By Sally Sola, Founder, Cheltenham Flower School
Weddings are a celebration of love, beauty and connection. Flowers have a magical way of bringing all of that to life. Over the years, I’ve had the joy of creating wedding flowers for couples from all walks of life, from world famous pop stars to the future richest man in the world, and from multi-day Asian weddings to small, registry office celebrations. In fact, I even did my own wedding flowers and, most recently, did a small one-to-one workshop with my new sister-in-law.
While each wedding is different, it is that uniqueness which unites them. That’s because each couple is unique, and each day is therefore a personalised expression of their love. But one thing which most wedding have is flowers, in one form or another. But I wonder why this is?
Flowers have been used in celebrations and ceremonies for millennia, from religious ceremonies to the laurel leaves of victory, and from wreaths of remembrance to funeral tributes, so it should be no surprise that there is a cultural disposition to have flowers at the heart of a wedding. Whether it be the bride’s bouquet or the groom and groomsmen’s buttonholes, or the floral table centres, larger displays or even floral arches, flowers and all they symbolise are a core element of weddings across cultures and religions.
But, as I said above, every couple if different and so are the flowers their wedding. For some brides, a wild and more naturalistic bouquet perfectly aligns to their personality and style, while for others a more structured and stylised design sits naturally in their hands. And where some people may want to completely dress the church or setting for the ceremony with flowers and arches, other people may prefer simple, potted plant designs on the tables at the meal. The latter of which was my choice, Rosemary and white Rose plants in beautiful silver pots. The important thing is to make sure that the flowers which you have at your wedding are the flowers you want in your life; there is no point trying to be someone you are not on the day, you are committing yourself to the person you love!
This is why I think the most important part of any wedding flower design is not the flowers themselves; it is the people who are getting married. It really doesn’t matter what my preference or tastes are when it comes to wedding flowers because, quite simply, your wedding day is not about me. So, if anyone ever tries to tell you what they think you should have, at least before they take the time to understand who you both are, then I would politely show them the door. While many people mean well when they tell you what they did or did not have for their wedding, the fact is that their wedding was their wedding and your wedding is, well, yours.
And, in fact, this is key to why I now offer bridal (and hen) workshops because it gives people a chance to explore and work out what they actually want from their wedding flowers. By working with the flowers themselves, I have found that brides-to-be can begin to express themselves more fully, more naturally and more openly. It actually doesn’t matter if they don’t go on to make their own bouquets as the time spent exploring their style and their likes and dislikes means that, if they decide to go to a florist for their wedding flowers, they have a much clearer and much more focussed understanding of what they want (and don’t want).
Because, at the end of the day, while flowers are a core part of weddings, they should not be the main focus; they should enhance what is going on and provide a visual and emotional highlight to the primary reason for the day. Because the most important people at any wedding are the two people getting married and when the flowers reflect those people then that is when they truly are wedding flowers.
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