Wedding Flower Guide

Are you a fall bride, a spring bride, a color my world girl, or a classically green and white gal? Whatever your wedding scheme, let your flowers speak of your style, your personality, and as the natural reflections of your big day!

So, this Farmer has had his share of wedding flower fun. Rich, bold colors to soft palettes to all those in between have been requested from bridal clients of mine. Whether you are just engaged, jetting down to city hall for a nuptial drive by, or still a little girl dreaming of that special day, keep in mind some tips and pointers on wedding flowers for your bridal debut.

Think about the season. Money is always a factor with flowers, but sometimes Mother Nature can help out the pocket book. Greenery, fall leaves, winter limbs, summer blooms can all enhance the wedding flower collection for next to nothing. All those flowers from the florist were grown somewhere, so utilize some garden blossoms for filler or a showstopper! To me, some of the most beautiful arrangements are those that mix florist and garden flowers. Keep the season in mind to fill in with natural elements for your celebration.

Fall…what a time for rich colors and a bounty to cut right out of the garden! Pyracantha, grasses, dried flowers, fall foliage and limbs, and feathers are so beautiful this time of year. Make awesome accents with beauty berry, wheat, pumpkins, lilies, and sunflowers too!

Winter…something romantic and complementary about a winter mix of flowers with bare sticks and limbs. Candlelight too adds warmth to the chilly season as well as ambiance.

Spring…this season almost dictates its color palette. Fresh hues of pinks, greens, blues, and shades in between are so much fun for this time of year. This is also a great time for wonderful potted arrangements and plantings too.

Summer…the classic time for weddings! Cool themes, like blue and yellow and white and green, bring some coolness to this heated time. Even late summer, with its plethora of ferns, drying hydrangeas, limbs of greenery, and full grown gardens is a super time to get married.

· Living arrangements…I know I’ve touched on this before, but don’t forget that planted compositions can sometimes outlast cut arrangements and be planted in the garden after the wedding. These make a nice break from cut arrangements placed on everything that sits still.

· Remember the three “F’s” for your wedding…food, flowers, and fotos! Guests always remember what they eat and see, and YOU need to remember the event too…good photography is the key to capturing this momentous occasion. Make a statement with quality, not necessarily quantity, flower arrangements. Amazing arrangements at crucial spots make such a statement and keep an air of elegant restraint to a big event.

· When in doubt, green and white is the way to go. Classy and elegant any time of the year, this combo is always fresh, cool, and totally appropriate for a wedding. Highlights of something blue makes a delightful scene and just seems to fit right in a wedding theme. If pink or lavender or any other color is your favorite, then incorporate it as your “signature color” into this neutral scheme for a punch.

· Flowers and plants can be great gifts for the guests as well. Seeds, bulbs, and herbs make wonderful favors and most herbs have a meaning…rosemary for remembrance, basil for love, sage for wisdom, lavender for devotion. Incorporating these into your ensemble is quite thoughtful and enjoyable for your guests. I even did the flowers for a rehearsal dinner with all herbs as the centerpieces…mounds of the herbs were the planted in dish gardens and provided meaning and fragrance for the evening.

· Bouquets…this is one of those places I encourage brides to spend some thought and money on. These will be seen for years in your pictures and these will be the most personal flowers of the day. If the bouquet has a lovely scent, then how special will it be for you to smell lilies, freesias, roses, or gardenias and be transported by memory right back to your wedding. The bridesmaids’ bouquets can serve double duty as additional centerpieces or table decorations at the reception too.

· “My colors are blush and bashful…I have chosen two shades of pink, one is much deeper than the other…” (Steel Magnolias) If you have a color scheme in mind and it makes you happy, go for it! Uber trendy themes may be schematics to steer clear from, but if you are set on blush and bashful, it is your wedding, honey, and your prerogative…at least for this day!

· Regardless of the time of year, be honest with your floral designer about your needs, wants, and wishes and open to interpretation on those. There is nothing more satisfying than a happy bride enjoying her day surrounded by her favorite flowers, and, like the marriage itself, the relationship between bride and florist is paved with communication. Enjoy your bridal days and make a lifetime of memories graced by the beauty of nature!

photography by Delaney Holliman