Choosing Wedding Flowers
A Guide on How & What to Pick
Flowers are an integral part of a wedding: they set the mood, and bring tradition and romance to all styles of celebration.
Your budget is key to the volume and variety of flowers that you can afford for your nuptials. Depending on your geographical location and the season in which your wedding will be held, fresh flowers may be harder to come by and therefore quite an expensive addition to your special day. On average, the flowers should set you back about 8% of your total wedding budget and it is important to know what that amount is before you meet with your florist.
Wedding flower trends have definitely evolved from traditional and elaborate, to “anything goes”. Your wedding flowers are considered an extension of your personal style so don't be afraid to experiment with ideas beyond flowers, especially if you are limited financially. If you are on a tight budget though, there are a few key floral elements that should not be omitted at your wedding:
- Traditional Essentials: Bouquets, Corsages & Boutonnières
- Nice, but Not Necessary: Ceremony Décor: Pew Garlands, Alter Arrangements, and Arches, Head Table Arrangement, Guest Table Centerpiece
Click here to see all flowers or read on for handy tips and advice.
Bouquets
Bouquets are traditionally carried by the bride and her bridesmaids. Today's trends focus on tight and tidy hand tied bunches of solid colour with punchy accents. They can also be as simple as a single rose which is both elegant, and cost-effective. Colour has moved away from traditional whites and pastels to brights, and unusual palette combinations such as eggplant and chartreuse.
Corsages & Boutonnières
The people who will appreciate your expense on these wedding essentials the most are grandparents! They are also traditionally required for the groomsmen, and the parents of the bride and groom. Corsages can be unique to your style, and the style of your wedding by including non-typical additions such as dried ears of wheat, feathers, or sprigs of berries.
Ceremony Décor: Pew Garlands, Alter Arrangements, & Arches
The cost of ceremony décor can often be avoided if the setting in which you are getting married is naturally beautiful: outside against the majestic backdrop of nature, or in a beautiful old church for instance. For those whose budgets allow the luxury, ceremony décor will take your special day to the next level:
- Pew garlands attach to the pews or chairs down the aisle.
- Alter arrangements fill the space and provide a backdrop behind the officiator.
- The arch is probably the most popular ceremony accessory today and can be wrapped in greens, woven from twigs, or entwined with the beautiful bursts of colour and scents of fresh cut flowers .
Head Table Arrangement
Because the head table generally faces out to the guests, and only seats on one side, the most appropriate and traditional configuration is a low horizontal arrangement. The bridal bouquets are often arranged facing outwards along the front of the table as lovely colourful fillers.
A less traditional visitation of the head table floral application is a number of lower vases scattered from one end of the table to the other.
Centerpieces
Centerpieces provide a key area to pinch pennies in your floral budget. Fresh flowers are no longer expected and the world is your creative oyster when it comes to decorating your guests' tables. Rose petals scattered at the base of votives has been popular for a while, as has the use of fruit and veg as not only an edible, but wonderfully colourful, focal point.
If you do choose to utilize flowers as your table décor, be sure to select the height of the arrangement carefully. The rule of thumb is to stay low so your guests are not struggling to see each other. If you do choose the dramatic touch of tall arrangements, remember that the stem of the floral receptacle should be slim and the bulk of the floral arrangement should sit higher than the guests heads, and out of their direct vision.
Budget allowing, there is no end to the creative floral treatments that a florist will be able to design for your wedding. Collect inspiration wherever you can find it: tear pages out of magazines, sketch ideas off TV or from store displays. The more you do before you meet, the better you will equip your florist with a sense of your personal taste.
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