses are frillier and fuller than regular roses. The former might retail for $15 while the latter would be $4, Edgemont estimates.

Because peonies are costly, they weren’t used in every aspect of the design. “They’re just in key moments, which is a tactic that’s used by real florists,” Wright notes.

Cassie and Nate’s wedding also featured some anthuriums in the arches, which are very popular—and pricey. Wright estimates they can be “$8 a stem,” while Edgemont estimates as much as $30 or $40 each. “They’re also more expensive because they have to go in a different supply chain because they’re tropical flowers,” Hardesty adds. “They can’t be stored at cold temperatures the way that regular flowers are.”

Colors also play a factor. White flowers may be more common and easier to source (and therefore less expensive) than stems of various colors, Lee says: “The colors that you like may not be available in a very cost-effective flower.”

Seasonality also matters. “If a flower is not available at a certain time of the year, it has to be brought in from overseas, whether it’s Holland or South America,” which also drives up the cost, she says.

Cassie isn’t really following wedding floral trends.

It’s clear that Euphoria didn’t mean to make Cassie and Nate’s wedding look particularly aspirational; these are two young people desperately concerned with their image and public perception, and they overdid the decor as a result. “The design was meant to be so ostentatious and over the top in scale that it was borderline uncomfortable,” Murphy says. “The mood boards the team showed us were super clear: Over the top. Hyper-romantic. Slightly unhinged. I think we nailed the brief.”

Still, they used some popular, trendy wedding flowers, like anthurium and amaranthus. They also used more color rather than opting for a white wedding, which is popular with couples now, per Wright. She describes Cassie and Nate’s aesthetic as “very classic and romantic….But it’s pretty over the top.”

Moreno-Bunge similarly called the couple’s style “a nod to the ’90s—in a sort of Romeo & Juliet romance way—which I think is fun.” Meanwhile, Sanchez described it as a “lush English garden aesthetic” thanks to the archway, pergola, and vines. “I think the design choices here are meant to reflect a level of opulence and romance that will always be sought after,” she says.

But, adds Hardesty, “It was not quite luxury.”

That might be true, but Cassie certainly wanted to make a loud statement about herself and her life with this grand event. “What’s going to set the tone and [make people] say, wow, that was such a beautiful wedding, is the floral and the decor,” Lee says. “It is a reflection of you.”

This story has been updated.