Photo courtesy of Jennifer Nolan Photography
Flowers are a major contributor to the magic of your special day. Like that famous song in the Sound of Music, “[r]aindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens….these are a few of my favorite things,” flowers can be one of your favorite things to plan for your wedding day.
However, brides often struggle to know what to ask for when planning with their florist, and just send a collection of Pinterest images saying they “want it to look like this.” The problem here is that often these flowers are not in season, and while we have great wholesale suppliers who can get these flowers from somewhere in the world, you will pay more for them.
Here are the basics to know about each season’s flowers.
Spring flowers generally have softer colors in the pastel range. Early in the season, the star of the garden is the peony with its big, ruffled petals. Additionally, you can consider using tulips, anemones, and ranunculus or flowering branches. However, keep in mind that these alternatives are much smaller headed flowers and you will need more stems of them to equal the area a peony could cover in an arrangement. Thus, overall, spring flowers, even in season, tend to be the costliest to use.
Summer flowers are naturally bold and bright. The star of the garden at this time of the year is the sunflower, but zinnias, cosmos, amaranth and celosia are also great to add into the mix. These flowers are much easier to grow overall, and are often the most economical choices for wedding flowers.
Fall flowers are rich colors that are deeply saturated with pigments. The show-stopper in fall arrangements is the dahlia. However, dahlias have a short vase life and a delicate nature. They ship very poorly, and while wholesalers offer them to florists most won’t buy dahlias because they start falling apart the moment they come out of the cooler. The couple days of transport and storage from farm to flower shop is about all dahlias can manage before they die. To truly use dahlias, you need to connect with a local grower in your area so they aren’t being transported. Other fall flowers that are great to work with are chrysanthemums (especially if you can find the heirloom varieties), sedum, asters and goldenrod. While dahlias are very expensive, the rest of the fall flower collection is more moderately priced.
Winter flowers in our climate zone don’t really exist. Many winter designs involve textural greenery, or pull in the workhorses in the floral world: roses, hydrangea and stock. These are so popular that growers have them available at fairly steady prices all year round. In fact, these floral world workhorses often price out lower than any seasonal flowers because of the nature of mass production in growing them. These popular flowers are often good choices to mix with your favorite seasonal flowers to get the floral coverage you want and still stay in budget.
Whatever floral look you chose, enjoy the process and ask questions. Your wedding blooms will become some of your favorite flowers in the future because the memories of your special day will be forever tied to them.
Jessica Wysopal is the owner of Walking Wind Farm & Florist, and has blessed our Rosemont brides with her floral arrangements. Check out her website here!