A couple of weeks back I received an email from a reader asking if I could pull together a feature on Spring wedding flower inspiration…
"Hi Annabel, I really love Love My Dress, I have been reading it since before I got engaged and I have used your advice in planning my wedding already, I am hoping you can help me with a particular question.
I am getting married in Wales on the 8th of May this year. I did live in the UK for a year and a half in 2008-2009 but I am Australian and my Fiancé and I live here. I am having a little trouble finding out
what flowers will be in season in May. I am also really not sure what I want because I love so many flower looks! My Bridesmaids are wearing green, so since foliage is green I think I could use any colour. But I do know I prefer pale colours. I was wondering if you might be able to write a post about spring flowers or something?"
In order to help me respond to this query, I consulted two professional florists, Jay Archer and Philippa Craddock. Here's what they said…
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, wunderweib.de
Philippa Craddock Flowers…
It is always a delight when the new season flowers arrive at market, and just now the flower markets are brimming with the most gorgeous spring flowers. In this case, the brief that Annabel supplied was from one of her readers/brides to be, whose bridesmaids will be wearing green dresses. The bride wants spring flowers and she prefers paler colours. Depending on her style and the atmosphere she wishes to create, there are a number of gorgeous flowers for her to consider.
Delicate lily of the valley is a fabulously classic choice, made super popular by style icon Grace Kelly and more recently by the Duchess of Cambridge. Highly scented hyacinths work beautifully within table designs, be careful though not to use too many or their scent can become a little overpowering.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Philippa Craddock
Sweat peas are utterly divine and create the most fabulous, relaxed bouquets; mixing paler colours together or grouping single colours both look equally fabulous. They also work well as small hand tied posies in eclectic containers such as jam jars and milk bottles, tied with raffia.
Stocks are one of my trusty favourites, they work fabulously well grouped en masse or used as part of a more classic design, together with foliage and roses. They are also one of the best choices if you are looking for a traditional English country garden flower. Generous bundles of narcissi can look very chic, preferably spiralled hand ties of paperwhites placed into a variety of clear glass vases.
Both peonies and ranunculus are two of the most popular bridal flowers, for their full heads of ruffled petticoats. Mixed with just a little foliage, perhaps hosta leaves, peonies will create a very bold bouquet and ranunculus, mixed with a smaller flower such as gypsophila, create a perfect country cottage style bouquet.
Lilac is both a fabulous filler and a leading lady in its own right, used by itself you can form fabulous contemporary designs, or grouped with roses and plenty of foliage, a more classic design…
And finally tulips, with their fabulous simplicity and huge array of colours, can make perfect and stylish table centre designs…
As an alternative to cut flowers, potted spring bulbs can also look gorgeous on tables and as focal designs. Pot white hyacinths, grape hyacinths and narcissi into different sized hand painted clay pots and finish with Spanish moss to cover the soil. Team with potted herbs such as rosemary and an abundance of high and low clear glass hurricane vases, each filled with a church candle.
Mix them up and place grouped in the centre of round tables, or along the middle of stretched tables, to create a truly romantic and fantastic table display. At the end of the day give each of your guests one of the pots as a fabulous memento, or keep them yourself, popping the bulbs into your own garden and creating a usable herb garden – a truly romantic reminder of your spring wedding year after year!
Jay Archer Floral Design…
Spring. A time to throw open your windows, breath in the fresh air and bask in the seasonal glory of lighter evenings and pretty garden flowers.
Spring is an old romantic’s delight- full of heady scents and pretty pastel shades. Although many typical spring flowers have actually been available for a few months by now, it is now when they’re at their most fragrant and beautiful best. No other season hosts such an abundance of fragrant, sensational flowers; scented paperwhites, hyacinths, magnolia, muscari, lilac and blossom are plentiful as are less fragrant tulips, ranunculus and daffodils.
May treats us to precious lily of the valley in white or gentle blush pink and also, dreamy gardenia. It is around this time, that we see the first of the Summer flowers such a scented garden roses, delphiniums and alliums…
If you are planning a Spring time wedding, consider softer shades in sugar pink, delicate lilac, pure white and rich creams. Gentle hints of blue and silver-green foliage such as rosemary and eucalyptus will complement each other too and unusual, iridescent begonia leaves become readily available.
You could also consider the meaning of flowers; gardenia means ‘secret love’ and ‘purity’, while lily of the valley means ‘return of happiness’… surely making both a even more perfect choice for that spring time wedding.
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Huge thanks to Jay Archer and Philippa Craddock for contributing to this piece.
I got married on the first day of Spring, March 2009, so thought I'd finish this piece by including a little about my own flowers. I purchased my bouquets which consisted of beautiful peonies and sring narcissi, but everything else was grown and supplied by my husband. They included a spring magnolia tree {which blossomed the day of our wedding!}, spring narcissi as table centres and helebore flower heads, which my husband thought looked nice floating in water…
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2009, Karen McGowran
What spring flowers are you going for? Have you any spring flower advice or ideas you'd like to share? Let's get some foral talk on the go this afternoon 🙂
You can see more floral inspiration here on Love My Dress.
Much love all,
Annabel
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Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
