Tag Archives: flowers

Types of Wedding Bouquets

 

Every bride’s dream is to have the perfect wedding. It’s your big day and you want to make it memorable.

For that, you need a checklist that has to be followed religiously. No wedding checklist is complete without a section dedicated to flowers.On that note, let’s talk about wedding flowers — bouquets to be precise. Ever seen a picture of a bride on her wedding day? The white dress often takes center stage, beautifully complemented by the gorgeous bouquet. To the untrained eye, bouquets are just flowers with colors that match the rest of the wedding decor. However, there’s so much more to them. It’s mind-blowing the amount of detail and effort that goes into this aspect of wedding planning and for good reason. Beyond being one of the bride’s biggest accessories, bouquets are also important for the bridal train and the rest of the wedding decoration.

Choosing the perfect bouquet for your wedding

As a bride, you might want to leave this to the experts! You could look up bouquets on Pinterest, but there’s only so much you can do without help from the pros. The perfect bouquet depends on several factors including your choice of flowers, your wedding dress, and the theme of the wedding. We’ve got some experience in this field, so why don’t we join our tulips (pun fully intended) together and help you figure out what type of bouquet to go for.

Types of Flower Bouquets

Round Bouquets

It’s only appropriate to start with this classic wedding bouquet. Even the gents will likely know this one. This is one of the most popular types of wedding bouquets. It’s been around forever and isn’t fazing away anytime soon. Round bouquets are just as the name implies — round. They feature more actual flowers than greenery. It’s a rather traditional style and often looks better with fewer flower types. Flowers with a round bloom such as roses, peonies, lisianthus, and tulips would look great here. It’s perfect for the formal wedding tone, especially when there’s a ball gown involved.

Posy Bouquets

This is similar to the round bouquet. There are subtle differences that add an extra dimension to them. For starters, they are often smaller and loosely tied with decorative ribbons. Also, they typically have more flower types than the classic round type. That said, they’re essentially round flowers with little greenery all delicately tied together with a ribbon that matches the theme of the wedding. If you’d like something small that’d let your dress shine, then consider going for the delightful posy flower bouquets.

Nosegay Bouquets

Best described as elegant, the nosegay style of wedding bouquets has been around as far back as the Victorian era. It’s one of the more compact bouquet styles. There’s a lot of fresh greenery going on here, with a more subdued flower arrangement, compactly tied with a ribbon for the perfect look. Just like the posy, it’s small enough not to take the spotlight away from the dress. However, there’s a strong focus on greens that delicately complements the look while adding an extra depth of character. Perfect for more intimate wedding settings.

Single Stem Bouquets

It really doesn’t get any more minimalist than this. Single stem bouquets impact such a toned-down yet rich look to the day. It’s hard to think these two things will be possible at once, but this type of wedding bouquet just makes it work. It’s also great because it fits right into whatever theme you have going on for both the bride and the bridal train. Also, they’re often less pricey than the full-on bouquets, although you could still find some very luxurious and expensive single stems out there. It all stems down to your choice. Whatever you do, go for a sculptural stem with an oversized flower. Orchids, blooming roses, lilies, king protea, or even large tropical leaves would look great here.

Cascade Bouquets

Now, this is where flowers truly take the crown in a wedding. Cascade bouquets are all the rage with the modern bride. They add such grace and beauty to the bride while walking down the aisle, so, it’s no surprise they’re one of the most popular wedding bouquets available. To make these work, it’s best to use flowers or plants that are naturally cascading, such as eucalyptus, peonies, hollyhock, layered on top of each other to create the beautiful flowing effect. It goes so well with long-flowing minimalist wedding dresses. Super feminine and charming, let these add a little bit of fairytale glamour to your big day.

Pro-tip — To tie this look together with the rest of the wedding décor, be sure to throw in a lot of vines and greenery in the hall.

Composite Bouquets

This is somewhat similar to single stem flowers, at least in the concept. Often called the Carmen Rose, this is an ingenious collection of a series of flower parts, mostly petals, to create one composite-looking bouquet. Yes, it’s just as tough to create as it sounds. You might want to let the experts handle this one. But when they’re done, you can rest assured of the perfect bloom to add such elegance and beauty to your wedding party. Composite bouquets are particularly suited for the modern bride with a chic wedding.

Pomander Bouquets

You’ve probably seen flower girls holding these and looking all cute. As it turns out, they’re not just suited for flower girls. The rest of the bridal train can rock these for a fun twist on the traditional wedding bouquet. It’s simply a ball of flowers expertly tied together and carried like a handbag. They could even be suspended along the aisle and other areas of the wedding hall. Pomanders are versatile. You could use classic colors such as white or ivory or even a combination of bright colors to spruce up the event. Your pick.

 

Hand-tied Bouquets

This gives you the most variety, so that’s a huge plus. Hand-tied bouquets are constructed by taking different flower stems and arranging them in one’s hands. Afterward, they’re tied together, and voila! You have a wedding bouquet made from your favorite flowers. Also, hand-tied bouquets often feel freer than the usual round bridal bouquets. With this, it’s almost like you can let your hair down and play in the rain during the ceremony. It’s perfect for the non-traditional bride, what with its bohemian vibes. Wild and free — all the way!

The Best Flowers for a Wedding Bouquet

From the guide above, you’ve probably seen that there’s no short answer to this. It depends on the bouquet in question. For instance, it makes sense to go for flowers with round blooms for a round bouquet. Large petals will work for composite bouquets while flowing plants make the best fit for cascade bouquets. Some might think all flowers are well, flowers. But there’s so much more to a wedding bouquet.

There are focal flowers that take the spotlight such as garden roses, anemones, and dahlias. Then there are filler flowers like spray roses, wax flowers, and hypericum berries. You’ve also got line flowers. Very important! These define the shape of the arrangement. Orchids, stocks, snapdragons, and bells of Ireland are a few top choices.

Let’s not forget the greenery that makes for the perfect finishing touch to your bouquet. There are so many pleasant options to choose from here. Consider the seeded eucalyptus, lily grass, or tree fern.

That’s a lot of information. But no one ever said planning a wedding was going to be easy.

However, the question of what is the most popular type of wedding bouquet or flowers shouldn’t bother you too much. Popular or not, what matters most is your taste and style. Of course, you will have to let the florist weigh in professionally. Sometimes, season and other factors can affect the final choice. Regardless of the situation, be sure to pick a bouquet that you will love to hold and walk down the aisle on your big day.

So, back to our wedding checklist — Dress (check), flower bouquet (double-check), the perfect wedding day, and happy marriage (triple check)!

Here’s to wishing you a lifetime of love that blooms like the purest flowers!

Why Flowers Make People Happy

It’s something we know intuitively: flowers make people happy. That’s why we give them as gifts to others when they need cheering or buy an arrangement for our homes when we want to bring a little life and joy to our environments. But is this just a matter of tradition or is there really something special about flowers that makes them especially capable of lifting a person’s spirits?

The truth is that the idea that flowers have a noteworthy ability to make people happy isn’t just a casual observation, it’s actually a theory supported by science. So let’s dive into the research and uncover once and for all why it is that flowers are so uplifting to the human spirit.

The Impact of Flowers
You’ve probably felt it yourself: you’re having a rough day for one reason or another, but then you catch a glance at the bouquet of flowers on your dining room table and immediately feel a little relief, a bit of cheering, and the beginnings of a smile playing on your lips. If this sounds familiar, then you should know that having this experience is actually universal.

According to behavioral research conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction, and affects social behavior in a positive way. According to Dr. Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., a Professor of Psychology at Rutgers and the lead researcher on the study, “Common sense tells us that flowers make us happy. Now, science shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they have strong positive effects on our emotional well being.”

What Exactly are These Effects?

First, flowers can immediately impact people’s happiness, making them smile and express joy and delight when they receive them. But this effect isn’t fleeting. In the long-term, participants of the study reported feeling less depressed, anxious, and agitated after receiving flowers, and demonstrated a higher sense of enjoyment and life satisfaction. Most interestingly, these positive effects don’t stop at just us; they also reach our friends and families. In the study, the presence of flowers led to increased contact with family and friends.

How It Works
So we can see that the positive effect of having flowers around the house is measurable, but can we understand why it is that flowers are so good at making us happy?

Well, as you can imagine, that’s a bit of a harder question to answer. Though that doesn’t stop us from speculating. Dr. Haviland-Jones and her team at Rutgers have their own hypotheses. She says, “Flowers bring about positive emotional feelings in those who enter a room. They make the space more welcoming and create a sharing atmosphere.” Indeed, being able to help people connect with one another could definitely be a possible explanation for flowers’ powerful impact, as close relationships have been shown to be the biggest factor that keeps people happy throughout their lives.

The Rutgers researchers also posited that the happy-making effects of flowers could come down to the sensory stimuli they provide, like pleasant smells and aesthetically beautiful colors, or their universal symbolic meanings, having long been seen as a representation of positive things like love, friendship, and caring. Maybe even, they wonder, it could be that our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved to associate flowers with fruits, eventually turning them into catalysts of human happiness.

If you believe in color therapy, or the practice of balancing one’s vibrations by exposing them to specific colors, that can be thought of as another possible reason for the mood-boosting impact of flowers. After all, if pink can calm you down, yellow can make you happy, and red can wake you up and make you feel confident, one of the most natural ways you can bring these colors into your environment is through a flower arrangement.

At any rate, for whatever reason it may be the case, there’s no denying that flowers just light up something inside of us that makes us feel happy and alive.

Specific Flowers and Their Benefits
If you’re feeling like reaping the benefits of the all-mighty flower, here are some particular species that you might consider picking up and why.

  • Daisies:  Associated with childlike innocence and wonder, the daisy can easily bring a lighthearted warmth and cheer to the home and its inhabitants.
  • Lilies: With their incredibly fragrant blooms and vibrant petals, lilies are a great way to bring a lovely sensation to more than just one of your senses.
  • Tulips: Known for their bright colors, intoxicating scent, and feminine form, tulips stand out in a home as a real statement piece.
    Gladioli: Long, sensuous, and dramatic, gladioli may only be available in the summer, but if you can get them, you’ll certainly want to, as they pack a big punch and can really make an impact.
  • Roses: A timeless classic, roses are so associated with love, friendship, and romance, that having them around is guaranteed to make you feel full of loving feelings.
  • Daffodils: Known as the number one flower for enhancing people’s moods, daffodils’ signature yellow hue is thought by color therapists to be perfect for energizing, relieving depression, and promoting cheerfulness.
  • Hydrangeas: Coming in some of the most stunning colors found in the natural world, hydrangeas have calming properties that make them a perfect choice for people who often find themselves feeling stressed out by work or otherwise.

Now that you know just how much flowers can put a smile on your face and which ones, in particular, are great to have around, check out our flower arrangements to choose the one that will brighten up your day today.