For these brides, here are some ideas for non-flower/ flowerless centerpieces and bouquets:

Goldfish & Gerbera Centerpiece

Table Centerpieces: A Fish Focus

For a fin-tastic centerpiece, use Goldfish or Siamese fighting fish (also known as bettas) or any fish that suits your color scheme. Fish are available in a wide selection of bright and exotic colors. But do understand that this choice is not as simple as putting fish in a bowl. For example, with some fish, such as the Siamese fighting fish, you can’t mix more than one in the same container. (Male bettas are beautiful but aggressive. They can mix with other fish but not with each other.)

You can purchase fish from your local pet store or breeder, and then give them to guests as gifts after the wedding. Or you may even be able to “rent” the fish from the retailer and then return them after the wedding.

Floral décor, is completely optional, you can mix your fishbowls with coordinating glassware of floating gerberas or other flowers.

Preparing and Caring for your Fish:

You will need:

1. A bucket, dechlorinating drops, fish food, oxygen tablets and a small fish net.
2. Mix dechlorinating drops with fresh water (follow instructions on the packaging) to remove chlorine from the water, which can kill the fish.
3. Fill each container half full of water from the bag containing each fish and half with the dechlorinated water.
4. Add oxygen tablets to each bowl.
5. Use the net to catch the fish and place them into the fishbowls. (Don’t use your hand to catch the fish or you can damage their fins.)
6. Feed the fish a small amount of food just before the wedding and then again after the wedding.

Betta | Blue Malawi | Red Siamese Fighting Fish

Crystals and Candles

Candelabra with Candles and Beads

If your guest tables will be lavishly furnished with embossed table cloths, runners and gifts, focus on crystals, candles and candelabras rather than elaborate flower arrangements for your table decor. Consider simple dessert dishes as an elegant finishing touch as we did at a recent wedding. You can use any flower of your choice: gerberas, orchids or lilies, for example. Add some ivy, which is a symbol of fidelity, friendship and affection. Or add in some baby’s breath, a sign of sincerity and innocence. By combining flowers with some texture, you create table centerpieces that are not simply beautiful but also meaningful.

TIP: When using lilies such as Casablancas, St. Josephs or Stargazers, remove the stamens from each bloom. Doing so will prolong the life of each flower, can prevent allergies and will eliminate staining of the flower or tablecloth.

Fruity Florals

Fruit Centerpieces | Gerberas & Lemons

The bright colors of fruit beautifully complement wedding color themes today. And they can work well with flowers, if you want an extra dash of color. For example, we placed shiny, juicy-green apples in a cylinder vase with three or four bright-colored gerberas tied with ribbon.

See this article for more Gerbera Centrepiece Ideas

Or use lemons or limes for a citrus-centered theme. (With a pinch of salt and tequila, your guests can use them to get the party started, too!)

Main Table Arrangements: Mirrored & Modern

Mirrored Modern Bridal Table Arrangement

Instead of turning to the long, flat, traditional “coffin-spray” types of floral arrangements for the bridal party’s table, jazz up the décor with a modern feel using mirrored boxes and silver boat dishes. For smaller main tables we combined white roses and baby’s breath with funky orange gerberas in the shiny, sophisticated boxes. For a larger bridal party, with a longer table, we had lacey runners beneath each arrangement rounded off with votives, candles and individual lily blooms.

Modern Bridal Table Arrangement

A Buttoned-Up Bridal Bouquet

Bridal Bouquet with Buttons

Bridal Bouquet with Buttons

A bridal bouquet with no flowers? At one wedding, our bride refused to have flowers in her bouquet. We tried to convince her to add just a few, but she didn’t bite. We did, however, persuade her to include some roses in the bridesmaid’s bouquet. The result turned out to be something quite special and unique that used a mix of fantastical buttons and crystals. This could be a project you can start long before your wedding day, collecting buttons, beads and other trinkets far in advance. Then, like our bride, you will easily be incorporating the “something old” tradition into your wedding; for this bride, that came in the form of using some buttons which came from her granny. No matter what unusual items you include, you’ll definitely create a bouquet you can keep forever.

Buttons & Roses Bridal Bouquet

In considering the suggestions here, always keep in mind that your wedding day is your day. No matter whether you want flowers or not or whether your ideas might be a little off the wall, all you need is a wedding florist with vision that will help make your dreams or ideas a reality.

Please share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comments below. And stay tuned for our next article…

Written by

Lizé Williams

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2. Wedding Flowers: Gerbera Daisy – The New Rose
3. Artificial Flowers: The Year-Round Wedding Option

We’ve had so many enquiries for weddings in the last few months; April and May must be the months to get married… but we’ve noticed a trend lately and have crowned the Gerbera, Gerbera Daisy or Barberton Daisy, The New Rose!

Orange Gerbera Daisy Centrepiece

Why you might ask? Here are a few reasons from our brides to be; “Simple is key…cheap…something modern…not too busy”, “budgetary constraints…saving for own home or honey moon”, “my colour scheme is bright orange, yellow and pink…I don’t want roses please”

This simple yet elegant flower is versatile, long lasting and modern. And the good news for a lot of brides on a tight budget is that they are a more affordable choice for wedding flowers than white roses or lilies.

You will find this family of the sunflower in all the colours of the rainbow and like the sunflower; Gerbera Daisies symbolize happiness, joy, beauty and wonder.

You can create the most beautiful Centerpieces using Gerberas. They are modern, colourful, affordable, long lasting and best of all you don’t need to use roses…
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Combine bright orange and yellow with royal blue and rich purple for your medieval wedding, or add a touch of bright pink for an elegant wedding or garden wedding.

Or for your fairytale wedding use white gerberas which symbolize innocence, purity and love with a touch of baby pink or pale yellow.

Elegant White Gerbera Centrepiece

Colourful Gerbera Arrangements

A bunch of gerberas with a few roses and greenery, or even on their own tied with organza ribbon, maybe add a sparkle or a little bling with a gemstone pin in the centre, and you have a gorgeous bridal bouquet.

Orange Gerbera Brides Bouquet

White Gerbera Brides Bouquet

Since Gerberas come in different sizes; large, medium and small, they can easily be used as button holes, pomanders (ball of flowers) for flower girls, brides maids, pews and at the back of your chairs or on a napkin ring at the reception.

If you are on a really tight budget, DIY Weddings Magazine have a great article on how to create your own Gerbera Daisy Centerpiece, or read our wedding flower guide if you need help planning your wedding flowers.

There you have it girls, just because you want simple wedding flowers or you have a tight budget, doesn’t mean you have to have something less WOW than more expensive wedding flowers!

BTW: If you are looking for a wedding florist in Durban, South Africa, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Written by

Lizé Williams
inMotion Flowers

Related posts:

1. Unique Ideas for a Wedding with No Flowers
2. The Ultimate Wedding Flower Guide
3. Make Gorgeous Flower Choices for Your Wedding

Note: We’ve recently updated and expanded this guide. You’ll find the latest version here.

Brides Bouquet

The Wedding Party

Brides Bouquet and flowers for your hair.

Bridesmaid Bouquet and flowers for their hair.

Flower girl – A clip with flowers for her hair, pomanders (a ball of flowers to carry) or a basket with flowers.

Corsages – For the bride and grooms mothers and grandmothers (optional) – these are usually roses or mini carnations pinned to the shoulder or made up as a wrist corsage.

Button holes – For the Groom, Best men, Page boy, Bride and grooms Father and Grandfather (optional), Master of Ceremonies, Driver – usually a single rose or small flower of your choice pinned to the lapel or shoulder.

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The Church or Chapel

Flowers on Pews in the Church

Outdoors Wedding Ceremony

1 or 2 large flower arrangements in front of the church or chapel, or at the entrance – these can be moved and used at the reception venue as well.

Flowers for the pews – Normally just one flower on every second pew or chair, or scattered rose petals down the aisle.

Flowers for the registry table.

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The Wedding Reception

Table Centrepieces – Decide whether you would like vases, special dishes/containers, bird cages, candelabra or lanterns. If it’s an evening wedding you might need candles, or flowers and candles. The number of centrepieces will depend on how many guests you are inviting and how many tables there will be.

Main Table Arrangement – This is traditionally a long flat flower arrangement in the middle to the front of the table.

A flower at the back of every second chair.

Overlays, Runners and Chair Tie backs in any colour to match your colour scheme, are also items to consider, as most venues only supply white tablecloths, chair covers and napkins.

Table Centrepiece, Overlay & Chair Tie backs

Overlays – A square piece of material – this can be scrunched up in the middle of the table with the centrepiece on top or laid out flat over the white table cloth.

Runners – A long rectangular strip of material that runs across the table and down both sides.

Chair Tie Backs – Long strips of material tied around the back of the chairs.

Flowers for the Wedding Cake.

Fresh Rose Petals for decoration on the guest tables, down the aisle (if permitted) or as confetti.

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Recommended Wedding Flowers
 

Readily Available
Roses, Lilies (St. Joseph, Casablanca, Stargazer), Gerbera Daisies or Barberton Daisy – always in season.

Seasonal Flowers
Check with your wedding florist first for availability to avoid disappointment – Tulips, Peonies, Calla or Arum lilies, Orchids, Hydrangea and Frangipani.

For a more detailed list of available flowers, their colours and meanings, see this article on choosing the right colour flowers for your wedding.

Frangipani

Pink and White Peonies

Casablanca Lily

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We hope these ideas will help you plan the perfect flowers for your wedding, and that it will make communicating with your local wedding florist a little easier. If you are looking for flowers for a wedding in Durban, South Africa, please visit our website: Wedding Flowers in Durban.

If you would like a printable PDF version of this guide to take with you, let us know in the comments below and we will gladly send you a copy.

We also highly recommend the book “The Knot Book of Wedding Flowers” which you can get here.

Written by

Lizé Williams
inMotion Flowers

Update:
Thank you Dries Vandewoude from Terra Unica for suggesting that we add a “thank-you-parents” bouquet to our list. When the bride or groom give their speech at dinner or in the church, it’s quite common in various parts of the world to thank the parents with a bouquet of flowers for all they’ve done for them throughout their lives…

Related posts:

1. Make Gorgeous Flower Choices for Your Wedding
2. Unique Ideas for a Wedding with No Flowers
3. Wedding Flowers: Gerbera Daisy – The New Rose