You’ve chosen the colors for your wedding. You’ve picked out your gown and the bridesmaids’ dresses. Now you’re ready to choose the flowers for your bouquets.

In general, you can go one of three ways with your floral choices:

•  Traditional all white- or all cream-colored blossoms

•  Complementary hues that harmonize with the overall colors of your wedding

•  Contrasting colors that add a stylish flair to your color scheme.

Against a white wedding dress, yellow, salmon, crimson and russet create a dramatic combination – Photo: Sharon Goodyear

Choosing a monochromatic white/cream or complementary color plan is fairly straight-forward—and less complex. You simply work with your florist to identify the proper hues of flowers and then narrow it down to the specific blossoms that reflect your style, whether traditional or contemporary. (That may be oversimplifying, but you get the point.)

For the bride who prefers contrasting colors, however, the choices become more complicated. In general, contrasting colors are those on opposite sides of the color wheel. Such hues stand out boldly against the dramatic backdrop of your wedding parties’ attire, particularly with current preferences for darker colors. They also add oomph to wedding photographs. (White- and cream-colored bouquets tend to lose detail in photos due to their paleness.)

Popular Wedding Color Schemes

Following are some options for contrasting colors based on several of the most popular current wedding-color schemes: orange, green, purple, red and blue.

Orange roses contrast well with crimson berries and green foliage – Photo courtesy of Petr Kratochvil

Orange

To ensure that this bold color doesn’t become garish, combine it with deep chocolate browns, purples or red. Accent with yellow or green foliage or blossoms. Such striking contrasts are particularly appropriate for autumn nuptials.

Green

Blend jade or forest green with white, pale pink or silver. If your main color is a more eclectic lime green, opt for contrasting colors of fuchsia, orange and cherry with lemon accents. Peacock greens work well with scarlet, pumpkin and yellow.

Magenta, purple, lavender, cream and lime green combine for a sophisticated bouquet – Photo courtesy of Rosen Georgiev

Purple

Gold is a popular hue to mix with this regal color. But if you prefer a more funky choice, mix it with magenta or tangerine.

Red

Green is the color opposite red on the color wheel. Unless you are getting married close to the holidays and want a Christmas-themed event, however, choose options such as blue, purple or lilac to contrast with your scarlet scheme.

Blue

When choosing deep shades of azure, you can opt for safe, traditional choices of gold or silver as your contrasting color. For brighter hues of blue, such as turquoise, choose equally bright colors—such as crimson, orange and yellow—to add boldness.

Check out this article for a list of flowers and their various available colours and meanings.

Florists pay close attention to current color trends and can provide insightful tips on how to make your bridal bouquets and decorative arrangements alluring additions to your wedding’s overall style. So rely on their professional advice. But make sure you clearly communicate your personal flair as the two of you consider all of your options.

Written by

Gina B. Kellogg

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Related posts:

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

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