Flora

I promised my Aunt I'd throw a post up about wedding flowers.

I've been collecting pictures online for a while now, mostly from The Knot and Offbeat Bride as inspiration and to try to decide the styles, shapes, colors and kinds of flowers I like the best. The plan at the moment is to do most of the centerpieces and ceremony arrangements ourselves and to have a florist do the bouquets and boutonnieres. I'd like to be able to talk to a florist with general conceptual ideas and then let him or her get creative and fun with it.

Generally, the flowers should have a simple, old fashioned feel to them, like they just came out of someone's wonderful garden. (If I get really lucky, maybe they even will be...) The fabric details will all be royal blue and the floral details will be bright orange, yellow, and red.








I like this style for the pews at the ceremony, with the pretty galvanized pail and the billowy hydrangea. The white is good, but big orange carnations or marigolds would be nice too. I think the silver detail would be nice with all the warm natural wood in the church. And we can pick the pails up and take them with us to the reception site pretty easily.

At the reception, we're going to go with simple groupings of tall skinny vases with single blooms in each. Like this!


I think these are carnations and dahlias and I love the way they just float above the table with all that pretty glass below. Imagine these in those flame colors with just 4-6 blooms on a table.

The use of herbs at weddings is a pretty old and usually overlooked tradition, but I really love the idea of fresh smelling rosemary, mint, and lemon balm in among the flowers. This arrangement has mint in with zinnias. How summery and pretty is that?

Maybe a pretty pitcher full of mint with a few golden nasturtiums nestled in to put on the desert table would work for us?

I don't know logistically how sprigs of rosemary would work tied to menus or napkins (we're short on set up time between the ceremony and the reception...) but isn't this a lovely little set up?


In India, marigolds are traditional wedding flowers. They string them in gorgeous long garlands. How beautiful would a few of these look curtaining the door to the reception?



For the bouquets?
The girls should definitely have fun bright blooms. I love the one on the top of the post with the little blue buttons! And how's this for elegant?


For myself? I like the one above. And I lurve this relaxed white and slightly blue bouquet.


So I'll probably either go with some serious color, or a pretty white and blue thing, depending on the advice of my floral artist!

Of course, I haven't ruled out flower alternatives, like these gorgeous fabric (or maybe paper) blooms. How fun are they?


For other gorgeous paper and fabric flower pictures, head over to Martha Stewart Weddings (right here, actually) and don't blame me if you waste the next hour looking at all her pretty ideas.