Wedding flowers are nothing new. Roman brides and grooms both wore garlands of flowers to symbolise new life and fertility and, more recently, brides wore orange blossoms in their hair to represent purity and fruitfulness. During Victorian times, lovers sent each other flowers to convey different qualities and emotions. These associations were adopted for bride’s bouquets and some brides still use them today.
When it comes to flowers, forget about fashion and choose something you like the look and smell of. Remember that scent is important, especially in your bouquet as it’s relatively close to your face! ‘Blousey’ romantic flowers such as peonies, English garden roses and hydrangeas are currently very popular, as are bouquets consisting of one flower type or colour. SImplicity and elegance seems to be the key to current flower trends, along with using wonderful ribbon to tie or bind the stems.
Current wedding favourites include:
arum lilies – these large, glossy lilies traditionally come in white, but are now available in vibrant colours too. Carry a bouquet or even a single lily.
roses – everyone’s favourite flowers and a regular feature in wedding flowers. Shades of pinks and whites are popular colour choices at the moment.
lily of the valley – the ultimate in romance with a fabulous scent. This can be very expensive, so choose it only in season, and stick to a small posy!
peonies – another extremely popular flower, bear in mind that you can only get peonies in may, june and november.
freesias – bright colours and a wonderful scent make these a favourite for bouquets.
ivy and jasmine – these trailing plants are often chosen for flowing ‘waterfall’ bouquets.
Matching the season
‘These days you can get almost any kind of flower at any time of the year,’ says Sheila Hurst, a spokesperson for the Society of Florists, but you may prefer something to suit the season of your wedding:
- spring – daffodils, narcissi, bluebells, freesia, tulips, hyacinth
- summer – roses, hydrangea, stephanotis, lysianthus, sunflowers, sweet peas, delphinium, larkspur
- autumn – chrysanthemums, wheat, euphorbia, hypericum berries, alstromeria, gerbera
- winter – ivy, lilies, orchids, hippeastrum, dark red roses, dendrobium
The colour of love
Last, but by no means least, you’ll want to choose flowers that fit in with the overall colour scheme of your wedding. ‘Girls often give us swatches of material from their own and their bridesmaids’ dresses so that we can match them exactly,’ says Sheila Hurst.
Ingrid Collins, a colour consultant and chartered psychologist from London, suggests that certain colours are particularly good choices for weddings:
- white the traditional bridal colour, is a good catch-all colour for weddings as it contains all the colours of the spectrum and therefore all their qualities.
- red is the colour of blood and a symbol of family ties.
- orange is the colour of lust!
- yellow is a sunny, optimistic colour
- green is a very balancing colour, as it’s in the centre of the spectrum
- blue is calming and serene, but bear in mind that blue flowers are hard to come by!
- pale violet represents spirituality.