You have set your date, got your venue, booked your photographer and your now working your way through the next thing on your to do list; wedding flowers, where to start? Often when I meet with couples to chat about their wedding flowers they say that they find it hard to visualise what the designs will look like, which I can totally understand if your not someone like myself who is surrounded by flowers on a regular basis it must feel somewhat daunting. With that in mind I hope you find this insightful post I have compiled useful.
The Venue
The best place to start is usually with your venue, let it guide you with the overall style and tone for your big day. For example with our wedding venue being at the seaside in Whitstable we have been shaped by the style of the venue itself and where it is located and decided to have a beach luxe feel (well the name is debatable as I’m calling it beach luxe where as Steve has opted for beach chic!). If you’re having a barn type venue then naturally it leans more towards a more rustic possibly even woodland style and your decor will then be based along those lines to compliment your venue.
The Season
Depending on the time of year you are getting married this may have some influence on the colour pallet of your wedding flowers which you decide to choose for your big day. Autumn weddings could consist more of warmer tones of yellows, reds, oranges and burgundies. Summer; bright and vibrant ‘happy’ colours and spring more soft pastel shades mixed with zingy greens. Winter could be more sultry/muted shades with wintry whites and a mix of interesting textures.
Like seriously how did anyone ever plan a wedding before Pinterest was around? I am a huge fan of pinterest it is such a fantastic visual tool and as most of your probably already know we create mood boards using pinterest for each of our couples. Again as we find it helps to get an idea of how things will look and how your wedding flowers will tie in with other elements of your day. Now the only slight downside of pinterest is that sometimes I feel it can give a false impression of reality, what you need to remember when looking at the images is that the majority on there have been shot by professional photographers so the lighting is different, the images may be set in completely different setting then to that of your venue (something to bare in mind), they would have shot the image at a certain angle etc. From a flower point of view the colours of certain varieties can be miss leading again due to the light or perhaps if a filter has been used on the image so all I would say is to remember to be open minded. Use the images as inspiration but don’t strive to replicate as you will never, ever create the exact same design/image/composition again and you will only end up disappointed. Besides you want your day to be completely unique to you and not a carbon copy of someone else’s wedding.
Details
With flowers you can get a bit bogged down with thinking you have to know each exact flower variety that will be used in your arrangements, couples often say to me ‘ I know nothing about flowers apart from the obvious such as roses’ to which I always reply it’s not a problem. It’s more about creating the overall mood/vibe of your day. One of my freelance girls said to me recently ‘Joanne where do you get the inspiration/ideas for your designs as I don’t really see you referring to any images or drawings is it just all in your head?’ The answer to that would be yes, I see a vision, a mood in my mind of the overall day itself not just the flowers that’s why when I meet with my couples I will ask them to bring along as much information as they can that helps me to build a picture of their day as a whole. As for me the flowers are an extension of your invites, dresses, signage, decor etc. and shouldn’t be treated as a completely separate element as they all should harmonise together complimenting each other. It’s also important to stay open minded with flower varieties, you could have your heart set on having peonies only to find that they are not in season when you get married, again there are always ways around it. It’s more so about creating the overall ‘look’ that you envisage whether it be romantic, botanical, bohemian, urban industrial etc.
From Initial concept through to the big day
The best way to illustrate the advice given above is probably by showcasing two of our couples who’s weddings we have had the pleasure of working on to highlight how the overall concept and mood was carried through to their big day.
Amy and Andrew with their wedding being at the end of November decided to embrace the time of year with an Autumn meets Winter wedding, you can see the initial board we created for them here. With a colour scheme of warm autumnal oranges, coppers and burgundies paired with more wintry colours of navy and white. Amy’s dress was a show stopping gold sequin number so splashes of gold were also incorporated into the decor too with the vases, sequin table cloths and crab apples and pine cones sprayed gold. She wore stunning navy velvet Yves Saint Laurent shoes (seriously are were swoon worthy!). So we sourced navy velvet ribbon to wrap round the stems of the bouquets. The room at Hampton Court House where they had their wedding breakfast had reddish-orange coloured walls so the warm autumnal shads of the flowers worked perfectly with the room. Rather then trying to incorporate lighter colour flowers and decor which would have just clashed.
Sammy and Chris had a romantic luxe wedding you can see the initial board we created for them here. Their reception venue was held at the beautiful Addington Palace, a stately home with ornate features and a grand fire place in the great hall. They opted for tall crystal candelabra’s which were perfect for the style of venue and on the fire place we created a hanging flower curtain installation which provided a stunning back drop to their top table. We opted for crystal droplets to be incorporated with the hanging flowers to tie in with the crystal candelabra’s from the other tables. Big blousy blooms such as roses and hydrangeas featured throughout their designs in keeping with the overall feel and mood.
I hope this has helped you with your wedding flowers and where to start especially with initial ideas, colours etc. Got a burning question to ask? Email us at hello@joannetruby.co.uk and will try our best to help.
Image Credits: Carey Sheffield | Brighton Photo | Butler-Madden Weddings
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