For centuries, ‘putting the flags out’ was the cue to celebrate something great that has happened and to really push the boat out.
And these decorative strings of paper or material triangles, often called ‘bunting’, have been used at many a street party commemorating a momentous occasion like D-Day, the Queen’s jubilees, royal weddings, and festivals.
The origins of bunting
The word bunting could have derived from the German word ‘bunt’ which means colourful.
Plus, bunting often refers to a collection of flags, particularly on the ships of the Royal Navy for communication purposes. A ship’s communications officer, who would’ve been responsible for raising the flags as signals, is still known as the “bunt”.
In addition, bunting was originally made from a coarse, loosely woven cotton fabric, with a very open weave, similar to cloth used to sift grain in the Middle Ages. The act of sifting was known as ‘bonten’.
Today bunting is used to describe strings of flags to decorate parties: inside or outside; made of cloth, cardboard, plastic or lace; in a variety of shapes and sizes; with or without patterns.
Take a look at these top tips from Doris and Tate to complete your venue with bunting.
Create a festival wedding
A hot wedding trend for 2020 is to recreate the magical feel of a weekend festival. Use colourful bunting fluttering across the tents and stages or from tree to tree. Serve hot food or ice cream from outside stalls or wagons, and light smoke flares to create wedding photos to remember. If your venue is inside but you’re still craving a festival vibe, try fanning long lengths of vibrant, colourful bunting from a central ceiling point out over the tables or dance floor. It’s an easy and quick way to create the ‘wow’ factor, and you can match the fabric to your wedding flowers for a Boho look.
More is more with bunting
The best thing about hanging bunting in your venue is that you can never have too much – in fact, more is more when it comes to hanging these cheery decorations. One the most impactful ways to hang bunting is lines of flags across the width of the room – this is particularly effective if you have a balcony or mezzanine so guests can look down on the bunting from above. If you’re using a venue with a high ceiling such a barn, using lengths of bunting strung across the room lowers the focal point of the ceiling and creates a more intimate space.
Make it personal
Make a length of your own bunting with fabric of sentimental value. Perhaps you have a special piece of fabric or an item of clothing (such as your mum’s old wedding dress) that you’d like to be part of your big day. Don’t try and take on the whole venue (you’ve got enough to do), but make shorter, more personal, lengths to hang on your top table, at the bar or over the entrance. Making a shorter length of bunting means you can use it in your home after the wedding, and you could even personalise it with letters to spell out your names.
Pick a colour scheme
If you have a smaller venue, choose bunting with a single colour theme for an ordered and coordinated feel. Forget twee union jacks, try darker colours for a more stylish look, jute tones for a natural feel or for the ultimate in timeless beauty, you can’t go wrong with pure white and ivory. Pick out coordinating colours from your bouquet and bridesmaids’ dresses to decorate the tables and the rest of the room.
Make it magical with fairy lights
We think bunting brings a venue alive and says ‘party’ all on its own. But for extra glamour and magic, think about draping strings of fairy lights over the top. This creates a twinkling layered look that provides a feast for the eyes, and ensures your bunting goes seamlessly from day to night.
about Doris and Tate
Doris and Tate is two cousins who are based in the village of Chalford, near Stroud, in the Cotswolds.
They make the ultimate in eco bunting – you hire it and it’s made from repurposed fabric – off cuts, fabric samples, clothes, chair covers –anything that is no longer wanted they transform into double sided, high quality, beautifully made eco bunting.
They love colourful, mismatched bunting but also adore a pure white swath of bunting draped from trees in the summer.
As well as general wedding planning chat, this week’s theme is ‘wedding cakes’. With thanks to The Pretty Cake Company #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 1: The price of a cake is primarily dependent on three things: size, flavour and decoration #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 2: Tell cake designer your guest numbers (& if you’ll keep top fruitcake tier) to work out what size tiers are required #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 3: Think about using polystyrene dummies to add extra tiers but help reduce the cost #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 4: Simple sponges tend to be cheapest – make a simple flavour more exciting by making the filling more interesting #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 5: Book 9-12 months in advance- incorporate themes like colours, flowers, fabric, stationery etc #UKWedLunch
TOP TIP 6: Think about how and where you want the cake displayed (out of direct sunlight or heat or cluttered background) plus how you’re going to cut it #UKWedLunch
A topic very close to my heart (and sweet tooth) is cake!
Photography by Farrow Photography www.farrowphotography.com
When it comes to weddings, cakes are often the focal point of the wedding reception – proudly displayed, incorporating themes and colour schemes of the day, and featured in one of the main staged events of the day – culminating in a great photo opportunity when it formally gets cut.
There are many elements of a wedding that are steeped in tradition, superstition and symbolism. Here I unravel a little behind why wedding cakes are included in the festivities and then The Pretty Cake Company give their advice for the perfect ‘recipe’ to get the wedding cake of your dreams.
Even though some couples are picking alternatives to the humble wedding cake (such as ‘cheese’ cakes, cupcakes, giant porkpies, quiches tiers and pancake stacks to name a few), the evolution of this wedding element is nothing new as it’s seen many guises over the years including bread rolls and pie.
The custom originally dates back to Roman and Medieval times when bread would’ve been thrown at the bride. Thankfully this developed into the breaking of the bread over the head (symbolizing the bride losing her virginity).
Over time this progressed into guests bringing baked goods to the wedding and piling them up as high as possible. The couple would try and kiss over this high cake without it falling over and were deemed to have good fortune if they were successful. Not content with the instability of a baked goods stack, one clever baker came up with the idea of sticking the rolls together and the Croquembouche was born.
Today’s traditional wedding cakes have a rich fruit cake (a sign of fertility), often a gorgeous layer of marzipan (that I can’t get enough of! ) and white fondant icing. The white colour of the bride’s cake was again a sign of purity and also one of wealth as fine white sugar would’ve been expensive back in the day. The whiter the cake the wealthier you were plus the number of tiers showed extravagance too (although often some tiers could be fake ones to save money!) Plus an alternative ‘darker’ groom’s cake alongside (perhaps in chocolate).
Photography by Farrow Photography www.farrowphotography.com
Traditionally, the cutting of the cake (as well as being a staple photo opportunity) was done by the bride on her own (to symbolize losing her virginity) and she would hand out the cake to ensure fertility. Nowadays it is the first task performed together as a married couple. Some couples feed each other the first slice as a sign of commitment (or smash it in each others’ faces if you’re feeling cheeky!)
With the bottom tier for cutting, the middle tier for sharing, the top tier is often saved for the first anniversary or christening.
Meanwhile, symbolic charms placed in the cake attached to ribbons can be pulled out by the bridesmaids to predict their fortunes. Plus it was thought that single people who slept with a slice of the wedding cake under their pillow would dream of their future spouse.
There is so much tradition and choices to call upon to create your wedding cake and this element continues to evolve with emerging geode cut out cakes, crystalling detail, food walls and even wedding cakes with image projections on them. Take a look at some of my other trend predictions too.
Here are some top tips from the incredibly talented Samantha from The Pretty Cake Company with a cake designer’s insight into picking your cake and a look at current wedding cake trends to consider.
The wedding cake will be the most prominent centrepiece of your wedding reception with the potential to be a highly decorative work of art. So deciding on what form your wedding cake should take, is one that should be given very careful consideration.
An average wedding cake now is upwards of £500 and can go into the thousands, so your requirements will dictate your budget. The costing is primarily dependent on three things, size, flavour and decoration.
SIZE
When contacting cake designers it’s important to give as much information as possible. Give your anticipated guest number as this will allow the cake designer to work out what size tiers would be most appropriate. If you would like to reserve the top fruitcake tier for a first anniversary or christening then do mention that as well.
I have had clients in the past who want very tall grand wedding cakes, but not necessarily all the cake that would come with it, so think about the option of using polystyrene dummies to add extra tiers as this would help reduce the cost.
FLAVOUR
Simple sponges such as vanilla and lemon tend to be the cheapest with other most popular flavours such as chocolate, carrot and fruitcake, being more expensive due to the ingredients cost and increased time taken to make them.
Ask your cake designer what other flavours they could suggest as other flavours can often be made by adapting existing basic recipes. Other popular flavours that I have done in the past are coffee and walnut, orange and almond, lime and passion fruit, toffee and salted caramel, champagne and strawberry, but with lots of good quality flavouring extracts on the market, it’s very simple to come up with some more original suggestions.
Sometimes you can make a simple flavour more exciting by simply making the filling a bit more interesting, like lemon cake with a passionfruit curd buttercream or chocolate with a salted caramel buttercream.
DECORATION
Decoration is by far the most influential part of costing the cake as this is what takes the most time and requires the most skill. Things like sugar flowers, texture work and intricate pipework on the cake, can take several hours and sometimes days, so if you are on a budget, then maybe try and avoid these.
dusty pink rose details on wedding cake
detail shot of dusty pink sugar roses and ribbon on wedding cake
close up of filigree and dusty pink sugar rose on wedding cake
Here’s the ‘recipe’ to get the wedding cake of your dreams:
1. CONSULTATION
Check with your cake maker if they offer a face to face consultation, if there is a charge for it and whether cake samples would be available for tasting. It’s important that you have confidence in your cake maker and that the cakes will taste as good as they look. Some companies do charge for consultations, which might be deductible from the cost if you book.
2. EXPERIENCE
Most reputable cake makers will have a strong portfolio of their work which will be further substantiated with websites, social media pages and recommendations from previous clients and local venues. Do your research beforehand and choose a cake maker that has experience of the styles you like (such as elegant, pretty, floral wedding cakes versus novelty wedding cakes). Respect a cake maker who is honest with you and will tell you up front that they feel that there are better people out there who can create what you want.
3. AVAILABILITY
With weddings occurring almost any day of the week now, cake makers can be very much in demand. Ask your cake maker how many wedding cakes they take on in one week and how many people will work on it so that you know that your cake will not be compromised.
4. BOOK IN ADVANCE
I always advise my couples that once they have a date secured with their venue they should book, pay a deposit and reserve the date with their suppliers as soon as possible. Consultations and finer details can be worked out much nearer the time. Generally it’s best to book 9-12 months in advance. Often the cake is one of the first things you should book but one of the last things you should finalise as it can incorporate so many aspects of the wedding eg colours, flowers, fabric, stationery (which will only be known towards the end of the planning stage).
5. DEPOSIT
Ask when the deposit is required which tends to be between 25-50%. It’s always a good idea to make a note of when the balance is due to be paid. This tends to be between a month to 2 weeks before the wedding although check with your cake maker on their policies.
6. DIETARY REQUIREMENTS
Let your cake maker know if there are any allergies that they need to be aware of. However, also bear in mind that, unless you are using a very large company with allergy safe environments, it could be tricky to completely eliminate the risk of cross contamination.
7. ACCESSORIES
Think about how you want the cake displayed and how you’re going to cut it. A cake stand can dramatically change the way that a wedding cake looks and I always recommend the use of one. It adds precedence, height and is an added decorative feature. Most established cake makers will have a range of stands for hire. Some venues offer use of a cake stand as part of the package but always ask to see it beforehand, as they can be old fashioned silver stands which might not suit the style of your cake. It is generally the responsibility of the couple to return the stands within a couple of days of the wedding, unless this has been agreed prior and a collection charge has been paid.
8. DELIVERY
Make sure you let your cake maker know where and when the cake is to be delivered or if you are going to collect it. Most cake makers will charge for delivery and this will also include the return journey. They will also need to know who is the point of contact at the venue as you may be otherwise busy. Plus think about where the cake is to be set up, being mindful that it shouldn’t be in direct sunlight, or have a cluttered background.
Logistics aside, the fun part is picking what it’ll look like and how it will embody the theme of your special day. Here are some current trends in wedding cakes to give you some inspiration:
Chalkboard: Chalkboards are often used at weddings for place settings, order of events and direction signs, so why not follow the theme through onto the cake, and personalising with a monogram or favourite quotes and lyrics. It’s also the perfect opportunity to show off some pretty calligraphy fonts.
Photography by Neil Hanson http://www.nordicpics.co.uk
Semi naked cake: The naked cake has been around for a number of years now so it’s about time there was a new twist on it! The semi naked cake has a thin scraping of buttercream which allows the sponge to show through slightly. It gives an interesting rustic finish which looks beautiful decorated with fresh flowers and fruits.
Photography by Neil Hanson www.nordicpics.co.uk
Textured Buttercream: Lots of people love the thought of sinking their teeth into light fluffy sponge and a nice thick layer of delicious buttercream. So if you prefer buttercream to fondant then this is the perfect cake for you. Finished with fresh flowers, it gives an elegantly simple yet stylishly beautiful wedding cake.
Photography by Pretty Cake Company
Marble: Marble cakes are seeing a big revival at the moment and here is a cake which incorporates many on trend features. The marble tiers on the top and bottom are flecked with gold and the metallic drips on the bottom tier are also very fashionable. The chalkboard tier adds the opportunity for a bit of personalisation and the beautiful sugar flowers add a pretty feature which feminises the cake.
Photography by Farrow Photography www.farrowphotography.com
Ruffles/texture: Texture has been popular for a few years now and here is a cake which demonstrates texture in many ways. The vertical ruffles add an understated elegant texture; the gold sequins add sparkle and the pretty gold piping was inspired by a stationery design. Together with the sharp edge finish on this cake and the single garden rose on the top tier, this is a crisp, sleek and sophisticated wedding cake.
Photography by Neil Hanson www.nordicpics.co.uk
Metallic and opulence: Metallic decoration can be seen in many ways, be it, metallic leaf, metallic lustre, metallic sequins or simple enhancements with a paintbrush and edible metallic paint. Here is a grand 5 tier cake with a metallic gold leaf tier. Metallic leaf can leave a distressed finish as it is very difficult to apply, but this is part of its charm. The cake was finished off with patches of intricate lace pipework and gorgeous sugar flowers.
Photography by Neil Hanson www.nordicpics.co.uk
Floral romance: Cake and flowers often go together, whether the flowers are real or if they are made from sugar. Here is a selection of recent floral wedding cakes showing how diverse each one can be.
Photography by Neil Hanson www.nordicpics.co.uk
Photography by Neil Hanson www.nordicpics.co.uk
The Pretty Cake Company offers a friendly, personal and bespoke wedding cake design service to produce breath taking wedding cakes that will be remembered for years to come. They produce wedding cakes that are individual to the bride and groom – always focusing on the attention to detail that makes all the difference. They have over 10 years of experience in designing and creating wedding cakes and work closely with numerous prestigious wedding venues in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds. They will work with you and take your ideas and inspirations in order to create a truly memorable wedding cake. They pride ourselves on using the finest quality and freshest ingredients available.
Unlike many other cake companies, they now specialise only in wedding cakes, as this is their true passion. Now they are able to focus on keeping up to date with current bridal trends and ensuring that their clients receive expert advice in the wedding cake field.
Clients are guaranteed a friendly, efficient service where quality is never compromised. Consultations by appointment only. They are based in Minster Lovell, Witney, West Oxfordshire and can deliver to a wide area.
Your wedding day is a unique kind of day when your ‘circles’ all come together. It’s not often that you have all the people from different walks of your life in the same room at the same time. How wonderful to look around and see the people you love just there for you two.
Photographs are a brilliant way of capturing who celebrated your big day with you, plus traditionally guests sign a keep sake book and leave a poignant message for the happy couple to read back after the special day. This lovely tradition has got some modern updates and ingenious alternative ideas.
Here are a few of my favourite wedding guest book alternatives:
Photographs
Take polaroids of guests on the day and put them in a book alongside a handwritten message
Have a photo booth for people to take their own snaps of the day
Have a video diary or place where people can leave their own video messages
Paper
Have a recipe book where everyone contributes a favourite recipe to be printed in a book (see recipegiftbook.com below)
Get guests to complete a calendar with their message on their own birthday or special anniversary
Ask guests to write how they know bride & groom on postcards
Provide advice cards for guests to suggest date night ideas
Leave notes and cards in an engraved oak lift-lid box (see Make Memento below)
Get guests to put their best wishes on to labels to hang from a wish tree (see Tree of Hearts below)
Ask guests to write their messages and seal them in a bottle to be opened on their first anniversary
Furniture / homeware
Encourage guests to sign a pottery wedding plate that you can display or use in your kitchen (see Busy Brush Café below)
Get guests to sign a piece of wooden garden furniture such as a swing seat, table or bench
Ask people to sign decorative, keep sake items for your home such as a quilt, globe or Christmas baubles
Provide bottle labels for wine that people can write advice or wishes to be read on wine to be opened for future anniversaries
Poster / artwork
Use guests fingerprints to create the leaves on a tree on a canvas that be hung afterwards (see Tree of Hearts below)
Have hand written messages on various hearts placed around a cut out framed tree (see Paper Tree Design below)
Frame an illustration of your venue which guests can sign (see Illustrated Invites below)
Get your guests to contribute and colour in a giant poster mural (see Fancy Features below)
Ask your hen party to all ‘kiss the miss goodbye‘ and place their lipstick mark next to their signature for instant framed artwork
Provide wine corks for guests to sign and then be framed
Place signed pebbles or wooden hearts in a big glass vase
Games
Get guests to sign jigsaw or Jenga blocks
Write labels with wishes and attach them to balloons that can be launched at the end of the day
And take a look at these brilliant local suppliers that can bring a different angle to a guest book at your wedding:
Create a beautiful and highly personalised platter or serving plate, design it with a painting of your venue or of the happy couple and have it glazed and fired ready to present at your wedding along with a special ceramics pen that guests can use to write their message on the plate.
Busy Brush Cafe offer wedding plates of all shapes and sizes that can be used every day in the kitchen or hung up on the wall for decoration. Spend a couple of hours in the quirky and supportive cafe environment and have fun painting up your own plate, or have one of the team design it all for you to specification. The plates can then be collected a few days later once they’ve been glazed and kiln fired and the team will provide you with a permanent ceramics pen for guest messages that will last a lifetime! Prices range from £40 to £150 depending on size and detail required.
Fancy Features make Giant Colouring In – fully personalised artwork hand illustrated to canvas ready to get coloured in by you and your friends at your event. We design and deliver artwork to clients all over the world.
A small family business located in Somerset, who are passionate in bringing a niche service to wedding stationery.
Producing beautifully detailed pencil sketches of the couple’s wedding venue or church which are then used as a theme throughout the wedding stationery products. Choices of colours, font styles and wording of invitation according to your needs ensures a personal and unique touch to the couple’s stationery. “Designed exclusively for You”.
Our Guest Comment Frame is proving particularly popular for its uniqueness as we go one step further than to just leave a blank space for guests to write on at the reception.
We provide guests with ‘message cards’ for them to write on during the reception, which has proved to be a great talking point after the speeches have been done and dusted and a lull in the proceedings whilst coffee is being served.
After the honeymoon, the couple send us the cards to be edited onto the frame and these original cards are returned together with the completed frame.
Our specialty is that we either print or scan the original messages onto the frame around the sketch, ensuring that perfect spacing and an overall pleasing look is achieved. Providing this in either a black or white modern frame, this product not only doubles as a great keepsake but great to hang proudly in the home as a reminder of the Special Day!
Our hand-engraved, solid oak keepsake boxes make the perfect wedding gift for the happy couple! Perfect for storing treasured wedding keepsakes and mementos, you can make this gift extra special by adding a personalised engraved date to mark the special occasion!
Handmade to order in our studio, our solid oak wood boxes have been lovingly designed and crafted using thick, heavy European oak timber. The wood is hand-cut, then individually sanded and treated to enhance the natural grain and preserve the beauty of the wood. Our boxes are finished with a chic hand-engraving and black infill, with the heart arrow finished with a red infill – producing a truly unique style. Finally, our oak boxes are finished with a clear gloss protective varnish to ensure durability and display a stunning finish. These lift-lid boxes are great for presenting and storing cards, photos and other treasured wedding mementos!
The wedding tree from Paper Tree Design is a great way to remember all the people who took part in your special day, family members on the hearts and friends written around the tree. It can be provided fully made up, or instead you can chose to have a blank tree and hearts for your guests to hand write around the tree. Various sizes are available depending on the number of guests, and prices start at £50.00. The tree can be colour matched to the colour theme of the wedding, contact suzanne@papertreedesign.co.uk for further details.
Paper Tree Design was created through a love of paper and a desire to produce beautiful and personal stationery and decorations. Thoughtfully designed, we focus on quality and attention to detail to make your stationery truly individual. With a background in Fashion and Textile Design, and 15 years experience in retail buying and product development Suzanne has a wealth of experience to draw on and is passionate about delivering design with little personal touches that reflect the clients loves and interests.
Living in rural Oxfordshire Suzanne cannot help but be inspired by the beauty of the natural world and the changing seasons, and can frequently be found in lanes and hedgerows with her camera and a sketchbook. Specialising in paper cutting, at Paper Tree Design we create your handcrafted wedding stationery to order. Choose to personalise a card from one of our ranges or commission a bespoke design. I am at my best working with your theme and ideas for a truly personal invitation and welcome you to come and have a chat and a cuppa in my Oxfordshire studio to discuss plans for your wedding.
recipegiftbook.com enables friends and family to give a truly meaningful gift to the bride and groom, the gift of a recipe.
Create a beautiful keepsake to celebrate your wedding day, a cookbook filled with recipes from all your wedding guests.
Whether it’s treasured family recipes or modern favourites, your guests will have fun sharing their recipes, photos and personal messages with you. Guests simply add their recipes online then following your wedding a charming hardback cookbook is sent to you.
Creating a ‘recipe gift book’ is a great way to bring both families together in the run up to a wedding. It’s a special cookbook and a wonderful way to collect precious recipes and create something unique to celebrate your marriage.
The bride and groom can choose from six recipe book designs and personalise the front cover title to make their book unique. When complete the bride and groom will receive a beautiful hardback book, presented in a gift box. The finished recipe book is free for the bride and groom. The guests just pay £4.99 to add a page to the book. The bride and groom can order additional copies of their recipe book and even allow guests to purchase a copy too.
recipegiftbook.com supply the ultimate personalised wedding present from all of the guests, a gift the bride and groom will treasure long after their wedding day. Take a look at their introductory video to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di7YPD3koBA
Tree of Hearts specialises in personalised wedding stationery and has over 90 beautiful collections to choose from including traditional, modern, vintage and beach designs catering for a wide range of tastes and styles. They offer quality stationery at affordable prices and have everything you need from save the date cards and wedding invitations to order of service, table plans, fingerprint trees and thank you cards.
Free samples are available upon request so you can see and feel the quality of their stationery ensuring it is perfect for your special day.
Fingerprint trees can incorporate approximately 50 (small), 80-100 (medium) or 150-200 (large) fingerprints per tree size. Includes a personalised print and 3 small ink pads in colours of your choice.
Wishing tree & wishing tags includesa white freestanding manzanita wishing tree (90cm tall) supplied with personalised wishing tags & sign in a design of your choice. The tags can be used for favour tags or wishing tags.
The tradition of wedding flowers is steeped in symbolism and there’s lots to think about in terms of colours, meaning and seasonality.
Flowers have been a part of wedding traditions since at least Greek times when flowers would have been grouped together in a garland to be worn on the head and seen as a gift of nature. It would also contains strong smelling herbs such as garlic or chives to ward off evil spirits. In the Middle Ages, garlands were worn entwined with ears of wheat to symbolise fertility. And with the rarity of baths, the bouquets were a nice fragrant distraction from any other lingering smells!
Nowadays, wedding flowers can compliment and reflect the theme, style, colours, tone and surroundings of the day. You can include flowers in your bouquet, corsages, button holes, table decorations, flower walls, displays at venues or as confetti or petals sprinkled by the flower girls.
Flowers are a big focus in 2016 not only in the décor but with hair accessories and headwear. Plus a new trend of ring corsages is emerging and the use of wild flowers like daisies. It doesn’t all have to be about the flowers, as foliage will be as important or instead of flowers in displays. Alternatives to traditional flowers are seeing the use of succulents in bouquets, on tables and given away as favours. Plus instead of the usual confetti, there is now a herb toss as another option which gives such lovely aromas to this part of the day.
Then once you’ve finished with your bouquet (if you’ve not thrown it to your single friends), there’s also a lovely new trend emerging of the ‘lonely bouquet’ where you leave your bouquet in a public place, with a note for someone else to find – thus spreading smiles and the joy of flowers to others. (Google it, I’ve not made it up!)
We have asked the highly talented (and award winning) Dee McMeeking to help unravel some of the mysteries of picking the right flowers, at the right time of the year, for your special day.
Photo credits: peony bouquet by Dee McMeeking, Photograph thanks to Nick O’Keeffe Photography
It’s one of those questions a bride to be will always be asked – “what flowers are you having?” and I know for some of you that can be a scary question! If you are blessed to know your hypericum berries from your viburnum then you will not need to read any further. But if your floral knowledge is more daffodils and dandelions then here is my quick guide to things you need to know about seasonal wedding flowers.
1) Flowers are seasonal
In theory that means that you can’t have certain flowers at certain times of the year. Think of it like Cadbury’s crème eggs or Easter Eggs – you don’t find them easily in shops in August or December! Flowers are the same. So if you have set your heart on a bouquet of peonies and you are getting married in the UK in November you may struggle. I say ‘may’ because the majority of cut flowers we use here in the UK are imported and most flowers are in season and being grown somewhere in the world, but that will make them more expensive.
Top tip: There are a couple of great apps that can help you out here – Flowerwheel, or Flowerbook. Both allow you to see when flowers are in season and more importantly photos and colours! So if your answer to the “what flowers” question is pink and white flowers, you can take this a step further and get some ideas with super search functions by colour.
2) Flower prices vary during the year
Flowers are one of those products where the prices will vary, sometimes quite significantly, at different times of the year. It’s as much about supply and demand as it is about seasonality. There is one big hot spot in the year that I have to mention – Valentine’s Day! The price of red and pink roses can treble if not quadruple just for that week. But other flowers can be cheaper than normal – such as orchids – purely because everyone is buying red roses.
When something is in season, it is naturally growing at its peak, the price is lower. So if you work with seasonal flowers you can get more for your money.
3) Using local flowers can save you money
More and more brides are opting for an informal look with their wedding flowers. The country garden “just picked” look where your flowers look more natural and less structured. If this is your style then you can do your own wedding flowers – certainly for your wedding reception, you might want a bit of help for bouquets and button holes. There are UK based growers who will sell you seasonal flowers “by the bucket” you just pre-order them, collect them, and then display them in your own personal style. Buying direct from the grower will save you some money and you will have very fresh flowers, often picked that day. To find your local suppliers check out this sitehttp://www.flowersfromthefarm.co.uk/
I mention this purely from an experience I had with a bride who was fixed on her colour scheme of navy and gold and her flowers HAD to match to these colours. Now even at the peak of any floral growing season you are not going to get gold flowers and navy is also a tricky one too! Especially if you are in February in the UK! So if you are getting married in Spring or Winter remember that you may have to compromise with your flower choices. My solution was to go neutral with the flowers – ivory, white and creams and then add her gold and navy in through adding details such as ribbons and containers. Sometimes you may just need to be a little creative with your colour scheme.
Here is how I would approach finding out what is in season for my wedding flowers. First of all start with your wedding date and figure out which season you are getting married in. Search for “wedding flowers in season UK” now the UK bit is important because if you stumble on an American wedding blog in your search results what’s in season there may not be accurate for you! You will be surprised how many great guides there are already out there on blogs (just like this blog- check out these posts on seasonality, colours, and meaning of wedding flowers). Then I would pick out a few of these flowers that I liked and pop straight over to Pinterest and create a wedding flowers board. Search for “wedding flowers with xyz flowers” and see what emerges. When you have some visuals and you know roughly what is available at that time of the year you have enough research to either take to a florist or to source the flowers yourself!
Happy planning!
Dee McMeeking is the designer (wedding planner, wedding stylist & floral designer) behind Dee McMeeking Wedding Styling, a wedding styling & floral design business based in Warwickshire, UK & Dublin, Ireland. If you’re a creative with lots of great wedding ideas but need some help to bring your unique style to life on your wedding day, then contact Dee today at weddings@deemcmeeking.com. Dee works with clients from anywhere in the world and is waiting to hear more about your wedding styling ideas.
The wedding cake will be the most prominent centrepiece of your wedding reception with the potential to be a highly decorative work of art. So deciding on what form your wedding cake should take, is one that should be given very careful consideration.
