Penny’s Top Tips
Planning a wedding is such an exciting task, but it can be daunting and a little stressful. Here are a few pieces of advice to help you on your way, beginning with where to splash out and where to save, as wedding costs can soon start to spiral.
Definitely splash out on the bride’s bouquet – it will be in most of the photographs and will be a lovely reminder of your day. For your bridesmaids’ bouquets choose one flower like gypsophila or cow parsley and have just that en masse. It will look effective and classy and is less costly than trying to make smaller versions of the bride’s bouquet.
If you are getting married in church and then going on to a venue and you need to prioritise between the two, focus on the flowers for the venue. Churches tend to be quite beautiful anyway and once your guests arrive in all their finery, they will dress it up. Your party will be spending much longer at the venue, so prioritise the table centres and top table, as these are the flowers everyone will be looking at for longest. On that note, either go with high arrangements, so your guests can see across the table underneath them, or go low, so that people can see over them. You don’t want people peering around peonies all night to try and chat and you certainly don’t want them moving the arrangements!
If you decide to decorate the church and money is no object then a floral door arch, font top, pedestals and pew ends are gorgeous, but here again you can be clever. The door arch will be very flower greedy and is seen very briefly. If you choose to have pew ends, however, they look very pretty and can even be reused at your venue to decorate the chairs of the bridal party, stair ways or perhaps the top table.
It hardly needs saying, but these days buttonholes are only really needed by the bridal party. For the mothers of the bride and groom, just go for a more girly buttonhole.
In high summer and autumn, foliage can be put to very good use to add height, colour and interest. In spring and early summer, one needs to be a little careful as new leaf growth may be too soft and might wilt.
Finally, if there is a flower that you really must have, find out when it is in season and plan your wedding for then. It is true that growers can work wonders these days and you can sometimes get peonies in January and tulips in August, but they will be expensive and not hardy. Flowers are happiest and most plentiful when they are in season. Wedding flowers have to be tough and last many hours in top condition, so its best to give them the best possible chance!