Flowers symbolize love and beauty; their colours and delicate scents transform wedding venues into magical spaces. Explore types of floral arrangements that can enhance your celebration.

Significant wedding flowers

Flowers hold a special place in wedding celebrations by not only enhancing the aesthetics of the event but also carrying symbolic meanings. We will delve into some of the most significant wedding flowers, highlighting popular and seasonal choices.

The queens of the garden – roses – are the most popular wedding flowers. For centuries, they have symbolized love, passion, and beauty. Nowadays, available in a multitude of colours, roses can be classic red, elegant white, or even unique shades like blush or peach, making them a versatile choice for any wedding theme. Another popular choice for wedding flowers is peonies. They symbolize prosperity, romance, and happy marriage. Known for their lush, full blooms and sweet fragrance, peonies are a favourite for their soft, romantic appearance. These two are also some of the best flowers for wedding bouquets.

Lilies also carry a deep symbolism in many cultures. They stand for purity, commitment, and refined beauty. Calla lilies and Asiatic lilies are especially popular in wedding arrangements for their elegant, sculptural shapes. Meanwhile, hydrangeas symbolize gratitude, grace, and beauty. These voluminous flowers add a lush, textural element to arrangements and are available in various colours.

There are a lot of popular wedding flower choices that can range across cultures, and these are just a few examples. Another approach is choosing seasonal wedding flowers that are characteristic of the wedding destination.

Spring is the season of new beginnings, and that is reflected in nature. There are many wedding flower options in spring, like daffodils that, by being bright and cheerful, symbolize happiness. A romantic option is cherry blossoms. Representing beauty and the transient nature of life, these delicate blooms are perfect for spring weddings.

Summer is the peak season for wedding flowers, offering many bold choices. For example, sunflowers, symbolizing adoration and loyalty, bring a bright, cheerful vibe to summer weddings. While dahlias, with their various sizes and colours, add depth to arrangements and represent inner strength and creativity. For a calming touch, you can use lavender, which symbolizes devotion and serenity in wedding floral arrangements.

Autumn is the season of harvest and that is reflected in the abundance of wedding flower options. The queens in autumn floral arrangements are chrysanthemums and asters. Representing joy and fidelity, chrysanthemums are available in rich, autumnal hues like deep reds, oranges, and yellows. But the star-shaped asters symbolize patience and elegance, often used in rustic autumn arrangements.

Winter also offers some significant wedding flower options. For example, symbolizing splendid beauty, amaryllis flowers are perfect for adding a dramatic touch to winter weddings. Meanwhile, known for their perfect, rose-like blooms, camellias symbolize admiration and perfection.

Choosing the right flowers for your wedding involves considering various factors. By incorporating traditional wedding flowers and those that are in season, you can create beautiful, culturally significant floral arrangements.

Wedding flower inspiration

Selecting the perfect flowers for your wedding is a beautiful journey that requires you to channel your style. Whether envisioning a modern, chic celebration or a nostalgic, vintage-inspired affair, the right flowers can bring your vision to life.

Some modern and timeless wedding flower ideas include a combination of classic white roses with the soft greenery of eucalyptus that creates a clean, sophisticated look. If you’re looking for something bold and colourful, consider anemones and poppies that, with their striking centres and vivid colours, make a vivid statement. A romantic option is combining soft, fragrant garden roses with delicate sweet peas that create a dreamy look.

Another way to approach wedding flower arrangements is to look for vintage wedding flower inspiration. Timeless vintage wedding flowers are tea roses and baby’s breath that add a delicate, airy feel to floral arrangements. For a rustic, country-inspired feel, incorporate wildflowers in your wedding florals. However, when opting for wildflowers, work with a florist experienced in handling wildflowers. Proper conditioning and care are essential to ensure they look their best on your wedding day because some wildflowers may be delicate and have a shorter vase life. Consult with a florist to ensure the flowers you choose are sturdy enough to last throughout the wedding day.

A tasteful approach is combining modern and vintage elements in wedding floral arrangements. A vintage-inspired flower that can look very contemporary and lately has gained popularity is amaranthus. These cascading flowers add a dramatic, vintage flair. If opting for monochromatic choices, it can have a very sleek look.

Wedding florists that will make your floral dreams come true

Choosing the right wedding florist is crucial because an expert who also understands your tastes can offer guidance on flower selection, considering seasonality, colour schemes, and venue type, while providing creative solutions to potential challenges such as budget constraints or design limitations. Not less importantly, a good florist will coordinate seamlessly with other vendors, ensuring that the floral arrangements fit into the overall wedding setup.

Staying in touch with contemporary trends is another key aspect. A florist who is aware of modern aesthetics can suggest stylish wedding floral arrangements. This includes innovative ideas like unique flower combinations, creative installations, and the use of sustainable materials, keeping your wedding trendy and environmentally friendly.

Quality and freshness of flowers are paramount, and reputable florists have access to high-quality blooms, ensuring vibrant arrangements. They know how to handle and care for flowers to maintain their freshness throughout the event, which is especially important for long wedding days or outdoor settings.

To help you find the one and only wedding florist for you, we've selected some of the best and most creative in the industry.

Anneris Flower Farm is a sustainable and environmentally conscious floral farm known for its beautiful arrangements that harmonize with nature and the seasons. The team cultivates a wide variety of flowers on their farm, ensuring that the blooms used are fresh, vibrant, and locally sourced. The floral designers at Anneris Flower Farm have a deep respect for natural beauty, ensuring that their designs are relevant to the time of year.

Matteo De Luca is a floral designer known for his unique and refined arrangements that transform wedding venues into dreamy settings and scenographies. His work is deeply inspired by nature, the colours, and the beauty that surrounds us. This allows Matteo to craft wedding floral arrangements that feel organic, yet sophisticated, showcasing his understanding of how flowers can influence ambience. His work celebrates natural beauty, offering a fresh and inspiring perspective on floral design.

Michele Castelnuovo is a floral artist who brings a unique blend of higher art training, experimentation and study into his work. With a strong foundation in artistic principles, his approach to wedding floral arrangements is sophisticated and innovative, marked by an exceptional understanding of colour and style, elevating them to the level of high art. This blend of art and floristry results in arrangements that are conceptually rich and visually striking.

Andreia Ferras passionately believes in the fusion between nature and design – her artistic approach to wedding floral arrangements blends the raw beauty of nature with refined design principles. This approach emphasizes the fleeting nature of moments, encouraging a full embrace of the present to create enduring memories. Her main inspiration comes from the simple, yet profound beauty of natural forms.

Atmosfere Botaniche is a floral design atelier transforming environments into magical spaces adorned by nature. Their wedding floral arrangements have an ethereal quality because, by combining their expert knowledge of flowers with a keen sense of design, they create settings that feel both natural and otherworldly. A key aspect of Atmosfere Botaniche’s approach is its dedication to continuous research and experimentation. The atelier takes pride in selecting, growing, and gathering many of the flowers they use in their designs.

Motif Floral is known for its contemporary and exquisite floral designs. The studio stays current with design trends, ensuring that their creations resonate with today’s couples, providing a stylish wedding backdrop. By selecting blooms that are in season and sourced from local growers, they not only ensure that each arrangement is vibrant, fresh, and environmentally friendly but also add an authentic Italian touch to their designs.

Romantic wedding flowers: infused with deep meaning and symbolism

As already mentioned, flower decorations at a wedding carry a variety of symbolic meanings, which can vary based on the types of flowers used, their colours, and their arrangements. Flowers like roses underscore the romantic nature of the event. While white flowers often symbolize purity and innocence, reflecting the pure love of the couple. Brightly coloured flowers symbolize joy, happiness, and the celebration of the couple's union. Flowers, in general, and certain blooms like orange blossoms, are symbolic of fertility and the growth of a new family. Some flowers, such as peonies and magnolias, are associated with good fortune, wealth, and prosperity, wishing the couple a prosperous future together.

The centrepiece of the wedding: bridal bouquet

The bridal bouquet is a symbol of the bride’s style and personality. There is no right or wrong – the bouquets are as many as the brides themselves. However, to start the journey to finding the right bouquet for you, let’s explore the various types of bridal bouquets.

When thinking of bridal flower bouquets, the traditional round bouquet comes to mind. This is a classic choice featuring tightly packed flowers cut to the same length and wrapped with ribbon. Another traditional but more dynamic style is a cascade or waterfall bouquet that includes flowing greenery and long-stemmed flowers. For a more relaxed and natural look, you can opt for a hand-tied bouquet where stems are loosely tied together. One of the delicate wedding bouquet styles is a posy bouquet – a small, compact bouquet usually held in one hand, featuring a round shape and adorned with ribbons or lace. But unique bridal bouquets may include slightly unconventional elements like feathers, brooches, or exotic types of flowers like succulents.

Various wedding bouquet styles can be coordinated with the overall wedding theme, atmosphere and even the type of venue. For example, elegant bridal bouquets made of classic flowers like garden roses are great for elevated celebrations and go together with minimalist wedding dresses. For a contemporary look, create clean lines and minimalist designs featuring exotic blooms or unconventional foliage to achieve modern bridal bouquets. If celebrating the wedding outdoors, embrace a natural look with rustic wedding bouquets made from wildflowers, lavender, and eucalyptus, tied with twine or burlap.

Crafting your wedding bouquet can be a rewarding and personal endeavour. DIY wedding bouquets are not just a budget-friendly and customizable option but a meaningful experience. It allows you to put your heart and creativity into every petal and stem, allowing you to explore your favourite wedding bouquet ideas and resulting in a bouquet that is uniquely yours. However, it is advisable to practice making floral arrangements and bouquets before the wedding to learn the basic techniques and make sure you can make the bouquet just as you imagined.

Wedding flower arrangements: from delicate accents to showstopper pieces

While the wedding bouquet is the centrepiece of all the wedding florals, bridal flower arrangements extend beyond that. Their quantity and variety depend on the size and style of the wedding as well as the couple’s wishes. Let’s look at the most common wedding flower arrangements.

In addition to bridal bouquets, there are various other bouquets like bridesmaids’ bouquets (smaller versions of the bridal bouquet) and toss bouquets (a smaller bouquet designed for the bouquet toss tradition). The groom typically has a boutonniere – a small floral arrangement coordinated with the bride’s bouquet. Boutonnieres can be worn also by groomsmen, fathers, and other male members of the wedding party, typically pinned to the lapel. Other types of personal flowers include flower crowns, popular with brides, bridesmaids, and flower girls.

Next, there are ceremony arrangements that mark the place where the vows are exchanged. Those include altar arrangements – large floral displays placed at the ceremony site. Leading to the altar, there can be aisle markers – small bouquets or arrangements attached to the chairs lining the aisle. The decorative focal point of the ceremony site is the wedding arch, symbolizing the threshold into a new life together. This essential element not only frames the couple as they exchange vows but also sets the tone for the entire event.

There are various styles of wedding arches, ranging from traditional arch structures typically made of wood or metal, adorned with drapery, flowers, or greenery. You can add a rustic feel to it by opting for wooden branches, twigs, or reclaimed wood and adorn it with wildflowers, burlap, or lace. For contemporary venues and couples seeking a clean, sophisticated look, choose a modern minimalist arch featuring clean lines and geometric shapes, made of metal or acrylic, adorned with minimal floral arrangements or left bare for a sleek aesthetic.

Moving on to the wedding venue, there are various types of reception floral arrangements. It all starts with the floral displays placed at the entrance of the reception venue to welcome guests. The seating chart is also usually displayed at the entrance. The reception compositions that create the overall feel are the centrepieces – wedding floral arrangements placed on dining tables. They can range from simple and low to elaborate and tall. They are usually complemented by head table or sweetheart table arrangements or special floral displays for the table where the bride and groom sit. Additional areas that can be decorated are buffet or food stations as well as the bar area. A nice and delicate touch to the reception décor is cake flowers.

Various additional wedding floral arrangements can shape the overall aesthetic of the reception venue décor and also act as modern statement pieces. Those are different kinds of hanging installations – from floral arrangements to garlands made from greenery or even string lights. For an extra dramatic and trendy feel, you can add various draperies. Floral backdrops are also common décor elements used for the ceremony, photo booth, or head table.

Wedding floral arrangements: symbolic and beautiful

The artistry and symbolism of floral arrangements at weddings cannot be overstated. They transform a space and create that unique celebratory feel of a wedding. Not less importantly, beautifully arranged flowers provide stunning backdrops for wedding photography. Moreover, flowers have long been symbols of love, purity, and new beginnings. As trends evolve and seasonal favourites come and go, one thing remains constant: the ability of flowers to evoke emotion, create atmosphere, and transform spaces into unforgettable settings where love blooms in its fullest splendour.

Author: Renāte Berga

Wedding floral designers: Anneris Flower Farm, Matteo de Luca, Michele Castelnuovo, Andreia Ferras, Atmosfere Botaniche, Motif Floral