How to Price Funeral Tributes: A Florist's Guide

If you want to know how to price funeral tributes properly, start with the bit florists skip: the cost of the frame, the basing and your own time. Funeral work is the backbone of many high street shops, and it's also where florists underprice most often. Quoting fast over the phone is how a tribute goes out £10 to £30 light without anyone noticing. Getting it right is about valuing the skill, the time and the materials that go into the piece.

Understanding Your Cost Components

OASIS Foam Frames

OASIS frames are the foundation of most tribute work. Prices vary by supplier, but here are typical costs:

• Letter frames: £3.00-£5.50 per letter. Wider letters like M and W cost more than narrow letters like I. Pre-made word frames (MUM, DAD, NAN, GRANDAD) can offer savings over individual letters.
• Small shapes (hearts, crosses up to 15 inches): £3.50-£8.00
• Medium shapes (18 to 24 inches): £6.00-£14.00
• Large shapes (gates of heaven, cushions): £8.00-£25.00+
• Specialty and 3D frames: £15.00-£40.00+

Always factor in the frame cost when pricing. Across hundreds of tributes a year, overlooked frame costs add up to thousands of pounds.

Flowers by Type

Basing Costs Are the Hidden Expense

Basing a tribute, covering the foam entirely in short-cut flowers before you add the focal design, is where a big chunk of your cost sits. A single letter typically takes 15 to 25 chrysanthemum heads for a full base. At £1.00 per stem, basing alone costs £15 to £25 per letter before you add a single focal flower. Always cost your base layer separately.

Pricing by Tribute Type

Letter Tributes

For longer words, consider a slight per-letter discount. For example, £35 per letter for MUM but £32 for GRANDAD. The time you save on a longer word justifies the reduction.

Named Tributes

Sprays and Sheaves

Accounting for Labour: Track Your Time

Labour is the cost most florists forget to include, or badly undervalue. Here are realistic time estimates for common tributes:

• Single letter (chrysanthemum based): 20-30 minutes
• Single letter (mixed flower): 30-40 minutes
• Small heart or cross: 30-45 minutes
• Large wreath: 45-75 minutes
• Gates of Heaven: 2-3 hours
• Bespoke 3D tribute: 3-5 hours

Add a labour rate of at least £20-£30 per hour on top of your material costs. If you're the owner, your time is worth at least as much as an employed florist's, so don't work for free.

Time yourself on your next few tributes. Plenty of florists find a piece they thought was a 30-minute job runs to 50 once conditioning, prep and clean-up are counted in.

Building a Printed Price List

A clear price list makes quoting faster and more consistent. Include photographs of your work, size options, upgrade options, lead times and contact details. Review it at least twice a year.

Our free Pricing Guide Generator builds printable price sheets straight from your markups, labour and sundry costs, with separate manager and staff versions. To keep the recipes behind each tribute in one place across your team, the Digital Florists platform stores your product database with ingredient and recipe lists, so a NAN letter is made up the same way and priced the same whoever's on the bench.

Quoting Consistently

Our free Arrangement Calculator lets you build any tribute from live stem and sundry costs, with markup, labour and VAT, so every quote protects your margin. For dedicated sympathy work, the Tribute Calculator (part of a Plus plan) does the lot: pick the frame type and size, choose your flower style, add edging and accessories, and get a price that covers your time and materials. The Tribute Calculator tutorial walks through a full worked tribute, screen by screen. When every quote is built on real costs, you can answer the phone with confidence rather than dread.

Common Questions

How much should I charge for a funeral letter tribute?

A chrysanthemum-based letter in a single colour usually sits at £30-£40 per letter. Mixed flower runs £40-£55, rose or premium £55-£75, and a luxury letter with garden roses or orchids is £75-£100 and up. Price per letter, then apply a small discount on longer words like GRANDAD because they're quicker per letter.

How much do OASIS frames cost?

Letter frames are typically £3.00-£5.50 each, small hearts and crosses up to 15 inches are £3.50-£8.00, medium shapes £6.00-£14.00, and large shapes like gates of heaven or cushions £8.00-£25.00 and up. Specialty 3D frames start around £15.00. Costs vary by supplier, so always add the real frame price to every quote.

Why do florists undercharge for funeral tributes?

Most of it comes from quoting fast over the phone and forgetting the frame, the basing and the labour. Basing a single letter alone can be £15-£25 in chrysanthemum heads before any focal flower, and a tribute often takes longer to make than it feels. Cost each part separately and the shortfall disappears.

How long does a funeral tribute take to make?

A chrysanthemum-based letter is roughly 20-30 minutes, a mixed-flower letter 30-40, a small heart or cross 30-45, and a large wreath 45-75 minutes. Gates of Heaven run to 2-3 hours and a bespoke 3D piece 3-5. Add at least £20-£30 an hour to your materials for that time.