Ever since the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, there’s been a trend of integrating flowers into weddings in a less formal way – and I think this trend is here to stay for a little while. However, where Harry and Meghan had quite a neutral colour scheme, we’re starting to see many more pops of colour added to this particular style of summer wedding.
Boho summer weddings are particularly inspired by nature with an earthy and less structured feeling, which is very romantic. I’d recommend using a range of meadow flowers to achieve this look. In particular, I like green bell, sea oats, stocks, foxgloves, snapdragons and cornflowers. Peonies, garden roses and clematis also work really well to bring a meadow-like feeling indoors.
Lots of grasses and flowing foliage work well at summer weddings too. Boho weddings have a loose and open feeling to them, and I love using candelabras and tall glass vases on tables to give something for flowers and foliage to flow from.
Even Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011 is still inspiring the integration of flowers and nature into weddings. They had trees along the aisle for their wedding ceremony, and this is a great way of bringing nature indoors at a summer wedding. Adding wooden log slices to tables and adorning flowers around them is another lovely summer touch.
For winter weddings there is a trend of integrating flowers in a natural way too. The difference is that it’s better to use different foliage and greenery at this time of year. For example, eucalyptus has a beautiful grey-green colour that looks magical at winter weddings, while asparagus fern is perfect for trails. I also use fruits, berries, branches, twigs and moss to bring an enchanting woodland feeling to winter weddings. Adding a white frosting to any of these also adds a snowy effect for those who want the winter wonderland look.
Holly, ivy and foliage decorated with Christmas baubles are also stalwarts at this time of year, but winter weddings don’t necessarily have to be Christmassy. In general, you can afford to go for darker and richer colours in both the foliage and flowers. Weaving in tiny fairy lights and incorporating candles into table flower decorations gives a magical feeling to a wedding that cannot be achieved any other time of year. You can even get the Kate and William effect in winter weddings too – by adding tall trees as table centrepieces. With fairy lights, flowers and foliage added to the branches, this gives a feeling of wintry grandeur.
Another main difference between the flowers for summer and winter weddings is natural light. During the summer, it can be light outside until 10pm and people often want their weddings to spill into the outdoors. So when you’re thinking about flowers, you want to tie together the inside with the outside. During the winter, it can get dark as early as 3pm and most people don’t want to spend much time outside, so we’re looking to bring the outdoors in. Flowers and foliage mixed with twinkly lights and flickering candles gives a cosy and bewitching atmosphere that makes the most of the time of year.
