Planning a spring wedding in a wild flower style? A lot of people feel overwhelmed when it comes to planning a wedding and don’t know what sort of flowers might be available on their wedding date or even where to start with planning.
In a world where you can get many flowers out of season flown in for your wedding or event it can be difficult to know what flowers are truly “seasonal”. Lots of couples have had to postpone and rearrange their weddings for new date due to coronavirus so we have put together some images of past wedding flower designs from different months as a guide to what sort of flowers are available.
In this post we are concentrating on spring wedding flowers from March and April, the start of the British flower growing season, but some of these flowers are available earlier in January and February if bought from Holland.
Here are few things you might like to think about when planning your wedding flowers…
Locally grown flowers
For a number of years Briar Rose Design as used predominantly Scottish grown flowers from their cutting garden as well as from other members of the Flowers from the Farm collective which helps promote and support locally grown flowers in the UK. Many couples are surprised by just how much you can grown in Scotland and the beautiful and unusual blooms you can have as part of your wedding flowers that you would never find at the Dutch wholesaler or traditional florists. Using British flowers lowers our carbon footprint, supports local businesses and also makes us much more connected with the seasons.
That said, British weather can be a bit changeable and it does place limits on what flowers and foliage are available at different times of year. In spring often foliage is a bit more challenging to source locally as the trees and shrubs have not yet come into leaf, or the new shoots are too young to stand up well to being cut and used in hot weddings. In situations like this we might order in foliage from abroad to help achieve the look you are going for.
Photos below by The Gibsons Photography (urn arrangement) and Joy Story(bride in archway).
Most of our larger foliage installations are done in summer and early autumn when there is much more locally grown foliage available so if you are looking for a large installation in spring you might need to use some imported or dried materials or to go for a more twiggy, sculptural look. Some of our favourite British grown foliage for Spring designs are things like eucalyptus, skimmia, pieris, and camelia foliage which are in season. These can give designs a light and airy feel with delicate new leaves and blossom adding to the charm of Spring flowers.
Photo by Sidey Clarke
Light and dark
People often assume that if you want dark and moody flowers or colours like burgundy and plum you need to go for an autumnal wedding but actually there are lots of beautiful options in that colour palette in spring. Flowers such as fritillary, ranunculus, anemone, iris and hellebore all come in rich dark colours perfect for a time of year when daylight is growing but the days are still quite short. Take a look at our dark and moody spring flowers blog to get some inspiration if you’re looking for vampy dramatic wedding flowers.
Venue
Another thing to consider with your wedding flowers is your venue – what are the colours in the rooms you are using and how much light is there? In particularly dark venues the colours of flowers can look different under candlelight or coloured light filters and it can be a good idea to use lighter tones and highlights so that your flowers don't recede into the shadows. Consider using different coloured candles to add light and colour higher up and continue your colour theme.
Scent
Everyone knows about flowers like roses, peonies and sunflowers but they might not know about what flowers you can have if you are getting married in spring. There is something especially joyful about seeing spring flowers after the long dark days of winter and you can include beautifully scented flowers such as hyacinth, narcissus, bluebells and stocks all adding a beautiful perfume to your wedding flower designs. You can add in texture by using some dried elements to designs like grasses, poppy seedheads or honesty. Read our blog about dried flowers.
Row one photos by M Paget, Heyes Images, Lisa Devine Photography
Row two photos by Eric Rene Penoy, The Gibsons (both images)
Availability
Some of the seasonal flowers available at this time are:
Anemone, Alstromeria, Blossom, Bluebells, Camelia, Flowering Currant, Daffodils, Fritillaries, Genista, Hellebore, Hyacinth, Narcissus, Lunaria, Muscari, early Poppies, Pieris, Ranunculus, Tulips, Scilla, Skimmia, Snodrops, Spirea, Viburnum
Take a look at my Spring flowers blog for more suggestions on individual blooms you can find in spring.
Get creative
Photo byJoy Story
Think outside the box, or the bouquet rather. Consider adding other elements to your wedding flowers such as feathers or dried elements like wheat, seed heads and grasses. Pampas grass is especially popular right now, or you could try including plants such as succulents or tillandsia (air plants) for a more modern geometric look. Read our blog on the dried wedding flower trend for more inspiration.
If you’d like more inspiration for your spring wedding flowers follow us on Instagram or take a look at our Wedding Flowers gallery. To talk all things flowery and find out how to book Briar Rose for your wedding get in touch.