Funeral flowers and casket sprays in New Zealand: costs and choices for the family
Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.
Funeral flowers are an optional line in a New Zealand funeral bill. FDANZ's indicative range for flowers is $200 to $500 as at July 2025, and it varies by funeral director. A casket spray is the arrangement laid on top of the casket, and the family decides whether to have one, how large it is and who supplies it. The Work and Income Funeral Grant lists flowers among the expenses it treats as reasonable.
A casket spray (also called a coffin spray) is a floral arrangement made to rest on the top of a casket or coffin. Other common types are a wreath, a bouquet or posy, and flowers kept for the service venue. This page is for the family arranging the funeral: what the flowers cost, who can arrange them, how to keep the price down, and what the grant does and does not cover. If you are a guest wondering what to send, see our companion guide on funeral flower etiquette.
What funeral flowers cost
There is no national price survey for casket sprays that we could read, and we found no sourced price for a single arrangement, so the figures below are the ones we can attribute. They are indicative, not quotes.
| Figure | Amount | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Flowers as one line of a funeral | $200 to $500 | FDANZ, indicative as at July 2025; "vary per funeral director" |
| Newspaper notices | $150 to $500 or more | Same FDANZ table |
| Live-streaming | $200 to $500 | Same FDANZ table |
| Full cremation funeral with 50 guests, average | $11,700 | FDANZ 2026 Industry Trends Report, 2025 member survey |
Source: FDANZ: Funeral costs and financial support and the 2026 Industry Trends Report, retrieved 20 October 2026. Our own arithmetic puts flowers at about 2% to 4% of that $11,700 average, so they move the total less than the casket, the funeral director's fee or the burial plot.
Flowers can be extra to a funeral plan's price. For example, Simplicity Funerals' published plans list flowers among the additional options on top of the plan price, and say fees apply (Simplicity Funerals Christchurch). Check what a funeral director's price includes before you compare two quotes. Our funeral director fees guide explains the usual lines.
Types of floral tribute
| Tribute | What it is |
|---|---|
| Casket spray | An arrangement made to rest on top of the casket |
| Wreath | A circular arrangement of flowers or foliage |
| Bouquet or posy | A hand-held or vase arrangement |
| Garden flowers | Flowers cut from the person's or the family's garden |
How these are sized and priced is up to each florist, and we have no sourced size or price chart. When you ask a florist for a quote, ask for the size, the flowers included and the delivery or collection charge in writing.
Who arranges the flowers
A funeral director can organise flowers as part of the funeral: Community Law lists flowers and catering among what an undertaker or funeral director can take care of (Community Law: Funerals and tangihanga). You can also order directly from a florist, or arrange flowers yourselves. Tell your director whichever route you take, so the right arrangement arrives at the right place and time. The funeral timeline guide shows when each decision usually has to be made.
Ways to spend less and keep the meaning
FDANZ's own advice is to ask for an estimate and for alternatives for each element of a funeral, "for example a cheaper casket, or flowers from your garden". It also lists flowers from the person's garden among the symbols that families use, along with candles, shells, photographs and trophies, and says some families scatter flowers or soil on the casket as it is lowered (FDANZ: Funeral and farewell choices). So the cost is a choice. Options include:
- one arrangement for the casket, and nothing else;
- garden or foraged flowers, arranged by family or friends;
- a few stems or a single flower for each guest to place;
- asking guests to donate to a charity or a fundraiser instead (see below).
What guests send is not your bill
Flowers sent by friends, workmates or relatives are their gift and their cost. They arrive at the venue or the funeral director, and you do not pay for them. Families who would rather not receive flowers can say so in the death notice and ask for donations. Community Law lists passing on a charity the person favoured, in place of flowers, among the tasks a family may handle. FDANZ notes that some families use GiveALittle campaigns to raise money towards the costs.
Does the Funeral Grant cover flowers?
Flowers are on the list of "common types of reasonable funeral expenses" in Work and Income's guidance for the Funeral Grant, alongside the funeral director's fee, a casket, a hearse, burial or cremation fees, food (including kai for a tangihanga) and a celebrant (Work and Income: reasonable funeral expenses). That does not mean the grant pays for them. The grant is a maximum of $2,697.43 as at 20 October 2026, is non-taxable, and depends on income and asset tests; other help, including prepaid funeral cover, can affect eligibility (Work and Income: Funeral Grant). See our funeral grant guide, how to pay for a funeral and the funeral costs hub.
Planning the cost in advance
Some people plan ahead for the whole funeral, flowers included. One option is Momentum Life's Funeral Insurance, issued by Momentum Life Limited for New Zealanders aged 40 to 75, which pays a fixed benefit of $3,000 to $30,000 towards costs; see the Momentum funeral cover page and our funeral insurance guide.
Read three limits first. For the first 24 months the benefit is paid only for an accidental death within 90 days of the accident, and the premiums are refunded for any other death in that window. Total premiums can end up larger than the benefit, and the benefit may not cover the whole funeral. Momentum Life Limited's A.M. Best rating is B (Fair), affirmed on 11 February 2026 and in A.M. Best's "Vulnerable" range; Momentum publishes its own disclosure on its financial strength page.
Putting money aside in a savings account is the alternative. The buttons below this page lead to Momentum's products; they sit after the content so that families arranging a funeral now do not meet them first.
Adviser's view
Flowers are one of the most flexible lines in a funeral bill. FDANZ's indicative range is $200 to $500, and the family decides how much to spend, from a spray from a florist to flowers from the garden. Ask for a written price before you order, and remember that flowers sent by guests are theirs to pay for, not part of your bill.
Talk to a licensed adviser about funeral cover · free, no obligation.
Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Funeral Flowers NZ: Costs, Casket Sprays and Options. www.quotehub.co.nz/guides/when-someone-dies/funeral-flowers-nz. Updated 2026-10-20.
References
- FDANZ: Funeral costs and financial support
- FDANZ: Funeral and farewell choices
- FDANZ: 2026 Industry Trends Report
- Simplicity Funerals Christchurch: funeral plans and pricing
- Community Law: Funerals and tangihanga
- Work and Income: Funeral Grant
- Work and Income: Essential funeral expenses
- Momentum Life: Financial strength
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