Marrying in the Autumn or Winter does not mean that you need to be restricted when it comes to choosing floral arrangements. Some couples want their wedding to have a particular look associated with a wintry time of year. A wedding with a particular theme needs to be meticulously planned so that it doesn’t look too contrived. There are certain times of the year that lend themselves to certain themes such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day that have strong visual images to work with. Choosing plants and flowers symbolic of the time of year can give guests a sense of time and place. These can then be easily developed within the wedding flowers.
There is quite a chasm between Autumnal flowers and Winter flowers in terms of colour, style and fragrance. However, some blooms are clearly suitable for either season and – depending on the colour – can be incorporated into a winter or autumn themed wedding.
Obvious choices for Autumn may be berries with plenty of dark green, brown, orange and gold foliage. Equally though, purples, dark pinks, burgundies and anything in chocolate browns look quite an at home during the Autumn season. In fact, if there is an introduction of a different colour it can prevent arrangements looking contrived or cliched. If you focus your flowers around a ‘Harvest’ style theme and work outwards from this centre point, then you can’t really go wrong. Autumn is such a great time as there is such an abundance of seeds, fruits, berries and grasses that contrast beautifully together. When choosing flowers to accompany berries, seeds, twigs and foliage choose from or combine vibrant orange Tiger Lillies, Chocolate or peach roses, honeysuckle, cream freesia, orange gerbera and ivory carnations. Your florist will help you with which flowers are seasonal if you are still unsure as to what to go for.
When it comes to winter wedding flowers and Christmas wedding flowers there is still plenty of classy choices without your reception tables and bouquets feeling tacky. Chinese lanterns, poinsettias, holly berries, Christmas Roses, Grand Prix roses, leatherleaf fern, beargrass in gold, crisp white flowers of any kind, ivory roses, Mistletoe, gold foliage, twisted branches and pine cones are to name but a few ideal choices. The most popular of all choices really is the red rose; these are the epitome of beauty, romance and seduction. Many a bride bases her entire theme on the red rose and why not? You need not be restricted to roses solely in the bouquets, they may also be used as button holes, as napkin decorations, attached to place cards, placed in bowls of water along with floating candles, on the wedding cake and petals scattered on the tables. Team the red roses with cream roses and insert diamante or pearls into their centres to give the occasion a sense of festive opulence. There is no way that when done properly, these beautiful flowers could ever look inappropriate or tacky.
So, whether you are an Autumn or a Winter bride, there are so many unique and unusual floral ideas that can be incorporated with ease into your big day. You won’t go far wrong if the flowers are in season and in keeping with the overall theme of your wedding. This includes the style of your dress, reception venue decor as well as the general ‘feel’ of your event – i.e. modern, simple, fairytale, lavish, funky, minimalist etc. Ensure that any floral arrangements are tied with co-ordinating ribbon to complete the look. This ribbon can also be used on napkin settings, favours and wedding cake to keep everything ‘uniform’ rather than something just thrown together.
