Wedding Flowers

Being a keen gardener that I am and a passionate flower lover I thought it seemed right that I did my own wedding flowers, this included choosing, ordering and purchasing, unpacking, re hydrating, finding a million buckets to rehydrate, arranging said flowers into pretty jars and bouquets and transporting to the venues. If you are a bride to be and you want some advice and tips this is what I learnt, and see my results. I did have the help of my grandma who actually turned out to have an eye for flower arranging, this definitely helped and two aunts.

Choosing Your Flowers

Only choose flowers you like, obvious I know but you will get caught up in so many flowers to choose. I chose flowers that were in season, Yes I love sunflowers, sweet peas, aquilegia, echinacea to name a few but they are not in season in spring (at the time of our wedding) !!!! With this in mind, bear in mind when you’re getting married! My list of flowers I bought, very naughty but I had to buy from the holland auctions as I couldn’t buy them from the UK because I couldn’t open up an account as a non trader. I used www.trianglenursery.co.uk who I was extremely pleased with, they were very helpful and the flowers were all of good quality

1×25 chrysant san. country

1×50 sweet williams mixed

1×50 iris blue magic

1×50 clematis blue

1×10 peony Kansas

1×10 carnation spr. bridal white

1×20 rose belle rose

1×10 alstroemeria lemon

1×50 astrantia roma

1×20 rose a-1

1×25 tanacetum single vegmo

1×50 alstroemeria mix (short)

1×25 gypsophila gypso king

1×50 anemone galil pastel

1×25 eryngium thistle aquarius questar

1×50 freesia mixed col bunch

1 x20 Lilac Madame Florent Stepman

1 x50 Tulips Rainbow mix Single

We used all the flowers in the above, including extra bits from the garden such as:

• Moss
• Dogwood tips branches with leaves
• Red acer branches leaves
• Ivy
• Twisted Hazel branches
• Silver Birch branches

I had them delivered on the wednesday so they could hydrate on the wednesday ready for me to arrange thursday and friday ready for the big day saturday. All my flowers were in water containers throughout and the bouquets were in water until they were needed on the sat. I would definitely recommend giving them a day to hydrate and two days preparing the flowers, obviously it depends on how many people are helping and how many arrangements you’re doing. My gran, myself and my aunts did the following:

• 4 Bouquets
• 14 Crook jars (Large Jars)
• 30 Table jars (Smaller Jars)
• 8 Buttonholes
• 2 Wellies
• 2 Watering cans
• 8 Table name jars
• Flowers for the wooden Crook including the silver birch frame

My top tips for doing your own wedding flowers

1. I used pinterest and numerous wedding books for ideas and inspiration. Also for rough colour schemes.
2. Choose flowers in season (what will be flowering at the time of your wedding) not only is it cheaper but its alot more natural.
3. Only choose flowers you like! and flowers you want to work with, I avoided ones I knew were poisonous eg Euphorbia and Lily of the Valley.
4. Work out what you want to make eg how many bouquets, button holes etc
5. I went for the smallest amount I could buy of each flower, however some you may want to use more of. You will never be able to tell how many stems you need for each of the arrangements and also bear in mind that not all the flowers will be out in time, the peonys weren’t out.
6. Have them delivered with time for you to take into account hydrating them! As soon as your flowers are delivered cut the ends off diagonally I took a centimeter some more, then put them straight into buckets of water. Mine took a day, but if you’re working with them in water and they are staying in water then im sure you can work with them straight away, just keep them in water.
7. Don’t panic there is always your garden, friends and families gardens to take some flowers and foliage (ask permission first). Then if all else fails you have supermarket flowers.
8. Don’t try to overdo things, if you aim to do 100 vases, 10 bouquets etc yes this will take a long time, and doing it yourself in a short amount of time will be nearly impossible. Set realistic goals you can always do more if you have time! Do the basics first.
9. I took all the flowers I wanted for the bouquets first then put them into separate buckets, this meant that I could use all the other flowers for everything else. I didn’t put the bouquet together I just cherry picked the flowers I liked. The putting of the bouquets was done the day before and tied with raffia on the day of the wedding.
10. Choose a theme to suit you and your flower arranging abilities. Pinterest is great for simple ideas and also some complex ideas. You can always copy.
11. Finally prepare transportation of your precious works of art, my aunt made dividers within the cardboard boxes which worked perfectly and we managed to transport the flowers in the jars full of water in the car for 20 minute drive.

Good luck! And have an amazing day!