Choosing wedding flowers - what to think about, step by step

Inspiration

Inspiration for wedding flowers can come from many places, not only wedding associated sources. It could be a beautiful garden, the interior of a place you’ve visited, a painting or even a piece of fabric or printed paper that you love.

Pinterest, Instagram, websites and magazines are also full of inspiring images to get ideas for the style and mood, and you’ll soon see patterns emerging of what lights you up, and just as important, what doesn’t. Create a physical or digital mood board or an album of images on your phone that you can refer back to and show your wedding florist.

Theme

Do you have a theme, vibe or seasonal consciousness that guides you? Certain flowers and colours will complement and others will work against. For example, soft, blues and lilacs will not work well for an Autumnal or Woodland theme.

Colour

This is one of the key decisions you’ll make and most people are drawn to the colours of flowers and the overall colour palette and the mood they invoke, rather than the flower varieties being the deciding factor.

Think about your general preferences. Do you like bold, bright statement colours or soft, quiet, calm shades? Your wedding is probably not the time to be making a departure from what you love. Go with your heart on colour…

Your wedding florist can help you with this decision in terms of the season, your theme, your dress, venue and how your wedding flowers will appear in images of your wedding day.

 

Seasonality

We strongly recommend embracing the season that your wedding will take place in. The flowers and foliage that grows in each season makes the flowers you choose seem right in time and place. Eg spring flowers in Autumn or festive type flowers in Summer seem ‘off’.

It’s also more cost effective, as flowers in season are at their lowest prices. Locally grown flowers are available through Spring, Summer and Autumn which if you love florals like our natural, British garden style, these locally grown flowers will make a huge difference to the overall look.

Your dress

Should the flowers make a statement or recede. This will depend on factors such as the style, colour and intricacy of the dress you choose.

Venue 

Different wedding venues suit different styles of flower arrangements, so keep your venue’s style and setting in mind when thinking about the wedding flowers you’d love to have. The flowers for a rustic barn wedding or more informal marquee will differ from those suited to a classic, Georgian or Victorian ballroom or grand dining room. For example, you may love the informality of milk churns filled with flowers but these flower arrangements would look out of place in a Georgian hotel room in Winter.

 

Favourite flowers 

Have you any favourite flowers or flowers with special significance to you?  Consider the season when listing these and your florist can certainly help guide you here.

Budget 

Set aside a realistic budget for flowers based on your overall budget and on information provided by wedding planners and florists.

Do you wish only flowers to carry or wear such as your bridal bouquet, bridesmaids bouquets and buttonholes? Or are venue flowers important too to create an atmosphere? 

All florists should be able to give you some guide prices at the initial enquiry stage. 

Snapdragon Edinburgh publishes prices online for our Wedding Party Floral collection and also a guide to our bespoke wedding flowers services with example prices in the brochure ‘Your Wedding Florals- A Guide’. We email out this brochure to you when you make an enquiry.

Deciding on a Florist 

Florists each have their own style, methods and techniques for creating. For example, opulent or natural? Minimalist or abundant? Sustainable techniques or not? Do you love their previous work and does their style suit the vision you have? Do their prices suit your budget? Have they answered queries clearly and within a reasonable time frame? Have they been recommended to you?

Consider all these aspects when deciding. It’s unlikely that cost alone will be the overriding factor in deciding which florist you book. It’s like choosing your wedding venue or wedding dress - you’ll know the right one when the time comes.

Next steps

If you’d like to find out more about our wedding flowers services and options please visit our Wedding Flowers page here.