Relationships:Marriage Articles

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Wedding Flower Ideas For Every Season - Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring

Wedding Flower Ideas For Every Season - Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring

Take a cue from the seasons with these inspiring wedding flowers ideas for every season...

Winter Wedding Flowers and Decor

Winter theme weddings can be uber chic and ethereal. Use these ideas to create your wonderland...

  • Color palette - new-fallen snow - use whites and creams accented with silver or gold; winter sparkle - ice blue or navy accented with silver; black tie- black is especially suited for a winter wedding when paired with white, silver or gold.
  • Go glam - deck your halls with crystal detailing for a sparkling winter effect- adorning linens and chair covers or sprinkled over table tops. The result is deliciously glam and oh so fab.
  • Liberal use of candle light - the glow will add warmth and elegance.
  • Holiday theme - decorate with potted evergreens, pine branches, wreathes, poinsettias, ornaments, bells, or twinkling white lights.
  • Added interest and texture - incorporate holiday greenery or tiny crystals into your arrangements.
  • Creative bouquets - instead of flowers, carry tea lights, votive candles or cascading bells.
  • Tossing alternative - have your flower girl throw silver glitter or sprinkle fake snow.

Winter Flowers In Season

  • White stephanotis, poinsettia, holly, amaryllis, camellias, roses.

Spring Wedding Flowers and Decor

The tulips are blooming, the temperatures are rising - what a perfect time for a wedding! Get inspired with these ideas for spring flowers...

  • Color palette - green and white - an elegant accompaniment to a garden setting; yellow and green -another fresh, natural color pairing; preppy - combine hot pink with green or mango (think polka dots and gingham); chocolate brown - this trendy hue works well for spring - pair with pale blue or pink.
  • Go wild with patterns - create a playful effect - think gingham, polka dots, eyelet lace, swiss dots and stripes
  • Add some greens - grasses and greenery are a natural for outdoor garden settings. Drape over arbors and incorporate in arrangements
  • Creative containers - put your arrangements in simple, homespun containers like wicker baskets, watering cans, teapots, or urns.
  • Potted plants - potted arrangements create a natural, organic look. Best of all, you can plant them for a timeless reminder of your wedding

Spring Flowers in Season

  • Classics include tulips, daffodils, lilies (especially calla lilies and easter lilies), magnolias, gardenias, hydrangeas, gerbera daisies, apple or cherry blossoms.

Summer Wedding Flowers and Decor

Set the stage for a sunny summer wedding with vibrant colors and inspirations from the great outdoors...

  • Color palette - bright and bold - hot pink and deep red or mango and fuchsia; nautical - navy and white is a clean summer classic, accent with touches of yellow, red or gold; seaside - combine aqua with beige, peach or white
  • Go casual - summer weddings lend themselves to a casual decor scheme - fitting of a backyard barbecue. Think checked table clothes, benches and picnic tables.
  • Go natural - incorporate natural decor elements like fruits, vegetables, even insects (like ladybugs or dragonflies, not necessarily roaches!)
  • Get lit - light up an outdoor evening reception with lanterns or torches.
  • Fruits - fruits like lemons and limes look whimsical and chic when filled in tall clear vases
  • For a beach look - incorporate shells, sand, and sea glass in your arrangements

Summer Flowers In Season

  • Abundant flowers are always in style at a summer wedding. Use bright and cheerful blooms like sunflowers, peonies, hydrangea, mums, daisies, dahlias, zinnias, and roses. Or create a breezy, airy look with white on white - using roses, stephanotis, calla lilies, snowball mums and daisies - and incorporate a touch of blue - like blue hydrangea.

Fall Wedding Flowers and Decor

Get autumn-spiration with these flowers and decor ideas with a fall twist...

  • Color palette - colors of the season - adhere to mother nature's fall color palette: reds, oranges, browns, rusts, and yellows; jewel tones - make a rich, interesting twist to the traditional autumn color scheme; mix with metallics - gold, copper, bronze - for added pizazz
  • Back to nature - use simple decor to subtly enhance the season's natural bounty. Use the autumn harvest for inspiration; think gourds, pumpkins, squash, gold dipped fall leaves, bales of hay, jugs of cider...you get the idea.
  • Go fall glam - you're not confined to rustic and casual in the fall. Create a posh autumn ambiance, and drape lush velvet (a traditional fall/winter fabric) in a rich chocolate brown or gold throughout your reception space. Accent the scene with antique broaches, crystal candelabras and stemware.
  • Autumn harvest - add pears, apples, cranberries to your arrangements
  • Natural texture - incorporate leaves, acorns, sprays of wheat
  • Creative containers - hollow out pumpkins or realistic fake ones, or use stained wooden boxes, terra cotta pots, or rustic lanterns
  • Tossing alternative - have your flower girl toss leaves or acorns instead of flower petals

Fall Flowers in Season

  • Popular fall flowers include montbretia, hypericum, mums, sunflowers, roses, and daisies. Consult our complete list of fall wedding flowers

Get even more ideas and advice to help you plan your wedding flowers.

Cori Russell is editor for Elegala.com and Gala Weddings Magazine. Elegala.com is a complete wedding planningresource with a national directory of wedding venues and services, along with articles, expert advice, checklists and photo galleries to lead brides through every step of the planning process. Brides can request wedding vendor quotes from top vendors across the nation.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Adding Accessories to Wedding Flower Arrangements

Adding Accessories to Wedding Flower Arrangements

You can put more than just flowers into your wedding flower arrangements. You can add bows, candles, balloons, or plastic novelties.

You can set a theme for your wedding using accessories in your arrangements. For example, you can add a duck, chick or bunny for an Easter wedding, you can add little wreaths or candy canes (real or plastic) for a Christmas wedding, or you can add hearts for a Valentines wedding. Whatever accessories you decide to add, you personalize your flowers in this way and add your own personal touch

Novelties
Many novelties already have a wire pick inserted at the bottom, so you can very easily insert this directly into the floral foam along with the flowers. If your accessory has no pick, simply take a piece of heavy wire, heat up one end of it by holding it in a flame, and the insert the heated wire into the base of your novelty. If you novelty moves on the wire (up and down or around and around), put some glue right where the wire enters it. This should secure it

Balloons
Balloons add a festive feel anywhere. They can be filled with helium to float in the air in your arrangement. Helium balloons need to be securely anchored. You can do this by having them tied to colorful ribbon. Tie the ribbon to a little wooden pick and knot them firmly. You can then insert the wooden pick into your floral foam. The wood will expand from the moisture, making your pick all the more secure

Candles
Candles area favorite at weddings. They create a beautiful, soft, romantic atmosphere, making them perfect for weddings. You can purchase plastic candle holders that look like a little "cup" with a large plastic point below it that can be inserted into your foam . These holders come in different sizes. Your candles should fit into them snugly - that way you know they will be secure. The base of the holder anchors into your floral foam and keeps your candle from tipping over.

If you can't find a candle holder the right size, you can push the candle directly into the floral foam. First cut the base of the candle to a bit of a point to make insertion easier. Push the candle slowly, straight down.

Do not twist the candle as this could make the hole larger than it needs to be and make the candle less secure. Only try this method with narrower, smaller candles. Larger pillar candles will be too top heavy and will fall over easily

You can also make your own candle holder. You take at least 5 wooden picks about 4 inches long and use rubber florist's tape to tape them evenly spaced to the base of your pillar candle. You can then gently insert the picks into your floral foam. You don't have to use florists' wooden picks, you can use less expensive wooden skewers for kabobs.

I prefer not to have the candle actually rest on the floral foam. The moisture of the floral foam could travel up the wick of your candle. The best way to prevent that is to use the florists' plastic candle holders. Second best is to make your own holders with the wooden picks.

Whatever type of accessory you choose to add to your wedding flower arrangements, it will be the focal point. Place it low in your arrangement to keep it balanced.

Nadine Visscher has arranged flowers for more than 15 years and has written The Beginner's Guide to Wedding Flowers found athttp://www.WeddingFlowerDirections.com

Friday, October 16, 2009

Seven Ways to Cut Your Wedding Flower Costs

Seven Ways to Cut Your Wedding Flower Costs

Most people have a set amount of money that they can spend on flowers for a wedding. Usually the cost of wedding flowers is about 10% of the entire wedding budget. Of course this number is flexible - you might want to splurge in one area (e.g. your invitations) and tighten the reins in another (e.g. your flowers). Here are 7 different ways you can lower your flower costs:

  1. Use less expensive flowers rather than exotic ones. Chrysanthemums, carnations, alstroemerias, and baby's breath are beautiful flowers and can make a stunning display. These flowers cost a lot less than roses and lilies yet can do the same job.
  2. Use exotic blooms very sparingly such as only in your bouquet or your fiance's boutonniere.
  3. Use flowers that are in season. They will be less expensive and you have a greater chance of them being fresh.
  4. Avoid getting married around times where flower prices are higher - Mother's Day, Valentines's Day, Christmas, and Easter.
  5. Use less expensive look-alikes. For example, roses tend to be costly, so to cut costs, you can use lisianthus.
  6. Use smaller bouquets and arrangements. Instead of having 40 roses in your bouquet, cut it down to 25 roses. If you have your heart set on a certain size, you can then add ivy, berries, herbs, or other affordable flowers to fill up your bouquet. Your bridesmaids can carry single stems down the aisle. That can be both dramatic and elegant. Sometimes less is more.
  7. Use your ceremony flowers at your reception. Arrange for someone to transport any arrangements that you may have to your reception. Use your bridesmaid flowers to decorate the cake table and yours to dress up the head table.

These are just a few ideas for how to trim your wedding flower costs. Keep them in mind when planning and you will save yourself a significant amount of money. It is possible to have very beautiful wedding flowers without breaking the bank.

Nadine Visscher has arranged flowers for more than 15 years and has written The Beginner's Guide to Wedding Flowers found athttp://www.WeddingFlowerDirections.com

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Great Flower Decoration For Your Unique Wedding

Great Flower Decoration For Your Unique Wedding

Many options are available to get the right flowers for the wedding decoration. It is your choice to save money or spend a lot of money on it.

In any case, this is the right place for more information. Here are some useful tips for the flower decoration:

Hawaiian Wedding Flowers

The presence of sweet-smelling flowers you won't miss on your wedding. Hawaiian wedding flowers are perfect for outdoor weddings with a warm sea breeze, romantic music, and the nice smell of tropical flowers.

Hawaiian flowers are giving the right atmosphere for a unique wedding. A bouquet of flowers displayed at the wedding reception make a natural impression to all your guests.

Choose one or more of the colorful blooms of the Hawaiian flowers such as Birds of Paradise, Orchids, Hibiscus, Heliconias and ..... for your wedding theme. If your budget is small, seashells can be also used for the decorations. Only some orchids may be tucked in conch shell is a creative idea of a tropic and outdoor table decoration.

Make sure that the Hawaiian flowers have always enough water and not getting dry during the day.

Assorted Blue Wedding Flowers Ideas

Another option is to stay on your theme of a wedding, such as the blue themed wedding.

Did you know that blue is standing for unity and trust? It is also a fact, that blue is the most popular choice of a couple, because the blue color symbolizes trust, which also happen when two people will get married.

They promise to trust each other for the rest of their lives. Blue brings elegance to the wedding concept.

Baby blue is the most common choice for flowers, because that gives a light and easy feel atmosphere Blue flowers displayed in a church or reception are eye catching and most likely associated with the environment, because blue is also the color of the sky.

The most common flowers you will see in shops are blue. Choose your favorite flower and present them as a wonderful decoration on your reception or display them on the wedding table.

Add a contrast to your blue flowers, such a white or silver vases and ribbons, the blue flowers will stand out.

Cheap Wedding Flower Ideas

Wedding flowers can be very expensive. As common with a little creativity, cheap wedding flowers can provide the wedding a great look.

There is no need to spend a lot of money for your wedding flowers. You have not to buy the real extravagant and out of season flowers.

Choose your favorite color for your flowers arrangement and look for seasonal flowers, which are available and not so expensive.

Of course, you can still buy some expensive flowers for the bouquet, but is not necessary to the rest of the scene.

Another option for savings on flowers is, to choose a location where flowers are already part of the decoration.

Why to waste money on flowers, when you have your wedding in a garden where flowers are already surrounded. You could also consider to celebrate your wedding at places like a park, beach or botanical garden.

The reception area is probably the place where to save the most. There is no need to display roses, orchids or other expensive flowers.

All it takes is the right combination of aesthetics and your creativity.

Keep it in your mind, that flowers are a symbol of beauty and love. Flowers give the wedding the right atmosphere.

I hope you enjoyed my ideas of creative flower decoration. Now it is your choice, what flowers are the best for your wedding.

Paul Easton welcome you to visit http://www.101UniqueWeddingideas.com/ which was created while planning her own wedding. Pick up the F-R-E-E Wedding Planning Checklist plus Great Unique Wedding Ideas and Money saving ideas, vouchers and discounts on Wedding Gowns, wedding flowers, favors, plus Save hundreds of hours managing all guests, budget, vendors, gifts, seating, honeymoon, and much more. All F-R-E-E