When it comes to wedding flowers, Aussie brides are lucky girls – our climate is conducive to growing a myriad varieties of blooms and our location makes it easy to import all those gorgeous exotic species. But with so many flowers available, choosing your bridal blooms can become a little bit overwhelming. So we decided to help you get to the root of it all with a few smart pointers.
Timing
Choosing flowers in their natural growing season at the time of your wedding ensures you get the best quality, colour range and the best price. If you’re not sure which particular blooms will be available on your big day, you might like to ask your florist. Alternatively, you can have a look at our availability chart on the following page.
Choices
It certainly makes sense to choose locally grown flowers in their natural season. Apart from the fact they will be grown locally and hence be readily available, they may even look more appropriate. After all, nature has given us a palette to suit each season. Spring is most commonly associated with pastels, summer with bright, vibrant colours, autumn with more muted and jewel tones and winter with deep shades of cream, green and red, blues are deeper and the tones are more vivid.”¨”¨Many traditional wedding favourites such as oriental lilies and roses are available all year round. If you’re hankering after exotic-looking blooms such as anthuriums or orchids, maybe Australian wildflowers such as banksias there is no need to study your calendar either – there are always some varieties available all year round.
To import or not to import
If your heart is set on on having a bouquet of peonies for your July wedding, make sure to ask your florist if they can be obtained. The answer might be that it is simply not possible. If this is the case, discuss any similar-looking alternatives with your florist.”¨Alternatively, your dream blooms might be just a flight away. Keep in mind that imported flowers are not as fresh and your florist will charge you more. You won’t be 100% sure they’ll be able to get your blooms until closer to your big day. So it is a must to organise a back-up plan with your floral designer, just in case – after all walking down the aisle barehanded would be a bit like cutting your cake with a plastic picnic knife.”¨Download our chart of some of the most popular wedding flowers, the seasons in which they are available and the colours they come in. And for those of us who don’t know our gerberas from our gypsophila, we’ve even described each bloom!
For more info on seasonality of Australian flowers check out Flowers by Delwyn
Many thanks to our consulting Florist and horticulturalist Delwyn Thomas (0414 678 840)