Roses or peonies? White or pink? Huge bouquet or tiny nosegay? Where to start? Debra Prinzing, founder of Slowflowers.com and author of The 50 Mile Bouquet and Slow Flowers, helps us out with the latest floral trends and gives us great ideas for gorgeous, trend-setting bouquets for your wedding.
1. Cascading bouquets are back! We haven’t seen them much since the 1990s, when bridal bouquets were highly-engineered affairs, with every single rose stem or calla lily wired into a sculptural structure. Now emerging: a highly textured, lushly gathered collection of garden flowers with a softly cascading tumble of vines and tendrils.
Think: Unstructured, voluminous and romantic. As if the bride has walked through a meadow and filled her arms with flowers.
2. Ribbons as fashion. Bouquet stems have long been ribbon-wrapped, often with the cut ends tucked or folded and secured with a pearl-headed pin.
Now emerging: Silks, taffetas, failles, velvets—all in beautiful strips of shimmering color—trailing from the wrapped or unwrapped stem. It’s the details that add a luxe finish to a lovely bouquet, with French ribbons a top choice for floral designers and brides alike.
Think: Choosing your ribbon palette is as important as choosing the bridal gown, shoes and flowers.
3. Bright pastels and saturated jewel tones. Paler floral palettes have populated wedding bouquets and driven demand for flowers like the blush-toned ‘Café au Lait’ dahlias.
Next season, color palettes promise to be richer and more vivid, reflecting a deeper saturation of petal color. Watermelon pink, orchid purple, cerise red—these sun-drenched hues are wooing brides who want a more vibrant flowers to hold and wear. There’s a gradual departure from an all-neutral bridal bouquet. Blush hasn’t left completely, but she’s sharing the stage with brighter hues.
4. Fantasy and novelty weddings with style. Your wedding day is your once big chance to reflect who you are as individuals and a couple, right? So why not give your guests a totally personalized expression of YOU—forget the cookie-cutter, Pinterest-dictated ceremony, attire, food or flowers.
Make every choice a statement of your attitudes, preferences and lifestyle. No gimmicks, just a customized fete! Many brides are asking for the “foraged wildflower” look, full of local, seasonal flowers with branches and greens.