Wedding Flower Tips

 

Tips on choosing your wedding flowers

 

Flowers can really help to make your perfect wedding day. There are so many lovely flowers and different designs to choose from that it may be difficult to know where to start. Below are a few tips:

 

It is important to set a budget for wedding flowers. Victor’s can then work within this budget and suggest the best arrangements for the cost. The cost will depend on your choice of styles and flowers.

You should try to book your wedding approximately five to six months before the wedding, if not sooner, and a meeting at approximately two months before the wedding to discuss and finalize details. Victor’s usually like to have plenty of time to source the stock and accessories for the wedding, especially if you are having something that is a bit unusual.

When deciding on wedding flowers, a good place to start is to think about using your favorite flowers. If you don't have a favorite flower, then buy a few different ones to have in your home, so you can see if there are any that you particularly like.

Prepare some ideas before you meet with us. Look in wedding magazines and the internet for ideas. There are magazines that are dedicated to wedding flowers. Look at different bouquet designs, color schemes and individual flowers to get an idea of what you like. Also, take along any sketches that you have.

Victor’s has many pictures of our own wedding designs, but also other ideas from specialist floristry magazines and floral designers.

Before meeting with us, make sure that your wedding dress, bridesmaids' dresses, venue for the wedding ceremony/reception are all finalized, so your flowers can compliment your dress design and decor of the venues.

Victor’s will be able to advise you on the style of bouquet to suit the style of your dress and also which flowers will compliment your complexion and hair color.

Take swatches of your dress and your bridesmaids dresses when you go for the meeting. If you can't get the actual fabric then try to take along something that is the same shade, for example, paint swatches. Also sketch or photograph the dresses, so we can design the bouquets to compliment the dress style - not compete with them.

Victor’s will need to know the approximate sizes and ages of the bridesmaids, so that the bouquets can be designed with their sizes/ages in mind.

Victor’s will need to have the full addresses of the venues and where the wedding party is leaving from on the day. We will need all contact telephone numbers and you need to decide on delivery times. We may need to contact the venues to discuss delivery times and any special requirements. Therefore, you need to have these contact names available.

Select flowers that you can afford. If you like a flower that is particularly expensive then look for alternatives or keep the expensive flowers to a minimum in your bouquets. Victor’s can advise you on what to use.

If you want the flowers in the church to be transferred to the reception venue, then you need to agree whether Victor’s will do this or a guest at the wedding.

Victor’s gives you the option to buy or hire out vases used at the reception venue. If you hire, then there is usually a hire charge to cover any breakages. You need to arrange with someone to return these vases back to Victor’s.

Wedding flower checklist

 

This is a checklist of the areas where flowers could be used:

Bride's bouquet

Bridesmaids' bouquets and flower girls

Headdresses for the bride and bridesmaids

Boutonnières

Corsages for the mothers

Bouquets for the mothers/friends who have helped out

Flower arrangements in the church

Flower arrangements in the reception venue

 

Wedding traditions

 

Flowers have been part of wedding ceremonies since at least Roman times, when both the bride and groom wore garlands.

 

In Elizabethan times people would give the groom sprigs of rosemary that symbolized faithfulness, to ensure future happiness for the bride. Some brides carried sprigs of rosemary tied with lace.

 

During Victorian times the bride's posy would include myrtle, a token of love. During the late nineteenth century shower bouquets were popular and they usually contained orange blossom, a symbol of chastity. Victorian brides would plant cuttings of myrtle from their bouquets into their gardens, to use in the bridal bouquets of their own daughters. Princess Anne's bridal bouquet in 1973 used myrtle that was planted from Queen Victoria's bouquet in 1840.

 

The Greeks developed 'The Language of Flowers' where individual flowers had a meaning. The Victorians became very interested in these meanings in 1820, and lovers would communicate by exchanging flowers. It was popular during the Victorian period for the bride to spell out words through her choice of bouquet flowers, for example love (using lilies, orange blossom, violets and euphorbia).

 

Another tradition is that of the groom's buttonhole. A single man would pick the flower early in the morning while the dew was still on the ground, and then put it in his pocket for twenty-four hours. He would be happy in marriage if the flower were still 'fresh' the following morning.

 

The tradition for the bride to throw her bouquet is also an old one. The bride throws the bouquet backwards and over her shoulder towards the guests when she leaves for her honeymoon. The lady who catches it is supposed to be the next one to be married.