Floral fantasy

Choosing a theme for your wedding is essential to express your personality and style, and to ensure all elements of the wedding work together to create the Wow factor you’ve always dreamed of for your perfect day.

Flowers are a great place to start when deciding on a theme, they come in every variety and colour imaginable, and are used in every part of the wedding from the wedding ceremony to the reception.

Whether you want a modern masterpiece or an elegant vintage feel, you’ll find inspiration from flowers.

History of Wedding Bouquets

There is controversy as to when the wedding bouquets first came into play at weddings.  One history states that because of the plague in England, people used to wear spices and other strong smelling substances to ward off the bad smells that they believed carried the plague infection.  This prompted women to want to carry strong smelling flowers in wedding bouquets when they were married so they would not contract the plague.

The wedding bouquet then turned into a symbol of the bride being a “maid in bloom,” which meant that the woman was becoming an official adult and that when she became older and smelled the same flowers she held when she was married, it would bring her back to a pleasurable memorable state.

Other history buffs believe that women carrying wedding bouquets are showing off their fertility and the fact that they are ready to start a family.  Additionally, this history states that the various types of the flowers present in the wedding bouquets have a specific significance.  For example, consider the following:

• Marigold signifies the endurance of the couple’s love over time.
• Dill and Marigolds both signify lust between the couple.
• Carnations and Roses, both of the color red, although never mixed with white, signifies everlasting love (this is why many romantic wise quotes refer to roses).
• Yellow flowers signify best friend ships.
• White signifies death in some cultures and is rarely used.

Choose Wisely

The wedding flowers to be used should be chosen wisely.  The color of the wedding bouquets must match perfectly with not only the bride’s gown, but the rest of the decorations as well.  Additionally, the bridesmaid dresses must match with the flowers, too or there could be a serious mismatch on the couple’s hands, which, for some people, signifies bad luck for the couple in the years to come.  Additionally, many people take a lot of stock in tradition and consider mismatched wedding bouquets as a sign of a mismatched couple.  If there is one thing the couple of honor does not need it is bad luck on their most important day of their lives by having mismatched wedding bouquets.

Ideally, you should make a list of the people that will need flowers in the wedding party, the flower that you need at the ceremony and the quantity.

The flowers that you have selected for the wedding must complement the theme or style of the wedding. You will find plenty of information on the internet in this regard. For theme weddings, it becomes a must to hire a florist, as he or she will provide valuable suggesting in this regard.

Also, you need to know that all kinds of flowers are not available all year round. Choose flowers which are in their prime season. Also, whether the wedding is going to take place indoor or outdoor will have an impact on your flower selection. There are certain varieties of flower that do not hold up amidst humidity. Fragrance, shape, size and colors are few other factors which you should consider. Try to minimize the use of white flower, as they don’t get along well with the photographs.

The budget allocated for the wedding flowers will also be responsible for your selection. Orchids look amazing but these are slightly expensive. Go for the more generic yet beautiful flowers. Also, avoid buying them in festive season. If your wedding is in or around a wedding season then you should order flowers well in advance, otherwise you have to buy them at higher prices.

If you like to learn more about wedding flowers and how to send flowers to Germany, check out http://www.sendflowersabroad.org

The most important thing to do is give yourself enough time to shop around.  If you’ve already waited until the last minute, we’ll get to that in a bit!  There are hundreds of hair flower vendors online, they have their own websites and are congregated on craft sites like Etsy and 1000 Markets.  Spend a few day browsing through as many as you can find.  While browsing, there are two things to note; the first is any vendor that makes flowers that fit your personal style, and the other is to note the ones that make custom orders.  Odds are that in order to get exactly what you want, you’re going to need it to be custom made.

In order to get the perfect custom wedding hair flower you have to have an idea of what it should look like.  Each vendor will have their own style that they will put onto the flower, but you have to have some base ideas.  White hair flowers are the most common, but you can have it match anything you want.  It will probably take a couple of weeks to get your flower, so be sure to plan enough ahead.

What do you do if you’ve waited to the last minute?  A simple search for hair flowers will give you a lot of options.  Some retailers specialize in making wedding style flowers with feathers, beads, and the like, so you should be able to find something that will work.  The problem that you’re going to run into is finding enough of the same ones for your bridesmaids.  Most hair flowers are one of a kind, so you may have to think of something else for them.

As you can see, it’s important to plan ahead, but not totally necessary.  There are enough bridal hair flower vendors out there that you shouldn’t have much problem coming up with something that will work with your wedding dress.

You can literally spend thousands of dollars on wedding flowers, but most brides don’t have that kind of budget so how can you get fabulous wedding flowers without paying a fortune?

Know your stuff…

You need to know what kind of flowers are in season and what flowers are easiest for the florist to work with. The easiest way to find this information (aside from surfing the net) is to ask your florist, they probably do hundreds of weddings a year and are going to be well versed in what flowers are best in your bouquet and which are going to be the cheaper option and which are actually available in season.

Roses and Calla Lillies are always a popular choice. You can get roses year round and callas for most of the year. Just remember if you have a Valentines Day wedding planned expect to pay more for your flowers, it’s a well known fact the price of flowers, roses in particular, can double and sometimes triple over this “holiday” period. Red wedding flowers such as traditional red roses are an extremely popular wedding flower for brides and their bridal party, but roses, especially red ones, are in hot demand on Valentines Day!

DIY Wedding Flowers

If you have the time and inclination doing your own wedding flower arrangements can be a great way to save money and put your own personal touch on things. There are many instructional videos online and it would be a good idea to watch a few of these. The most important thing is to practice! Don’t leave it to the day before your wedding to put together your bridal bouquet, it will most likely end in tears.

A great alternative to fresh flowers is to use silk wedding flowers, these can often be cheaper if you can find decent quality flowers at a wholesaler, and they have the added benefit of lasting forever!