Landscape Design Costs

[Storm the Field 5302]

Any landscapers here or recent customers care to shed a little light for me on a subject area I'm not at all familiar with?

I had a quick question about what my expectations should be regarding how much to pay in design fees. HomeAdvisor says that a fair range is anywhere from 5-15% of your total budget and that hourly design rates are typically $75 to $150 per hour.

Let's say I have a total budget somewhere around $25K. $2500 (20 hours at $125/hr) just on design seems kind of hard to swallow. 

[HeHateMe 888]

I had an idea of what I wanted and set up a few meeting.  After multiple quotes I went with the company who not only met my vision but expanded on it.  They weren’t the cheapest and they weren’t the most expensive, but I felt comfortable with them and loved the end result.  How much of that $$ was in the design fee??? I have no fucking clue.  Also, I didn’t give them my budget, I was specific in what I wanted though.  I always figured I could scale it back if I liked the design but thought that I was getting up sold on unnecessary shit.  I’d give you the info on my guy but I’m in Scottsdale.