Terms and conditions for a florist

A florist sells a perishable product, often ordered by one person and delivered to another, sometimes months in advance for a wedding and sometimes within hours for a funeral. Your terms need to deal with substitution, delivery windows, deposits and cancellation without frightening the customer off. I draft a full set of customer terms around how your shop sells, for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Retail and studio florists, online flower delivery businesses, wedding and event florists and contract florists supplying hotels, offices and restaurants, across England and Wales. Most of you sell to consumers and to business accounts at the same time. Those two customers are treated very differently by the law, so one set of terms has to be written with both in mind.

What matters in a florist's terms

Substitution, seasonality and colour

Flowers are a natural product and the market changes week by week. A customer who orders from a photograph and receives something different will say the goods were not as described, which matters under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The answer is a substitution clause that is prominent before the order is placed, not hidden afterwards: you may substitute stems of equivalent value, style and colour where availability requires it, and the arrangement will reflect the design rather than reproduce it exactly. For weddings, say what happens if a signature bloom fails and how you will agree the replacement.

Delivering to someone who is not the buyer

The person paying is rarely the person receiving. Your terms should say that the buyer is responsible for the accuracy of the address, the recipient's availability and any access codes, and set out what you do if nobody answers: leave in a safe place, leave with a neighbour, or return to the shop with a redelivery charge. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 the goods are at your risk until the consumer has them, so a term permitting delivery elsewhere at the buyer's direction needs to be clear. Funeral deliveries need a separate timing provision, because a late tribute cannot be put right later.

Consumer cancellation and perishable stock

Orders taken by phone, website or email are distance contracts under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which normally give a consumer fourteen days to cancel. Two exceptions matter to florists: goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised, and goods liable to perish rapidly. Cut flowers and bespoke arrangements will often fall within them, but only if your pre-contract information says so. Where the cancellation information is missing the period can extend by up to twelve months, which is an unpleasant position to be in over a wedding order.

Wedding and event bookings

Wedding work is booked far ahead, priced against a consultation and then squeezed by final numbers. Your terms need a booking fee that secures the date, a balance due before the flowers are ordered, and a cancellation scale that reflects the stems and labour you commit as the date approaches. A consumer cancellation charge must be proportionate to your real loss, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as suspect. Deal separately with postponement to a new date, reduced guest numbers after the balance is paid, and who is liable if the venue changes the room.

Installation, access and hire items

Arches, hanging installations and urns involve ladders, fixings and a delivery window you do not control. The terms should make the venue's access, parking, setup time and permission for fixings the customer's responsibility, exclude damage caused by the venue's own surfaces or by guests after handover, and require someone to be present at setup. Where you hire out vases, stands, candelabra or plinths, say when they must be returned, who collects, what a replacement costs and that a proportionate deposit may be retained for damage or loss. Collection after the event is often the part nobody plans.

Business accounts, pricing and images

Weekly hotel, office and restaurant contracts need a different section: order lead times, a defined notice period on either side, seasonal price review and payment on invoice. Where the customer is a business you can rely on the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 for interest and fixed compensation on overdue accounts. On the consumer side, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 means the headline price you advertise must include mandatory delivery or service charges, and fake reviews are prohibited. If a freelance photographer shoots your arrangements, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 leaves the copyright with them unless it is assigned in writing.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Can I substitute flowers if a stem is not available?

You can, provided the customer was told before ordering and the substitute is of equivalent value and style. The problem arises when the substitution term sits only in the confirmation email. I draft the clause and then explain in the covering note where it has to appear in your ordering process for it to bind the customer.

What can I keep if a wedding customer cancels?

That depends on how close to the date the cancellation comes and what you have already committed. A staged scale, rising as you place orders with growers and block out the day, is defensible. A term that keeps the whole fee whatever the notice, with no matching obligation on you, is the kind of term a consumer can challenge.

Do I need different terms for my hotel contract than for the shop?

One set of terms can cover both, with a business account section dealing with lead times, notice and payment, and a consumer section dealing with cancellation and delivery. What causes trouble is handing a hotel the same wording you use for a bouquet order, because it says nothing about notice, price review or the standing weekly commitment.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a wedding planner
• Terms and conditions for a cake maker

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.