Today I am excited to introduce my friend of Courtney Ingraham Events. She is an incredible floral designer and event in the Richmond/Hampton Roads area and today on the blog she's sharing all about how to incorporate wedding flowers in unique ways on your wedding day.
When brides think about their wedding flowers, their first thought is their wedding bouquet! I love making wedding bouquets, (especially the brides), but flowers can be incorporated into your wedding in SO many other ways besides just bouquets and boutonnieres! Utilizing flowers in other places throughout your wedding adds so much beauty and ties your wedding design together, so I want to share some tips and ideas to consider when planning your own wedding floral designs!
So you’re engaged and you have started that “Future Wedding” board on Pinterest (or maybe you’re not engaged; I had a wedding Pinterest board years before I got engaged, haha!) The most-pinned wedding flowers are the bridal bouquets, which you will be holding all day! Typically, the bride’s bouquet is the most-photographed element of the wedding, but what is the second most-photographed floral element? In my experience, the ceremony area is an overlooked space that can be enhanced tremendously with flowers! The wedding ceremony is a prime photo opportunity; the moment when you turn the corner and your groom tears up at seeing you in your dress for the first time, or when you both kiss as husband and wife… the backdrop for those moments is important! Also, most of the time, after the wedding is when family portraits take place and you know where those are normally staged? You guessed it - the ceremony space! Incorporating a floral arch, wall, chuppah or pergola is an excellent way to really jazz up a ceremony space that could use some colors, texture and flowers! Instead of spending money on aisle markers or pew décor, in my professional opinion I would recommend investing into a large statement piece! A flower arch or pergola will make way more of an impact than aisle markers, and it will create a perfect background for photos throughout the day!
Centerpieces in your wedding reception are another wonderful opportunity to use fresh flowers! Your guests will be sitting at their seat for their meal, your dances with your parents and your new groom, and talking with their tablemates, so centerpieces are a big opportunity to “wow” your guests! A tip for centerpieces: don’t choose any extremely fragrant flowers as a majority of your centerpieces, because guests at the table will be in close proximity to these arrangements. Guests could have allergies to certain types of flowers, and with guests eating their food near the flowers; it could create a weird, unpleasant mix of smells with fragrant flowers only a couple of feet away!
Flower crowns have always been a part of weddings when the sweet flower girls used to wear them while tossing their rose petals down the aisle, but lately brides and their bridesmaids have latched on this trend as well. Crowns made of fresh flowers are just absolutely divine, and many brides go crazy for them. They bring a fresh, natural look to the wearer, and the flowers aroma will surround you all day! Flower crowns can be adapted to fit any theme, but I most frequently see them worn for an outdoor, bohemian or organic wedding, potentially at a Virginia vineyard or plantation home. These crowns are such a fashion statement, and easily can transform your entire bridal party look! Besides just using a flower crown for a flower girl or bridesmaid, you could even have a crown made for your pet, if you choose to include them in the wedding festivities.
One more fun way to use flowers is on your wedding cake or dessert bar! Fresh flowers add such a fun “pop” to a white wedding cake, it makes for some gorgeous photos of your cake, and the options are truly limitless. A tip for using flowers on the cake: make sure either your florist or your baker is the one who puts the flowers on. It could get messy if you decide you want to DIY your cake flowers, and it would be horrible to accidentally destroy the cake before you eat it!
So, here were just a few ideas to help you “think outside the box” with your wedding floral designs! Please feel free to email me at courtneyinghramevents@gmail.com with any other questions; I always love dreaming up new ideas of how to incorporate flowers into weddings!
Hi, I'm Courtney! I was born and raised in Virginia, but I love to travel to new places. I'm fairly certain that coffee runs through my veins and so does a love of the beach. On my perfect day, you would find me with some sand between my toes and a Starbucks iced coffee in my hand! I'm an elementary school teacher and special education teacher by trade, which is where my love of creativity originates from. My husband, Jason, and I met in high school chorus class, and we love spending time with our families and friends and watching a baseball game every now and then! I love seeing blooming flowers in the spring-time, and I've been known to tell Jason to "pull over the car" so I can grab a bunch! I can't WAIT to get to know you, and design your wedding flowers for your special day!
