Choosing Flowers For The Wedding Day
No wedding day is complete without the all important wedding bouquet and wedding flowers. On an average, the flowers take up 8 to12% of the wedding budget. These include bridal and bridesmaids’ bouquets, church flowers and reception flowers. Flowers add the ambience to the wedding day and should match the formal or casual theme of the wedding. Flowers for the wedding day can follow the wedding theme and colours and could be in bold, pastel or neutral colours, with simple, elaborate arrangements or contemporary arrangements including berries, fruits, herbs and grasses or traditional roses and lilies with baby’s breath. No matter what the style, colour or theme, make sure neither the bride nor groom is allergic to any flower or component in the arrangement chosen for the wedding. A wedding day can do without the two main people sneezing!
Flowers are available during all the seasons, though they are a lot cheaper when you use seasonal flowers instead of hot house or exotic imported flowers for the wedding day. Arrangements too can vary, and everything depends on the individual budget.
Bouquets can be posies, cascades, sheath, hand tied or any other creative arrangement. The bridal and bridesmaids’ bouquets must complement each other and not clash with each other. Autumn weddings can use vibrant colours in rich tones of deep yellow, burgundy, purples, oranges, reds or rust. Winter weddings can use wonderful whites and silver-platinum combinations. Summer and spring weddings can use citrus tones and a battery of pastels. The reception flowers for the wedding day are most often coordinated to match the bridesmaids’ dresses, which are in the usual wedding colour theme. These may be matching shades and colours or cool and elegant contrasts. The church decoration on the wedding day can go from pew end flowers, pedestal arrangements for the entrance and altar and garlands for pews and the church door.
The reception flowers can use large pedestal arrangements or a garland for the entrance with a low and long arrangement for the main or top table that seats the couple. The room itself will need a few large pedestal arrangements or garlands as part of the general decor. The number of arrangements will depend on the size of the room and the budget. Centrepieces are a must for a wedding day and can be simple, relaxed posies or sophisticated and ornate arrangements. It dresses up the table but must not block the guests’ view of the others at the table. Generally, low or tall and thin arrangements are best. Table flowers must not be strongly scented and for a romantic mood, candles can be added.
The cake table will need a complementary arrangement which can be replaced by incorporating flowers with the cake. The most common is to have flowers that match the bouquets between the cake layers or incorporated in a cascade top to bottom or reverse. All cake bakeries have good decorators who can guide brides on the choice of flowers for the cake on their wedding day. Cake flowers must not be poisonous and must not shed petals, pollen or leaves.
No wedding day is complete without flowers - whether tulips, peonies, orchids or just irises and daises. Flowers give a wedding day that something special that nothing else can.
